And so I thought that day was
about complying with a requirement in my Natural Resources class but the way it
turned out, I was satisfying a hidden zealot that had been rebelling since summer officially started—the extreme desire to beat the summer heat!
“Nature
holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual
satisfaction.” So true and I’m going to share it with you.
It was an approximately 30-minute
ride from school, WMSU, until we pulled over to start our so called “hiking”
which only took us a miraculous 5-minute walk to get to our destination. We had
to get the permission from the caretakers (forgive me for the ignorance of the
term) of the watershed to get in. The place is called Canucutan (I overheard
some saying “Kalungkutan” just for fun) still a part of Barangay Pasonanca. If
the place doesn’t sound familiar to you—you have a bunch of allies in us! Only
means that there are more for us to discover and take pride in this city.
Once inside the premise, you’ll
be met by a rough road, some parts muddy, but still manageable. You'll be welcomed by the luscious green grass and big trees that the town deprives you of and breathe
fresh air in the absence of hustles and bustles of vehicles.
The scenery actually reminded me of my
childhood in our “bukid” where mud, clays, leaves and rivers were considered cooler
than Play Station, Xbox, computer games and, uhm, Jollibee (Suman and home-made
delicacies brought so much delights already).
Have you
ever tried crossing a hanging bridge or ever seen one? Here you’ll get the
chance to do both! If you’re in for the adventure then this is something that
you don't want to miss.
When we got there (My small piece of brain can't remember the exact name for this spot), I saw
these seedlings of Cacao and Narra trees as part of the government’s action to
plant millions of trees. Well, the essential part is growing these trees and
not just to plant then leave them die in the next few days. Wouldn't you want to
plant and grow something for the future generation to benefit from? I know I
would.
The water! I just had to get a
feel of that crystal clear water or else it’ll haunt me down in my dreams. The cool
breeze of the wind is a wonderful accompaniment of the inviting and undisturbed currents of the river as the shades
gifted by the big proud trees assures you of protection from the scorching heat of the summer sun. It made me feel like I flew miles away from
Zamboanga altogether—spectacular!
And when I say crystal clear, I
meant this clear! I have the feeling that I’m not going to die from amoeba or
whatever sort of disease you can get from dirty water if I’d use my bare hand to
scoop and drink it--just like that.
The water was so cold that it made somebody blurt out, she won’t be needing refrigerator in that place. Just imagine
the life of our forefathers when the trees were left to grow to their maturity
and rivers were places to bathe and not to mine.
If my grandmother was with us in
this trip, she won’t leave there until she got this orchid. That’s for sure!
This is a rare sight, isn’t it? My boyfriend, who grew up in the city, can’t
identify the kinds of fruit trees by their leaves! I can! HAHA. The luxury of
growing up in the bukids of Tungawan.
Along the way, we saw the efforts
of our police personnel cleaning the riverbanks and I also felt the sincere endeavor
of the entire community in conserving the place. I read something that says
everything that we enjoy now in and from our environment is something that we
just borrowed from the future generation. To say, we don’t have the right to
destroy but only the duty to preserve them for our children to enjoy the same. The
destruction of this place is corresponding to losing potable waters—and the
list of danger goes on.
And in line with responsibilities, I’m borrowing these rather humorous
yet very useful and true lines from Dean Eduardo F. Sanson, when you go there “Take nothing but pictures, leave
nothing but footprints and kill nothing but time.”
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| Uist! Leave nothing but footprints NOT s***ls! (HAHA. Love you Rafdeck!) |
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| A moment of silence + inner peace = tranquility |
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