To the Sea, of Course

Essay 4. TO THE SEA, OF COURSE

By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol

We won't forget the summer of 2010. By we,  I mean us, close friends and compadres, who were classmates at the University of the East School of Music and Fine Arts in the 1980s. It was on February of that year that we again saw Pareng Arnel Dolatre who left for the US quietly nineteen years before.

The whole time he was there, we never got word from him on how he was doing. It was only around 2008 that we learned that he is already a nurse in New York. That was the year I learned how to use the computer and created my Facebook account. When I discovered his email address, I excitedly sent him a message. He responded. After exchanging a flurry of emails, Pareng Arnel finally made up his mind to come home and meet us once more.

Pareng Arnel loves snorkeling. We all do. He was my snorkeling buddy when we went to Mompong and Maniwaya Islands in Marinduque in the summer of 1991, during their Holy Week break from animation work, and just a few months before he left for the US. That was a long time ago, when only sleepy fishing villages were on the two islands we visited, and they're not yet the fully-developed tourist destinations they are today.

So, after the initial welcome dinner in a restaurant, where else would our group go to, pronto? To the sea, of course!

Bert Falsis invited us to their beach house in Cabangan, Zambales, which would served as our base for our trip to Capones Island. After staying overnight in Cabangan, we left early by car for San Antonio, where the boats shuttling back and forth to Capones and other nearby islands are.

Since there were eleven of us in the group---Bert Falsis, Arnel Dolatre, Jerry Dean, Mandy, Oca Magos, Jojo Garcia, Isko dela Cruz, my sons Bahgee and Kai, Ryan Pagao, and me--- we have to rent three boats. That's because only four passengers are allowed per boat. The trip to Capones took about twenty minutes. Capones is a big rocky island. It looks forbidding, because what you'll see are mostly rocky hills with no vegetation at all. 

My sons, Bahgee and Kai, together with their friend, Ryan, did a little trekking and explored the other side of the island, which they reported as being a bit wooded. They also told us that there is an abandoned concrete structure, a ruin, on that part of the island, This ruin was perhaps the lodging house of an aborted resort project. 

The tide was very low. It was difficult going to the deeper part because the water near the shore was clogged with yellow-colored succulent-looking sea weeds. Traversing that patch was the tricky part for those of us not wearing fins, surf shoes, or flip-flops, because there was the risk that they may step on sea creatures that may sting. Anyway, none of us got stung, and all of us got around to the aquarium-like deep part where the water is so clear, and where multicolored reef fishes abound. There is a long underwater trench there, where we tried to chase fishes.

We ate lunch after an hour or two of snorkeling, and after eating we proceeded to the other highlight of the trip, which was drinking. We held our drinking session under a cave-like rock formation. There, protected from the heat of the sun by the overhanging rocks, we passed around shots of Fundador Brandy. There was great merriment, of course, and much bantering too. We left Capones at around 3 pm. 

Something unusual happened when we were back at the resort in San Antonio to take our shower and change clothing. At the shower,  I tried to start a conversation with Isko dela Cruz, who was my buddy that time. But he just nodded and made hand signals. It took me a little while to realize what happened. Isko lost his voice for we knew not what reason. He was therefore silent throughout the whole trip back to Manila. He told me days later that his voice only came back the day after our trip. 

Pareng Arnel came home again in 2014. . Now, where do you think our group went to, pronto, to savor the delights of the summer of that year?

To the sea, of course, to swim and snorkel and drink. And to Abe's Farm to eat!