2 days and 1 night at Claveria! (Day 01)

Last August 25 - 28, we had a long weekend particularly our city, Cagayan de Oro. This was due to the fact the on August 25 - 26 fell on Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile on August 27, the entire country celebrated the National Heroes Day and on the following day, our city celebrated its Charter Day.

Unforgettable Experiences I would like to share
There were actually a lot of activities that were set for the people of the City of Golden Friendship to enjoy such as Miss Cagayan de Oro. Though I must admit I haven't watched the said event mainly because I am really not a fan of beauty pageants even though I joined one way back in 2012. Aside from that, we just had a class in the morning til noon and a few of my friends taking up Certificate of Teaching together with me got together and had some shots. After few hours of chatting and drinking with them, I felt sleepy already since I only had few hours of sleep before going to my Saturday class.

When I went home, I just had a nap. I was just then awaken by my brother and told me we will be meeting some of our relatives over dinner. I was like okay then! I was still very sleepy but that changed when my auntie, brother, and I had seen a vehicular accident right in front of us. A man riding his motorcycle side-swept a young lady who was just very oblivious of passing the road. The man then on his motorcycle flew up in the air and hit the ground so bad. We had seen a pool of blood from his face as it badly hit the ground. I was not sure to what extent though because I was not wearing my eyeglasses at that moment.

My initial response was to call for help. Glad I still have the phone number of my colleague in our graduate school who is from the Philippine National Police. She was able to call for help then. A motorist was about to help the man though. The moment he was about to move the other man, we shouted to him that he should not do that as it might create a further damage. The three of us were still in shock even though we were already having a dinner with some of our relatives.

Anyway Sunday came and after the church service, the Laid (pronounced as La-id) invited us to spend the remaining days of the long weekend with them at Claveria. We were like, sure! The idea would be great. It was funny though that at the moment we would be meeting, all signals of cellular networks were cut. Glad that it only took few minutes that we met outside SM Uptown.

Less than an hour journey

Although Claveria is outside Cagayan de Oro City, it only took us less than an hour before we reached our destination. It was just so fun though that we were all cramped inside their SUV with baskets of groceries we bought for our 2 days and 1 night stay in Claveria.

On the photo above, is a selfie I took that welcomes visitors from different parts of Mindanao island who pass over Claveria. It is a giant corn since their main source of livelihood is agriculture and corn is the main their main root crop for export.

I still cannot forget the feeling of the cold gush of wind passing over my body the moment I stepped out of the SUV. Like, can I just please live here for the rest of my life?

I was not really kidding when I typed the words above. The house that we stayed was the house we slept for a number of times during our stay in Claveria. The house was just made up of both wood and cement that is why it would really be so cold from the evening until 6 in the morning.

We do not really have a list of activities to do but we enjoyed our stay there. Part of that is eating the fruits and vegetables that were grown on their backyard. My mom in particular enjoyed eating the jack fruit. I must say, it tasted so sweet!

I will include some photos below with short captions so that it would give you a sight on what we experienced during our first day!

^{Since Belle brought an overalls, my brother Jose decided to wear it just for fun! He seriously looked so funny especially on this one!}

^{Because cellphones should be turned off on a retreat such as this one, we had fun discovering some creatures on the backyard. This one looked so cute though despite being a little creepy. Does it bite? Well, I am not sure!}

Aside from our family, there is also another visitor named Obama. This spitz is already nine years old and he seems to love being petted. He is not just fluffy but he is very fat as well. And since we wanted to bring him over at Jacos' together with his owners, we march along the highway to visit one of Claveria's cutest and coolest restaurant.

Unfortunately it was close due to the fact that it was Sunday. There were also some dogs that were barking at us. They seem so scary so we decided to go back to the house. I felt a little bit disappointed though since I want to eat their freshly harvested steamed corn and take a sip of their "sikwate" which is a variation of a hot chocolate drink made up of cacao seeds. But since the view was awesome, we decided to have a stroll.

Below are some of the shots I took while strolling with the team. I hope you would enjoy them as much as I did. These were all taken by the way using Huawei Nova 2i.

The last photo really struck me the most. This was taken before we decided to grill some pork belly for dinner. The sun was already setting and it seemed to be so majestic that is why I decided to take a photo of it. Do you like it as much as I like it too?

Why I choose to travel with my family?
I do not really mind travelling with my family no matter how comfortable or uncomfortable it is. I cannot say that I just got used to travelling with them though. I love being with their company. I love sharing to them the experiences we had together. The bond we had while travelling made us closer with each other and at the same time open with our feelings.

By the way, this is a part one of our long weekend vacation at Claveria. Hope you would stay in tune with me! Happy steeming everyone and do not forget to HODL, HODL, HODL!

^{@gailbelga or Johanna Gail is a free-spirited freelance artist. She took up Bachelor of Arts in International Studies in one of the Ateneo universities in the Philippines. She is currently a candidate for Masters in Public Administrations. She is also taking up Certificate on Teaching. She volunteers in various non-profit/nongovernmental organization which aims for human rights through political education. She draws and writes about the country to provide awareness and promote the Philippines to foreign tourists.}