Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan

I first mentioned about this in a post I made way back in April, 2009 on the ruins of Cagayan’s first ever church:

While I was doing the series on Sanchez Mira early this year, scouring the web for any information about the place already available at the time, I came upon a website (http://cagayannorth.com) that mentions of a place called “Pata” (which, as the site describes it, is part of Sanchez Mira). According to the entry, short as it is, it is where the ruins of “Nagtutulagan” or “Nagsisiiman” are situated (however, it doesn’t give any detail regarding the nature of the ruins). In addition, it also mentions that it is where the first seven baptized natives were born.

At the time, we weren’t able to go to the site because most people seem to have already forgotten about the place.

When my family and I went back to Sanchez Mira, Cagayan for our Christmas vacation last December, I once again asked my brother-in-law, Mang Val, if we could try once more to locate the site/ruins of this “Nagsisiiman”/”Nagtutulagan”. To my great joy, he obliged.

And so, we went around town asking people about the place.

Most people, particularly those who were beyond 500 meters from the site, are practically clueless about it. Luckily, we bumped into a couple of elderly people who had been to the place as children back in the 60s or 70s. One of them remembers seeing stone “seats” (pews probably) scattered on the site.

But, to my disappointment, when we told them that we wanted to go there, they told us that it was very doubtful that we’ll be able to see anything there because they’ve heard that the stone seats/pews had already been discarded by either miners or the farmers living near the vicinity.

But still, we carried on.

Our first attempt was a failure… thanks to the vicious dogs roaming around the dirt path going to the site. We were also told that there are snakes along the way and that we’ll need someone to guide us.

When we went back a few days later, we were very fortunate to find a local (Vicente Donalvo Yaquin) who was very much willing to take us to the site (which is situated on top of a hill).

Our guide, Vicente Donalvo Yaquin

It was quite a long trek. And since it had been raining earlier, the path was muddy and slippery.

Path to the site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan

Path to the site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan

Path to the site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan

When we reached the top, this was what we saw…

The site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan on top of the hill

But upon closer inspection, we saw something distinctively manmade lying underneath the thick green carpet…

The ruins of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan

The ruins of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan

The ruins of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan

The ruins of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan

I wasn’t able to make a visual of how the place could have looked like before. What I can say is that the the area covered by the “ruins” is quite wide. And the view is Wonderful!

The view from the site of Nagsisiiman/Nagtutulagan

There’s still something there, and it’s probably almost 500 years old.

Sanchez Mira/Claveria boundary (Namuac Bridge) - Hill on the right is where Nagtutulagan is situated

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I’m On BluPrint

About three months ago, Ms. Carren Jao left a comment on my About page asking permission to use one of the photos in my Sto. Domingo Church post for a small section on BluPrint magazine. She informed me that although she was unsure if my photo will indeed be used, it was scheduled to come out in the October 2009 issue of the magazine.

She would confirm to me two months later that it’s a go.

And, sure enough… here it is. 😀

Front cover of BluPrint magazine (Volume 7 - 2009)

My tiny spot on page 38 of BluPrint magazine (Volume 7 - 2009)

It’s just a tiny spot but I can’t smile any wider because I’m afraid the upper two-thirds of my head might fall off if I do. 😛

Thanks Carren. 🙂

A Day To Remember

I opened my eyes to a dim puplish blue sky. I looked at the digital clock on the wall above the window beside me… 5:26.

I sat up and saw the horizon glowing a pale blue and pink light. Cirrus clouds dotted an otherwise clear and pale blue background.

I put on my shoes and readied myself to head for home.

There were three of us there last night, stuck inside the office with nowhere to go. However, I was the only one who never left.

My wife told me at around 5:30 in the afternoon yesterday to just stay at the office. She told me there was no way I can possibly get home even if I could manage to get near to our place. At street level, our place was flooded chest-deep!

I was left there, alone with a couple of security personnel. Everyone wanted to go home and everyone did. I wanted so much to go home myself… but I’d be crazy to even attempt to. The South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) had already been closed at the time due to flooding.

6:30 pm. I was just sitting there at the parking area at the ground floor, thinking of how and where I’m going to get something to eat, when I saw a lone figure walk through our office building’s gate.

It was our plumber, Edwin, who had left earlier at around 2:30 pm with our manager to go home to Pampanga. “Traffic wasn’t moving, and I heard that it’d probably take us ’til tomorrow to get there” he said, “so I decided to come back.”

And so, I asked him to buy a can of sardines and, when he came back, we had our dinner at the top floor of our office building.

As we were finishing up, I saw a figure appear from the staircase. To my surprise, it was our Manager, John, who had also left earlier (with Edwin) to go home to Pampanga. “The North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) had been closed to traffic…” he said “the news said flood waters in Valenzuela are mid-bus deep!”

431 millimeters of rain fell, that’s almost a whole month’s worth of rainfall, and it all came down in just 6 hours.

I wrote a draft for this entry yesterday while waiting and earnestly hoping for the rain to stop, hoping to post it as soon as I get home. But it didn’t happen.

“Tropical Storm Ondoy (International Code Name Ketsana)

It kept raining last night up to the early hours of this morning, but there wasn’t anything about it that could have warned us of what was to come today.

Heavy rain started to fall at around 9:30 am or so (I was already at the office at the time) and I thought it would last for only a brief moment as rain as hard as that usually does. But I was wrong… very wrong. It lasted for more than six hours non-stop.

It was my first time to see rain falling as hard as that last that long.

I have been told that there’s a section in Araneta Avenue where all the cars left on the street were submerged and that only their roofs were showing!

Sadly, our house was not spared. It’s currently flooded inside to almost knee deep.

Here are a few photos my officemate took on his way to the office.”

EDSA, near the Quezon Avenue MRT station (Photo taken by Joy Cuales)

EDSA near Mother Ignacia (Photo taken by Joy Cuales)

Mother Ignacia (Photo taken by Francis Casupanan)

EDSA corner Mother Ignacia (Photo taken by Francis Casupanan)

EDSA, looking towards West from atop the Quezon Aenue MRT station. (Photo taken by Francis Casupanan)

EDSA, looking west from the Quzon Avenue MRT station (Photo taken by Francis Casupanan)

The aftermath? Well, some streets are still flooded, a huge section of asphalt has been peeled off the road near the intersection of West and Quezon Avenues, debris are almost everywhere, and our home is in shambles (water eventually rose to nearly a meter deep inside our house after I wrote that).