Luloy's Backyard

Just this morning I read an article on Manila Bulletin's travel page regarding Baybay, Leyte. Now, I've been to Leyte a couple of times and am scheduling my next trip (yeah) come December. I have done some articles on my blog about Baybay and have posted my albums on my facebook page. So today, I'm writing about a particular experience about my trip last week.

My good friend June Recto has roots in Baybay. I got invited to tag along on this particular trip to take part in the celebrations of Bgy. Guadalupe's 53rd Foundation Day. June's grandfather was/is a posthumous awardee for his role as cabeza de barangay in 1945 or so. I was on hand to witness the colorful celebrations and to take photos of some interesting highlights of the event (more of this in another entry).

On the day of the big celebrations, June and I were on the beach and his cousin Luloy who was also in town for some R&R saw us and invited us for lunch. After having been on the beach all morning we decided to hit the showers and get ready to visit Luloy's home. Just to give my readers an idea, the barangay isn't a particularly huge one. It has seven zones, with each zone having descendants of the APDANS clan. APDANS is an acronym for the Amihan, Poliquit, Diaz, Almeroda, Nunez and Silao families who all share one family tree. Luloy and June belong to the Nunez group.

Luloy's home is a small patch of land a few meters away from where we were staying. Apparently, Luloy is home after finishing another contract as a seafarer abroad. His earnings went into the construction of his humble home for the women in his life... his wife and two little girls. When he's away on a job assignment his wife busies herself tending the garden and taking care of the two girls. 

I loved every minute of my brief visit in Luloy's home. I had to go back for my camera as I found every little corner very interesting. We had lunch at their backyard overlooking the rice paddies. Further down, was the new highway that leads to Visayas State University and a grand view of the Pangasugan Mountain range which seems to change according to the season and the time of day.

I took photos of the vegetable patch where they grew bird's eye chilli, eggplants, okra and camote. On the side of the fence which served as a hedge were the ornamentals. The calladiums stood out because of their pink color. Apparently, according to another friend, the color was caused by too much acid in the soil. But there were flowers which I didn't really know how to identify as I hadn't seen them before. I was tripping on taking shots with my camera as lunch was being served.

I admire the way they cook fresh produce. Lunch was simple fare of boiled camote (sweet potato) and saging na sabah (bananas),

a soup made with clams and lemon grass (halaan), a local variety of escargot (sisi) which you have to pry out of the shell using a safety pin,

sinugba (grilled tuna),

and a variety of baracuda which looked like torsillo that had a broth of garlic and  ginger.

To tie in all the flavors everything was either dabbed with sea urchin roe which was made into ginamos (fish sauce) which the locals call tihi-tihi. It was a surprise that Luloy's home could offer a gustatory and visual feast at the same time. 

Over cold soda and some bottles of Tanduay Ice, it would have been the perfect afternoon except we had to go back to the town hall/gym where the celebrations were about to start as we saw the parade going by on the main highway from our perch in the backyard.

Some good things never last, but the good memories linger...