Travel is Poetry in Motion

This was taken in  Calatagan, Batangas. 

I once saw a travel photo that was so compelling that it made me realize that, yeah... if you have the right perspective and mood, travel can indeed be some sort of poetry. No moment nor scenery is wasted. Not even the most boring bus ride. You may be in the middle of a very clear , intense, or even blurred experience... and you bring back home something that you cannot describe by any word except.... you know what I mean.

So i dug into my hard disks and tried to find ones that I could use. But none came close to that photo that inspired me to do this blog post. I guess these ones would have to live up to my standards.

Just take a look (and comment :D) at the photos and decide which one is okay for you. Maybe even grab this and post on you wall! Or better yet, dig your own hard disks and look for your photos that made you, well... poetic.

I thank my oldest clone, Ibarra for putting those impressive texts in the photos (I kept saying, ohhhh.... wow...)

We went to a sandbar in Bohol when we were doing a book on kayaking in the Philippines and encountered these happy kids

On a river cruise in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte, I prayed that the girl would stop as she walked on a rice paddy,  and I had maybe one or two seconds to make the shot.

I have fun looking for elements that don't match. This one is in Danao Lake in Taytay, Palawan

Calatagan Brochure on Ecotourism

Brochure - The Farm at San Benito, Batangas

Provinces & Destinations - Batangas

Taal Lake and Volcano
Taal and 6 other municipalities surrounding the lake
Taal Lake is one of the most prominent bodies of water in Luzon Island . It is also one of the more famous tourist attractions in the province. Aside from the lake, the area has the Taal Volcano island situated in the middle of the lake. Taal Volcano is described as "a volcano within a lake within a volcano within a lake", this is considered as one of the smallest active volcanoes in the world.

Basilica of St. Martin de Tours
Taal
Noted to be the biggest church in the whole of East Asia , the Baroque structure stands on top of an elevated portion in the middle of the poblacion. It houses the image of St. Martin de Tours, and also a replica of the Virgin of Caysasay (or sometimes the original image)

Hacienda Looc
Nasugbu Hacienda Looc is one of the fast growing vacation sites in the Southern Tagalog area. Aside from the tourist establishments, there has been a significant increase in the number of vacation houses built in the area. The site is also identified by the Philippine Department of Tourism as one of the study sites in the national tourism master plan.

Mabini Shrine
Talaga, Tanauan
Features the personal belongings of the revolutionary hero. His tomb lies in the middle of the site where a replica of the house he was born in also stands. (presently under renovation)

Matabungkay Beach
Matabungkay, Lian
This is a two-kilometer white sand beach ideal for water sports like swimming, boating, yachting, fishing, and skin diving. Numerous backyard tourist facilities and a couple of first class resorts are located in the area.

Parada ng mga Lechon
Balayan
Parada ng Mga Lechon is one of the most celebrated and highly raucous events in the province of Batangas . During this event, the lowly lechons are given the privilege to be "dressed for the occasion". Some lechons are dressed like celebrities while others are dressed like well-known people and politicians.

Punta de Santiago Lighthouse
Calatagan
Built in 1890, it is one of the earliest lighthouses that still functions up to this day. The site also offers dramatic vistas of the coastlines of Calatagan. Its vicinity is now the site of upscale private and vacation resort development.

Anilao (Calumpang Peninsula )
Mabini
The area is most noted for its dive sites and resorts. It is the favored destination of many Manila-based diving enthusiasts because of its proximity to the National Capital Region, the quality of dive sitaes and the presence of diving facilities.

Brochure - El Pinoy Dive and Leisure Resort, Batangas

Brochure - Pier Uno Resort, Anilao, Batangas

Brochure - Golden Sunset, Calatagan

Can We Save the Thresher Sharks in Verde Passage?

It was in late 2007 when Cecille Rosales, the tourism officer of Batangas City started posting and reporting in her multiply site about the catching and selling of thresher sharks in the waters of Batangas Bay (which is part of the larger Verde Passage located between the province of Batangas and the big islands of Mindoro and Marinduque. At first, I hardly gave any notice given that I could not really relate because I am not a scuba diver.

But her reports and logs kept increasing and I began to do more research on the animal. By another co-incidence, I became a consultant of Bantay Kalikasan, a big, media-based NGO that included the Verde Passage as part of their advocacy areas. That's when things started to fall into place (as far as I am concerned).

One barangay in Batangas City really catch the animal in order to augment their iffy fishing livelihood of sardines. They regard the shark as more of a pest because it eats their catch and destroys their fishing nets (actually not true, but more of a convenient excuse). Listening to the fishermen how they survive through fishing the shark could make you shake your head that issues like this are ever present in many communities in the Philippines. But we could not just accept this as a fact that we have to live with. We know, from many experiences, that there are ways to address the issue of conservation and socio-economic well-being of the people.

The situation for the thresher shark could already be very bleak. Their sexual maturity could be very late (8 years for the female) and they reproduce only about 2 offsprings per birth, and they don't give birth on a regular pattern. In March, a total of 29 thresher sharks were caught in only three days! For conservationists like Simon Oliver (a visiting British guy specializing on the sharks), that is already very, very alarming!

I've personally seen some of the dead sharks that were caught and I'm telling you, the experience could be numbing. Five dead sharks were lined and you could just imagine how awesome they could be if seen alive and swimming freely in their natural habitat. The long, banner-like tails that reach about five feet, easily match their body length. Their mouths and teeth were quite small, indicating that they only eat small preys such as sardines and squids. Yup! They DO NOT and CANNOT eat humans.

And I was imagining that there could be an opportunity to help save the remaining thresher sharks (the three species found in the Philippines are now labeled as Vulnerable by the IUCN, an international conservation body). The good thing is that thresher shark encounter has been an established tourist activity in very few areas in the world (one is in Malapascua Island in Cebu). So we have here a major, MAJOR ecotourism product that can attract a good number of scuba divers. Another good thing is that the Philippines is no stranger to wildlife-based ecotourism product development. We've seen it with the whales, dolphins and whale sharks whose numbers and habitats are now zealously protected by the locals because of the viable livelihood they now enjoy (update: except Oslob in Cebu where the practice of whale shark watching is constantly questioned).

For the thresher shark ecotourism to flourish, some major efforts will have to be done. The people and officials of Batangas City (and the province) should pitch in to protect the animal by banning the catching of the animal. Of course, the national government agencies must also do their jobs. Efforts must be done to convince the fishing community to stop the catching of animals and they should be willing to embrace an alternative livelihood in place of unsustainable harvesting. And yes, ban the catching and killing of this awesome animal in danger. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. As I said earlier, it has been done in other areas, it could easily be implemented for the Thresher Shark in other parts of the Philippines.