HAVE YOU BEEN TO ZAMBALES?

Up, Up And Away!!!!!





"Hurry Up Guys, We Only Have A Few Minutes Left...."





The 29th Mango Festival.....






Fixing The Decor.....






The Municipal Hall.....






The Start Of The Street Dance And Parade.....






















One of NAYON's past supporters recently had an ex-deal offer that the club could not refuse. He was thinking of promoting Zambales as a tourist attraction and wanted the club to photograph the picturesque spots with the photos to be used as advertising materials to promote its tourism program. In return, board, lodging and transport shall be sponsored by our benefactor. The task shall take five days and people who can go on a moments notice will be the ones to go. And the lucky ones were Boyet, Peter, Buboy, Bless and me. Club president Gigi actually was supposed to go to Pangasinan for a business matter but we brainwashed her to proceed first to Zambales and join us in the shoot even for a day.

I've been to Iba, Zambales before, but that was ages ago. It was during my cousin, Manong Elmer's wedding to his wife (until now) Manang Sandra, since she was from Zambales. I can't remember details of that event other than most of my cousin's relatives in Ilocos Sur made the trip. Oh, I also recall my Aunt Veron being one of the principal sponsors during the wedding.

The province is actually known for its sweet mangoes. In fact, the province celebrated its 29th Mango Festival last April 23 until April 26, 2008. As with other festivals, the province has week long activities to commemorate the event.

I traveled with Bless (we were the only females, hence I rode in her car) and the men travelled in Peter's car. We arrived at Iba, Zambales town proper a few hours before noon. Our host, ex-Mayor Jun Farin briefed us about the day's activities while we had lunch. At 12 noon, we were about to proceed back to the town plaza when out of nowhere, it rained quite hard! The winds were strong, it blew off the tents of the participants of the fair and tore of the banderitas hanged near the municipal building. As soon as the rain stopped at 3 pm, the crew immediately repaired everything and the street dance started at 3:30 pm. That goes to show that for the people of Zambales, in times of bad weather, the show must go on.