Day -1: Road trip to Candelaria, April 3 [Tiny]

With six of the jumbo-sized balikbayan boxes [balikbayan: Returning/visiting Filipino expatriates and their children] stuffed with all sorts of meds plus personal luggage to schlep the 250 kms (about 155 miles) to Candelaria, Zambales we needed three SUVs.

A rented Toyota Revo, my friend Irma's Toyota Previa, and my ever reliable but ever thirsty Ford Explorer had to do. Fitting people was not a problem. There was enough space for the 14 souls making the trip but cargo space was still at a premium and Niña's forgetting to unload a fully stuffed super XL-sized trash bag of our weeks' laundry at her Lola M's house for the lavandera to "process" did not help.

Finally underway, we were the last to push off, held back by a last minute 'adjustment' by Auntie B, Anna's mom. The agreement with the drivers of the other two vehicles was that being the fastest vehicle (and probably the most reliable) I would hold up the rear of the train in 'Badong' (a Ford Explorer, made in Canada, imported to Japan, and imported into the Philippines after being rescued from a Japanese materials recovery facility).

Apparently, not a good day for driver comprehension, the two vehicles scoot on ahead and disappear in Metro Manila's very organic traffic flow (Anna's & Stefan's description). Not really unexpected as Auntie B had to make a filing deadline at the Iba, Zambales Hall of Justice before 3 p.m. (200 kms/120 mi away yet).

We tool around through the NLEX (North Luzon Expressway - a nice tollroad, quite world-class). I was looking forward to saving about 45 mins of travel by going through the new toll tollroad that links the Clark EcoZone (Formerly Clark AFB of the USAF) to SBMA (Subic Bay EcoZone, formerly Subic BayNaval Base of the USN) but the signage was not up so rather than risk losing time, we took the regular route through Pampanga and Bataan province.

We hit SBMA at about 11:30 a.m. decided to do a late lunch in Iba instead. We discovered that we were way ahead of everyone as Auntie B and Uncle A in the lead car decided to try to hit the new highway which turned out to be closed so they had to double back. Auntie B left her mobile phone inside Badong so there was no communicating with them. John F and León B and Maria in the Previa were in touch via J's phone and they were following Auntie B.

We all meet up in Iba, the capital of Zambales province which itself is a long sliver of land hugging the northwestern coast of Luzon Island. At this time of year, Zambales is known for its beaches (fairly clean and unspoilt with black volcanic sand beaches in the mainland, and white, fine coral sand in the outlying islands) and mangoes (called Manila Super Mangoes, the fruit is a bright yellow, with a thin, flat, slightly hairy seed in between two cheeks of succulent yellow flesh. It is very sweet at this time of year and hyperglicemics are well advised to take care lest it cause their blood sugar to shoot up and turn them into insufferable monsters.

From Iba, its a short 40 minute drive through thin traffic on a winding mountain pass. Some 80 kms later we are in Candelaria. The first step is the Town Hall where a streamer was up to announce our presence. We also discover that it was fiesta time in Candelaria, a festival of thanksgiving in honor of the town's patron saint, San Vicente Ferrer whose feast day is April 5.

Being fiesta time, they had a flea market going in town and I thought I had a bargain when I picked up a pair of Speedo board shorts, and two IZOD walking shorts for a total of the equivalent of $3.00. But Niña topped this with a pair of faded denim cutoffs from ZARA for what turned out to be $0.11!

Madame Mayor happened to not be in her office for the how-are-you, and how-do-you-dos so off we went to our first billet at the Dawal Beach Resort, which was exactly 250 kms from the center of Manila.