A Road with A View

(published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer Nov. 17, 2007)

Text and photos by Katrina A. Holigores


It was almost like a rite of passage. An escapade up north that started in the dead of night. The end point was Baguio, one day before the end of February three years ago. My professional career had hit a speed bump and I was dating a guy who could best be described as a dead end. Going nowhere it seemed, I was then asked by an indie-hero to come along to shoot a “roadtrip” travelshow. The invitation was like a kiss from an angel, and at a red-eyed hour we set off for the NLEX and up, up and away we drove to the city of Pines. The plan was to cover the floral festival known as Panagbenga, but before that, indie-hero intimated, he wanted to show me a road he had discovered. It looked deserted and abandoned at ungodly hours but was traffic jammed virtually impassable as soon as the sun came up. “You have to see it right before the sun rises, it’s magnificent.” Having been nursed on National Geographic fodder I held my breath and kept my cynicism inside my camera bag. Four, five, six hours passed and I was amazed that the darkness did not intimidate our driver as I couldn’t even make out a single street sign. It was an endless black snake of asphalt but eventually we came to a clearing and all traces of sleepiness left me in a single breath-which was just as quickly taken away by what I saw. It was as if the skies were smoldering, rich with the colors of rising flames and framed against thick white smoke. For the next ten minutes all we could do was watch in silent awe as the sun slowly waded through the clouds as if coming out of a rich foamy bath. Once sunlight streamed in from all directions, the glamour of the surroundings disappeared and the road was revealed as nothing extraordinary, just a means to get from one end to the other and so we continued on our journey. I look back on that trip as a turning point in my life. Soon after, my career shifted gears and I found a detour out of Mr. Dead End. Funny, all this from an unremarkable road with an unforgettable view.