Saturday, January 03, 2009

Yummy Food, Nippy Weather and a little mishap on the way to the Chapel on a Hill

The title best describes our trip to Tagaytay last Monday, December 29. We left Manila at around 9:30am and headed for the SLEX which was undergoing pockets of road construction. Merging of lanes here, there and everywhere, traffic bound for the Santa Rosa exit though was still moderately light.

First stop was lunch!


They ran out of crispy tawilis and crispy crablets. So we feasted on ginataang kuhol (my favorite), bulalo, tortang talong, grilled hito and fried tuna belly. We were seated outside in a little nipa hut with a great view of Taal lake and volcano and the weather was a pleasant mix of cold breeze with overcast gloomy skies.



Then we shoved off to Caleruega in Nasugbu, Batangas. If you are familiar with the Tagaytay area, you would know that there is a huge C@sino Filipino establishment in front of the newly developed Taal Vista Hotel. It is a busy intersection as there are a number of cars coming out of the C@sino, going to the Hotel and others making their way to Batangas. We were in full stop right outside the C@sino when a SUV bumped us from behind. The driver claims that we were reversing. That is not possible. We were in full stop and certainly not moving a single inch. But there wasn't any heavy damage to either cars. The other party wasn't willing to shelve out any money to pay for the scratch on our car. There wasn't any filing of a police report. The guy told us he will be contacting us yet so far nothing, not even a text message. We simply didn't want to ruin the whole day by a little inconvenient mishap so we still made our way to the little Chapel on a Hill.




It was my first time to go there. There was a wedding about to take place so I wasn't able to fully explore the inside of the Church. But I did manage to take a sneak peek inside to see the magnificent stained glass interiors. It had a very cozy and intimate feel to it and the chilly weather added to its quaint charm.



After countless pictures taken from all angles of the chapel, we left the parents by the main entrance of the place because they were already tired. My sister, D and I decided to explore the stations of the cross, the koi pond as well as the hanging suspension bridge.









It was a beautiful place to explore, commune with nature, do some reflecting and just soak in the pure clean air of Batangas.

By the time we left C@leruega, the sun was about to set. We made a quick dash to Mary Ridge to buy some ube jam and suman sa lihia made by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. We stopped by for an early dinner at Mushroom Burger before heading back to Manila through the unlighted lanes of the SLEX.

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