Fiesta

Netnet Camomot

 TODAY,  August 28 is the fiesta of Cagayan de Oro. You can’t escape from this celebration if you live downtown within the city proper. You’re trapped. You’ll see all these people and cars hopping from one house to another. There is no way out.

Unless you have decided to get away from it all and are now on your way to anywhere but here. Or have gone to some place long before the week-long festivities began. You’re now snorkeling in Palawan, swimming with whale sharks in Oslob, relaxing at Pearl Farm.

The long weekend, which started last Wednesday for some students, has allowed Cagayanons to think outside of the box. Unlike the free lechon at the fiesta, they may have to pay for the lechon at Palawan, Oslob or Pearl Farm but at least they have escaped from the usual chaos that a fiesta brings. Feasting on lechon in between dives in the ocean–priceless. Feasting on lechon in between traffic jams–praise-less. You’re able to appreciate the lechon more when the mind and body are relaxed and not hopping from one fiesta invitation to the next.

But if there’s no escape from the fiesta, you may have lechon at the first invite, dinuguan at the second, and move forward to paklay, macaroni salad, buko salad, and so on and so forth ad infinitum ad nauseam as you continue to party from one house to another. That’s what you call sarap ng buhay, with emphasis on the sarap. Yum! Burp.

And then later in the evening, you can have paksiw as pulutan for the morning-the-night binge drinking. Hic.

While alternating between burp and hic, please help your tummy recover by fixing it with malunggay soup. Or with bulalo. That is, if you’re sober enough to remember.

A fiesta is the time to forget about your troubles if it’s your kind of elixir for such troubles. The hangover the morning after may worsen the troubles but what the hic, er, heck, at least the alcohol helped you forget for a while.

Choose your bottles, er, battles. To each his own. There are people who would rather zonk out with Johnny Walker while others prefer San Miguel. Or Miguel, if you want some warm body to hug.

And there are those who still want to see the parade and the Miss Cagayan de Oro 2015 coronation night live than stay home and watch them on TV.

I’ve been going to the Miss CDO coronation night ever since Gigi Go and the Bai Lawanen Jaycees adopted it as an annual project in 2013. Before that… Hmmm.

I’m a JCI senator now, and so is Gigi who’s past president of the chapter. Before 2013, the only city-endorsed fiesta celebration I went to was the “Kumbira” which I’ve not been to in the last few years. I guess I’m the kind who chooses only one fiesta event and Miss CDO is it for now.

Why “Kumbira”? Ah, hello! Food!

I once covered “Kumbira” for another paper and that was one of the most delish assignments ever. I don’t know if it’s still as delish nowadays but if its nature is to level up annually, then it could be much much more delish in its present state.

As for the parade, it used to be my background Muzak while columnizing and businessizing. Since I’ve not been watching TV in the last few weeks, the parade’s live coverage may pass by unnoticed at least for my Jurassic TV set.

Yes, I’ve said goodbye to “Pangako Sa ‘Yo.” No more time to watch TV. “Pearl’s Peril,” “Plant Nanny,” reading the main sections of newspapers, food, and quality time with family friends are my preferred R&R now. The TV set can rest till after June 2016.

Meanwhile, go buy some balloons after the Mass at St. Augustine Cathedral. Then, reminisce on how it was in the ’70s when you posed for photos at Gaston Park with the fountain in the background. Gosh. That was so long ago.