Heaven outside the city

Egay Uy .

MOST people who want to travel look beyond their neighborhood and set eye on places overseas. That would be great thing to do but we should not forget the beauty of places around us.

It was our first time to cruise beyond the poblacion of Claveria, Misamis Oriental one Sunday. My newly wed son OJ and his wife Dotie, along with my ex-girlfriend Julia, went to that municipality specifically to see for ourselves the much talked about shrine that is dedicated to the passengers who lost their lives when a Cebu Pacific plane crashed onto Mt. Sumagaya.

Wikipedia tells us that Claveria is a first-class municipality in the province of Misamis Oriental. According to the 2015 census, it had a population of 48,906 people. It is the only landlocked municipality of Misamis Oriental. It is also the largest municipality in the province in terms of land area.

The almost 100-kilometer trip would have been a whole-family affair except that our eldest son, Jeiu, and the youngest, Jose, opted to stay at home for some reasons.

It was the first time for the four of us to see the shrine. We took photos and posted them on Facebook, today’s most obvious destination of photographs.  The area was rather unkempt at that time.  It’s a pity because the site is well-designed and could very well be a haven for families and tourists. At any rate, we took photographs sans the messy sights.

On our way back to Cagayan de Oro, we dropped by the View Deck along the Claveria highway. The sight is breathtaking from the point of view of one who has been spending most of his life in the city. The two-story structure enables nature lovers to view greens and browns covering the slopes in the nearby mountains and hills.

The view deck compound is still being developed but the design’s final result is already visible. I expect that after the entire area will have been completely done, it will be an attractive tourist stopover for those coming from Gingoog City and from Cagayan de Oro City with all the colorful flowers planted all over.

One thing that struck me was the prices of food stuff sold at the View Deck. The prices were reasonable.  Brewed coffee was at P30 per cup, veggie empanada was only at P10 each, cooked sweet corn at P20 each, and carbonara was sold for only P100.  Thanks to those who did business there.  They surely did not think of taking advantage.

Claveria is a cool place. It’s literally cool because whenever it drizzles, the highway is filled with fog and it is one good sight for a city dweller like us.

I recently told a good friend, former Claveria mayor Rocky Calingin, “Your place is heaven outside the city.”

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)