Circular/Saturday Photo Hunt

Circular concrete culverts at the embankment of a river in Manapla, Negros Occidental.

Linking to Saturday Photo Hunt

At the countryside [MWT]

@ mirandablue

When you visit the Philippine countryside, you are most likely to see a carabao (a subspecies of the water buffalo).  This animal is still a very important draught-animal in the rice fields and farming villages.  If  not working the fields, carabaos are usually found wallowing in a puddle of mud or a watering hole just like this one I met in a river in Manapla.

@ mirandablue

The lush countryside made us linger.  Time drifted leisurely here, a refreshing escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

@ mirandablue

It was almost time for lunch when the gentle carabao emerged from the river, fresh and energized, to take the kids home.  Nearby, a family prepared to have their picnic lunch under a truck---food was eaten kamayan-style (with bare hands), while sitting on banana leaves.

@ mirandablue

I smiled and waved at these kids, remembering a simpler time.

@ mirandablue

Manapla is a coastal town in Negros island, about 45 kilometers north of Bacolod City, the provincial capital.  One of the earliest sugar mills in the country, North Negros Sugar Company, was built here in 1917. 

Show your world at My World - Tuesday

A nameless river [Watery Wednesday]

@ mirandablue

There was no name to remember this river by.  I was a stranger to its turquoise ripples, there was no memory waiting to surface as I watched the current whirl around the rocks.  

I didn't know the river's twists and turns; its scents were sweet but unfamiliar.

Every rock and blade of grass didn't know the texture of my skin; the trees crouching by its banks didn't know my name. 

Yet every playful splash, every refreshing spray, was an embrace.  Its whispers and murmurs sang of journeys I have yet to take.

@ mirandablue

 Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go. ~ Natalie Goldberg

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Brgy. Purisima, Manapla, Negros Occidental

April 2011

Posted for Watery Wednesday

Manapla bridge

@ mirandablue

It's been a while since I participated in Sunday Bridges.  Now I'm back!  I was with my cousins in Manapla a few weeks ago.  My cousin had some business here, and the meeting place was at the banks of this river.:p  I have no idea what this river is called---people were swimming and doing their laundry.  The bridge looks frail but in a couple of hours that we were by the banks of the river, there were trucks, motorbikes, tricycles and even a horse that passed through it.  I hope the next storm wouldn't destroy this bridge.

@ mirandablue

This is the river down-stream...

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Posted for Sunday Bridges

Flow river flow

@ mirandablue

Sit by the river.  Find peace and meaning in the rhythm of the lifeblood of the Earth.


Flow river flow, past the shady trees

Go river go, go to the sea...

@ mirandablue

Manapla, Negros Occidental

Linked to Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday