Hinulugang Taktak

This particular outing very nearly did not happen. For a number of reasons. Let’s just say that sometimes it is almost impossible to get out the door with children.  And then my phone wouldn’t get on the internet for me to set up an Uber.

It took a you’ve-got-this-and-you-really-do-like-our-children pep talk with Jonathan (who is still in Orlando),  plus some help from a lovely stranger named Ingrid (who set up an Uber for me), to get us to the Hinulugang Tak Tak National Park.

Side note, for some reason, Juju wasn’t into pictures on this particular day.  Most of the time, he either wouldn’t be in the pictures at all, or he wouldn’t smile, or (as in the picture below) look at the camera….Turkey.

Since it was lunchtime, we looked at the falls for a minute or two and then  found a nearby table and ate our picnic lunch.  (Guys. Logan likes PB&J! Hallelujah!! We are slowly adding to the list of things that he will happily eat!)

The entire time we ate, a group of teenagers watched us and made faces at the kids.  They eventually came over and asked Clara and Juju all kinds of questions. (And they also told me how to add ‘Load’ to my phone. It turns out that was why I couldn’t get an Uber set up earlier.  I was out of data. Womp womp.)

Everywhere we go, people are drawn to our kids.  I think seeing white kids is a real novelty.  White adults are fairly common but I haven’t seen any other white children at all (aside from at church). And seeing any young children (especially in our area) isn’t common either.  So, the fact that we have three very young, very white children…basically we stand out a lot.  And we are stared at A LOT.

After eating, we wandered around the grounds for a little longer.  The grounds really are quite lovely.  I love how green and plant-iful everything is (see what I did there?)  And. They even had a little shrine and meditation area (below). Tender 🙂

We then decided to brave the swimming area, and so we went to change. This part was a little bit crazy-making to be completely honest.  They didn’t have changing areas that were large enough to house all four of us, let alone with our stuff.  So I just changed in a corner that wasn’t directly visible. Let’s just say I was glad I was wearing a skirt 🙂 And Logan screamed his head off. He screamed the entire time I got myself and the older two kids changed.  At this point, I nearly called it quits.  But, Dang It! We had braved everything so far, we were going swimming!!

As we walked into the pool area, everyone turned and stared at us.  Seriously. Everyone. There were probably 70 people in the pool and surrounding area. They watched while I got Logan dressed. They watched as I removed my cover-up.  And they watched while I rinsed off in the shower and while I doused each of the kids in the shower. As you can imagine, I was feeling a little self-conscious…

It was kind of relief to get into the pool, so we weren’t quite as visible.  We hung out on the stairs since it was a little too deep and busy to let Clara and Jonas off on their own.  And before you knew it, we were surrounded by about 20 people (I am not exaggerating).  They were all comparing the color of their arms to ours.  And a bunch of 8ish year old boys started jabbering at us.

“What’s your name?”

“Jill”

“Ooooh.  Mrs. Jill, what is his name?”  They asked me lots of questions about each of the kids. And they called me Mrs. Jill the whole time we were there.  It made me laugh. (look at our little climber below)

“Mrs. Jill.  Do you speak Tagalog?”

“I know a few words.  Salamat. Bangus. Magandang umaga.”(Thank you. Fish. Good morning) (I know, my vocabulary is impressive.)

“Very good Mrs. Jill”

“Oh! Oh! I also know Halo Halo” That got a laugh.  Halo Halo is a delightful frozen dessert. (It would be like a non-native English speaker saying ‘I know how to say ‘Slurpee’ or ‘Frostie’ or something like that.  Not gonna lie, I was pretty pleased with my little joke. 🙂 I’m hilarious.

(Note, this is a picture that Clara took after we’d finished swimming, there were at least twice as many people in the pool when we arrived.)  After a little while, a park employee came and told all the kids to leave us in peace. Though I really didn’t mind them hanging out.

We swam a little longer and then got out.  We were all feeling pretty drained and so I decided we should probably head home.  I wasn’t sure how exactly we would get home at this point… the park was kind of isolated from the rest of Antipolo.  But fortunately, as soon as we walked out the gate, there were a bunch of trikes waiting.  You should have seen those tired little faces light up when I suggested we ride a trike. Especially Juju.  He was so excited.

We rode the trike into the central part of town.  It was only a mile or two. And on the way there, Logan passed out in my arms. Goes to show how tired he was, it was a loud and bumpy ride.  So, I laid him down on the grass, added some ‘load’ to my phone, got an Uber and we went home.