To the East is Baler

THIS time I went east of Manila to Baler in the province of Aurora. It used to belong to Quezon Province which was formerly called Tayabas. But it has always been isolated by geography and as a consequence developed its own distinct culture, an adaptation to its environment facing the Pacific Ocean to the East and hemmed in by mountains of the Sierra Madre inland.

They have rice, fishing, lumber and lots of water. They weave mats, rattan baskets, cook rice-based sweetmeats and have coconuts. We were into suman, buko, kinilaw. There is too the wide Pacific Ocean surf bearing down on the long beaches north and south of Baler as well as the town itself. Beautiful, blue and not-so-pacific.