Our barangay, aptly named Silangan (“East”), is situated to the east of the capitol along the mountainous region of the municipality of San Mateo, Rizal. The town is situated along the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range, which stretches from Rizal up to Aurora and Cagayan provinces. Whereas most of San Mateo residents live by the valley of the Marikina River, our barangay is situated at the highest elevations within the town's boundaries. This makes for interesting commute, with sinuous roads and treacherous ravines. While we are used to these roads, and, thus, drive like crazy (read: just sufficiently but safely fast) even at the wildest turns, friends who ride with us are forced to say their prayers and hang on to anything while joining us for the ride.
But the old mountain roads not only make for thrillingly fun drives; they are also perfect for quiet walks and lovely strolls and energizing jogs. Many of our friends from the local congregation have been doing these early morning exercises, and they have been posting their nice pictures on social media for so long. The initial phase of the pandemic, of course, brought a halt to any and every plans and encouraged people to stay indoors. But with new scientific evidence bringing to light the need for outdoor activities, we decided to start a habit of walking along the sinuous mountain roads in our barangay (with precautions, of course).
Since we are not really sure about the implementation of the curfew hours here, we started a little bit later (than what we would have wanted) at 6:00 AM. The sun was already high above the sky when we left our house. Still, there are fewer vehicles and people along the roads, which was good. Apart from the smoke and soot from the vehicles, we would like to have minimal exposure to people. You can never be too careful, you know.
The first village constructed in these mountainous areas are for soldiers and army personnel, so the place is still known as AFP Housing. Outside of this dense, central area, the road that leads to the mountains is called the Old Army Road. We walked on this road and, to our surprise, the areas that used to have tall cogon grasses have been transformed into small restaurants and burger joints! Too bad they only open early on weekends (they open daily, but not as early). The neighbors tell us that these shops cater to numerous bikers who frequent the area on their way to the bike trails in the mountains that connect us to Antipolo and Baras.
As an exercise, walking can be chill, even spiritual, as you can really get deep in thought while enjoying nature along the trail. But it is also quite effective; I got drenched with sweat halfway along our trail. This is especially since the trek is uphill, with some portions having very steep slopes. My daughter Stacie said she's tired, and wanted me to carry her (she loves it when she gets to ride on my shoulders). But I told her that it would be dangerous to do that because we (I) might lose balance and roll downhill. I just instructed her to go slowly along these paths, but not to stop. Huffing and puffing, she eventually made it through.
After about an hour, we reached our intended destination by the side of the mountain where the sun appears to come out. The view of the east side is perfect background for picture-taking in the morning.
Out west, the metropolitan area, with its dense houses and towers are still quite visible, although, from experience, this will be covered in a black veil of smog in just a few hours.
This proved to be such an exciting, (relatively) safe, and simple way to exercise and to get out of the house (literally). We decided to make it a daily habit. ■
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