It’s summertime and the heat is on. One can feel it building, the waft of warm air into the nostrils heading straight to the lungs. Clothes becoming heavy and skin sticky with sweat, there’s a burning sensation. The Philippine summer is upon us. Here in the metro, the malls have become the usual respites from the heat with their massive air-conditioning systems spewing mechanical cold breaths for the chill fix of city and rural folk. But even before the advent of these convenient mega-structures, there has been a place up in the North that has been sheltering Filipinos from the ravages of summer.
Baguio is undoubtedly a tourism superstar, a famed summer capital that has been a nourishing mother of cool memories. The Americans had it right when they chose the high altitude city as the perfect getaway from the tropical heat of the country. They developed it and the word spread across the archipelago, and they all came in bunches. Now, with its fully-developed self, Baguio is still reluctant to give away its throne as the country’s summer capital. And what about the fond memories of Baguio that majority of Filipinos have kept safe in their treasure boxes of nostalgia? One can remember the sweet-sour pang of fresh strawberries in the mouth, or riding a rented bicycle with the icy wind stroking one’s face. How about a walk down Session Road or buying little trinkets and pasalubongs like the immortal peanut brittle, ube jam, naughty barrel men, Recorders (sort of like flutes), puppets, key chains, etc.? And of course—the memories of pine trees—whose particular scent delivers a calm balm to visitors.
Though we are getting more and more in touch with the waves and the party-by-the-sea mentality, Baguio still calls her children to rest and spend a couple of leisure-filled days on her cool lap. She has been doing this for decades now and will continue on doing it as long as we take the right measures to ensure her future. Think of our memories, and the memories of those who came before us about this ever-kind place. These are worth more than our pictures and souvenirs, planted firmly in our subconscious like a deep rooted tree. If we let those memories be uprooted they will eventually dissipate in obscurity. And if we allow her to be abused and manipulated by ill-minded entities, it will be a sad lose-lose situation.
This one is a very worthy journey, for the City of Pines has been giving it all for us; now let us return the favor.
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