The Luminous Cross of Grace Sanctuary

It was past noon when we passed by the town of Agdangan Quezon. The Luminous Cross of Grace Sanctuary was very visible from all corners of the humble town of Agdangan.












The Sanctuary itself led us to its location. It was our first time to pass by Agdangan on our way to Manila, but we did not have to ask the locals about its location because of its visibility by the road.








When we got in the church, the Sanctuary was a lot overwhelming. It was high noon and the sun was beaming towards the luminous paint of the building.




What was then deemed impossible to build in this poor coastal town of Agdangan in the Bondoc Peninsula, a monstrance-shaped, 37-meter-high sanctuary, called the Luminous Cross of Grace, rises after three years of hope, prayers and thanksgiving for donors and service contributors.

Constructed beside the St. Isidore Parish Church, the prayer tower juts into the sky, a testament to the perseverance and faith of a handful of volunteers who believe they were called on this mission by God.

For the past three years, P20 million has come in the form of donations, from the sale of rosaries, rosary bracelets, Marian portraits, Christmas decors, religious icons and medals. Text brigades, mailed solicitations, Internet-based promotions, even overseas visits have been employed by volunteers to continue work on the prayer tower."_ (from Luminous Cross of Grace website)visit luminouscrossofgrace.com for facts about the sanctuary.




Upon our unplanned visit,two weeks ago, the construction has not fully finished. Because, this was really unplanned and was just led by the last minute suggestion of my friend Raisa to drop by while we were on the way anyway, we were a bit disappointed not to be able to make it inside the cross.




Outside of the fence of the sanctuary posted some rules for the visitors which we were not prepared for. Indicated were  house dress rules. We were wearing shorts and tees which are our usual comfy get up when we travel. Another thing was, the door was already closed as the tour was already in session then. We were like 30 minutes late of the scheduled guided tour.




Nevertheless, we made it to visit its church_ St. Isidore Parish Church. We particularly prayed for my girls' cousin Bianx who was in the hospital then and we just found it through text that very minute. We believe that prayers are always granted upon your first time visit to a certain church.




We looked around the church and found out that this project was supported by the late Pres. Corazon Aquino. There was a framed letter of donation dated March 10, 2008.



 Another framed letter of donation from her daughter Balsy who seemed to be there on the same date Tita Cory visited the place.


When I was taking photos of the Sanctuary outside, my girls reminded me of the posted rules preventing visitors to take photos. I said to my daughters that must be applicable inside the Sanctuary and anyway posting photos of the Luminous Cross of Grace Santuary here in my small blog corner would be our humble contribution.

Prayers for the victims of Ondoy.
God Bless..

Outnumbered in Subic

One monkey..



.. two monkeys..



.. three, four, five..



.. six, seven, eight..



.. oh my *&^%$#@ !!!.. they are all coming out!!! ..we are being outnumbered! let's get out of here!!

El Kabayo, Subic

For the equestrian wanna bees, here's your corner in Subic_ the El Kabayo.



I thought of this guard house,which looked so abandon, as added rough character to the place. It made me imagined 10 cowboys riding horses, circled around it and left it the way it is now.



This side of SBF looked uninhabited.





El Kabayo has imported horses coming from Australia, United States and Argentina. There are quarter horses, thoroughbred horses standard bred and saddle bred and visitors can choose which horse they prefer.

Extreme Adventure Park, Subic

While we are still in the month of September which I dubbed as Ascertain's daring month (see Sept. archives), let's take advantage of the Bliss' pulsating heart and escalate to the extreme.



Here's your menu for this trip. Nothing's really complicated, all you need is a brave heart and and a strong vocal cords. You see, shouting is very much allowed here, if that's part of your basic survival tool while undergoing extreme adventure stunts.



Military training facilities await you here. You could choose one or try everything.




The Wall- certainly not just another wall. It's extremely high especially for a first timer like me. I haven't tried any wall climbing, not even the one in SM.

THE LOW “V” AND HIGH “V”- you need a partner here to work with to reach the widest end of the “V” without falling off the high-suspension cables. The High “V” is exactly the same as the low “V” but the structure is raised to a minimum height of 35 feet above the ground.

THE HIGHWAY- this too is a game for two as partners, using the same rigging and construction as the High “V”. The objective is for each trusting buddy-pair to hold onto each end of a multilane rope that is hanging downward. While doing so, the team must traverse to the wider end of the foot cable at a height of 35 feet.

THE TRUST FALL- this a test of trust, an individual stands and falls-back from the platform into the waiting arms of his/her teammates.

THE POLE JUMP- A single swaying telephone pole awaits you with small horizontal hand and foot holds by the sides and a circular moving disk at the top.

MULTILINE TRAVERSE-two vertically parallel cables raised to a minimum height of 35 feet above the ground. The top cable is fixed with hanging multilane ropes whose distance gets farther apart as you move towards the final point. The bottom cable is used as a traverse point.

SLIDE FOR LIFE (CANOPY SLIDE)-the highlight of the adventure, this one is what we commonly known as the zip line. Only here is quite extreme compare to Tagaytay and Bicol.

Here you climb a stairway to the top of a large tree.

You secure your harness; your assistant connects you to a cable system in preparation to transverse a distance of over 100 meters of dense tropical jungle 20 meters below.

You must surrender your fear on this test of courage as gravity will propel you extremely fast alongside large trees and foliage. If you ever wondered what it was like to be Indiana Jones, this is the challenge for you.









THE HANGING BRIDGE- a high-adventure cable and old wooden-slates bridge suspended over lush tropical jungle foliage, at a height of 100 feet at one point. You need to walk over this bridge in order to get to the second canopy slide. The bridges are actually suspended over the canopy slide at one point. The bridge experience is one definitely one out of a Hollywood high-adventure production.

Well, have you made- up your mind on which one you like to try? Or you go for the whole buffet of extreme adventure?

Close Encounter, Zoobic Safari

*yeeey! I survived the Tiger Safari! I'm still alive!

My heart hadn't fully slowed down from the heart pounding action in Tiger Safari ( click here to see Tiger Safari ), when it occurred to me that I hadn't enough yet of the wild cats. We were moved on to the Close Encounter.



The place where the tigers were supposed to be hanging out to rest from the hunting works at Tiger Safari.



.. But the pens were not their natural habitat. They were too little-a- place for these wild beautiful beasts..



So I could feel their agitation against their small pens. I only saw one tiger sleeping, the rest of them were walking back and forth in countless times that looked quite intimidating and scary.



I did not dare to look them straight, afraid that I might trigger something off their wilderness and caused a lifetime damage in my peaceful mom's life.



Take note that here at Close Encounter, the tigers were physically real close to the guests, 1-2 feet away. I tiptoed the narrow stinky corridor as if there were nails on the floor. The place was really stinky of the urine odor of the animals. I never at once removed my hanky off my nose all through the course of this close encounter. Remember that tigers are territorial and that explains the markings of their urine odors.



Everytime I saw a lighted pair of eyes, fear pushed me to the wall, which is by the way_ only two feet away from the fangs of the owner of the eyes.



Another factor which made me stick to the wall was the fear of getting showered by the tiger's urine which the guide said the odor would linger up to a week and no amount of shower and bath would do any help. that would be real disaster then !



But most of all, the real fear factor was when the beast took out its tongue, kept it dangling on the air with saliva dripping and looked at me as if he was nothing but ready to take a feast the whole of me! whaaah!!!!



At the end of it all, tiger is a real beauty. Like a stuff toy cat I want to bring home and put at the head of my comfy bed. :D