Accents
By Julia Carreon-Lagoc

Boracay in my mind

Tonight I'm freeing my mind of the raging political turmoil. Let the “Honorable” Gentleman or “Honorable” Lady from the legislative district of Aparri to Jolo grandstand themselves hoarse, let the media shout and print all they want, let the protest banners wave high, I'm wiping the slate clean, so to speak, because for tonight, I have Boracay in my mind.

Have you been to Boracay? Boracay has become famous worldwide that it has gotten to a point that some Filipinos abroad, when asked, find it embarrassing to answer they haven't been there. As often as you're asked shows the extent of the reputation the island has built.

Boracay pops up as first choice whenever conversation shifts to a holiday vacation to some island getaway. For one, “the world's most beautiful beach” (quote me) is just a stone's throw away. This means, from our vantage point in Oton, Boracay takes only four hours by car. No expensive plane flights nor worrisome ocean trips. So when our cousin Taboy who was vacationing from North Carolina had Boracay in his itinerary, the five of us—the hubby and me, my sister Bebita and her husband Raul and Taboy—packed up for a three-day sojourn. We four being Boracay veterans, we left the tourist's wow's and oh's to Raul who was a first-time visitor.

I remember in July 2000 after our Rivera clan reunion, the island resort was also a must in the itinerary. My daughters Rose, Randy, and Raileen have been to Boracay before, but they've been so enamored by the place they wanted to experience it one more time before going back to their jobs and homes in the States. Moreover, Rose and Randy wanted to show off to their “significant others,” Timothy Yee and David Dingus, the best of the islands, and of course, Boracay was it!

Considered as the Philippines' premier fiesta island, Boracay is where you can frolic on the sand under a noonday sun without burning your feet. The sand stays cool all hours you can lie on it and get a beautiful tan. This is one characteristic of Boracay one is hard put to find in any other beach, and I have been to some of the famous beaches in the world.

What are Cannes and Monaco with the lapping waters of the Mediterranean Sea, but Cannes for its film festivals and Monaco for the casino in Monte Carlo? We visited these tourist places in 1995 in the company of 25 other tourists whom the hubby and I had to convince to “come to my country and experience the most beautiful beach in the world.” There is South Padre Island in Brownsville, Texas where my daughter Raileen used to work as a pediatrician. South Padre boasts of high-rise hotels, horseback riding, and a lot of swimming in waters that is a far-cry from Boracay's crystal-clear. The much touted seas of the Caribbean Islands that we cruised in 2001 and 2003 just pale beside Boracay's powdery white sand. Last May before our departure for Inang Bayan, we went to famed Myrtle Beach in North Carolina and strolled the shoreline of South Carolina's Hilton Head Island where my daughter Randy practices as an internist. All those I've mentioned are no match to the Philippines' own premier fiesta island.

But give credit where credit is due: Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head are two of the cleanest beaches I've been to. In the cleanliness and orderliness criteria, Boracay is at the bottom of all those mentioned. Paging the Dept. of Tourism.

Even if the island has been cut to pieces by a sundry of developers, the surrounding seas continue to lure tourists, both local and foreign. The congestion of hotels, inns, cottages, restaurants, and talipapas has robbed the island of its natural beauty, but the seas pay off. Some of the time we were immersed in the water, the rain drizzled but the water was warm and Boracay was like a huge swimming pool, a haven to the swim-hungry. We did get our fill of sea, sand, and sky. But of course, Boracay is loveliest on summertime—when the wind is a breeze, the waves a whisper, and the sand at its whitest, when an evening walk on the cool sand under a canopy of stars and streaming moonbeams make for a romantic night.

We came on the onset of the rainy season in June when clouds hovered and stole the magnificent sunrise and sunset that had so enthralled us one summer. But let the tourists come—winter, spring, summer or fall, as the song goes. Be it dry or rainy season in our part of the world, Boracay is a place one can never have enough of. (Comments to juliaclagoc@yahoo.com )