JOURNEYS
Getting high in the City
I spent most of the week last week getting high. No, I’ve not ventured into substance abuse, ladies and gents. There’s no need to. I’ve stumbled into a potent concoction to achieve a kind of high that doesn’t get me to the clouds, but could very well let me see heart-shaped ones easily.
I found out that one of the effective ways to get high is to literally get high. This could be achieved by climbing to the top of a mountain (or a tree, it’s really up to you) or any high place from which you can look around and see the same old familiar surroundings with a fresh set of eyes.
An opportunity to get high presented itself just when I was starting to feel like I needed a change of venue.
One perfect-for-outdoor-pictorial afternoon last week, the photographer I was working with mentioned his desire to take photos of the Port of Iloilo. He wanted to take them from a place high enough to capture the usual activities in the port area and the winding contour of the Iloilo River. As it was quite impossible for me to produce a helicopter or a blimp to take us up in the sky for an aerial view, we considered our options. It took both of us about a second to agree on the best place—the Aduana Tower or the tower of the Customs House.
Upon getting the necessary go signal and guide, we headed for the stairs. On the way there, my eyes surveyed the interior of the building. I was struck by how majestic the vestibule was. The ceiling was high and the grand main hall had elaborate wrought iron divisions or gates. After a few flights of concrete stairs, we got to the landing where we had to climb using the slightly wobbly metal spiral stairs. Finally, we get to the top of the tower. I did a 360° check of the scenery. Not so far away were the Masonic Temple, San Jose Church and Plaza Libertad. Also seemingly within an arm’s reach were the former Eagle and Palace (now Regent) Theaters. Visible from a distance were the spires and the dome of the gothic-renaissance Molo Church. What was especially breathtaking for me was the view from the part that faces the harbor. Added drama was given by a red tugboat that glided against the current of the river.
While my photographer friend occupied himself capturing moments with his cameras, I busied myself being high. The high I got was due to a combination of many things. It was my first time to get in and climb to the topmost part of the neo-classical Customs House. I got to see the City Proper and Lapaz districts of Iloilo City and the Guimaras Island from a whole new viewpoint. It gave me a sense of how things might have been during the time when the Customs House was built in the early 1900s, and the time when it was highly talked about. The typical and ordinary port scenes that one usually sees from the ground seemed special and interesting again. While at the Customs House, I caught myself doing many things for the first time. It was not part of the plan to pay a visit to the Aduana Tower, but it ended up to be the best part of the day.
I had another experience climbing up a tower two days later when, not out of a stringent plan, the same photographer-friend and I got the chance to go up the Jaro Belfry. This time, we had to climb several flights of stairs that were thickly carpeted with bat droppings. I had a similar feeling of delight as the one I had during the Aduana Tower visit (and no, the high was not because I was inhaling the ammonia-perfumed air the whole time). Joking aside, though, I felt extremely lucky that I had the chance to go up two towers in a week. I had double the high. I got double the number of new experiences for that week. That worked for me, as I try to make it a point to do at least one new thing each day. The best way to achieve that, I found, is to be open to possibilities of a detour in day-to-day journeys and be aware as things and events play themselves out. That way, even familiar and common things and events can have a chance to be seen from a different, and perhaps better, perspective.