LAKE CALIRAYA

[Photo: Caliraya Lake]

Laguna Travel Guide describes Lake Caliraya this way: “Interestingly, Lake Caliraya in Laguna is a man-made lake situated in three towns - Lumban, Cavinti and Kalayaan. In 1937,  US Army Engineers created Lake Caliraya by flooding the Cavinti valley of Sierra Madre in order to generate hydroelectric power for Metro Manila. Entrepreneurs then saw the potential of the area and built two communities as ecological destinations where one can enjoy nature's unspoiled beauty. The man-made lake covers partly submerged land areas and this resulted to numerous islands complete with coves. These islands are now built with vacation houses, private villas, and resorts.”

October 26, 2011. Our community went up to Caliraya for our semestral break outing. There are two routes to Caliraya: via Rizal and via Laguna. The same Laguna Travel Guide gives the following directions for those wanting to take the Laguna route: “Take last exit to Calamba (via SLEX), turn right to Calamba Junction towards Los Banos all the way to Pagsanjan Church. Turn left passing through to Palacol Bridge going toward Barangay Bagong Silang and start ascent to Caliraya Lake.”

Although our starting point was Canlubang , the trip was a bit long. On the upside the roads were generally good, except for some portions on the way up to the lake. Since it was still early and the weather was cool and inviting, we decided to take a breather along the last leg of the journey and take pictures. (With the advent of digital cameras, photography has been democratized and you cannot claim something happened unless you are able to provide pictures to back it up.)

The scenery before us was nothing but one of peace and quiet, broken only by the occasional rustling of leaves and the happy chirping of birds—until we came. The countless picture-taking, individual and group shots, was accompanied by a Babel of voices—“Let’s take a picture here.” “Take a second shot.” “1, 2, 3, smile!” “Here. Take the camera. I want to have my picture taken, too.” And before we left, someone reminded us about the obligatory jumping shot.

The resort we went to was called Caliraya Paradise. It was leased to a Korean couple who happened to be Catholics. The resort was clean, well-kept and had large open spaces. An added bonus. We had the resort to ourselves. Perhaps, it was because it was a weekday. On the second day of our stay a family did come, a couple and their daughter. We learned that they were the owners of the Rudy Project business. But they did not stay long. They left sometime after lunch.

I appreciated spending our semestral break at Caliraya Paradise. I wanted the escape to a place that was peaceful, quiet and isolated. That’s the way I get my batteries recharged.

Lent is a time for re-charging our batteries. It is a time for getting re-energized. In religious terms, lent is a 40-day retreat meant to make us fit and strong for spiritual combat. Just like the Master who went to the desert to do battle against Satan and came out victorious, so also we enter the Lenten season in the hope of victory against the evil desires the pull our hearts away from God.

These are the traditional Lenten practices that are available to us for this spiritual combat: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. They have to be understood in broad terms. Prayer is taking time out for God. It is sharing with God what’s happening in our minds (share with him our thoughts) and in our hearts (share with him our feelings). Fasting is not just about food. It is about depriving ourselves of things that we like in order to strengthen our capacity to say “no” to temptation. If we are able to say “no” to smoking during Lent, it is highly probable that we can say “no” to temptation. Almsgiving is not just about giving something to beggars, although this is stressed in the Bible. It is also about any act of kindness.

The Ash Wednesday ritual is accompanied by the words “Turn away from your sins and believe in the Gospel.” If we do turn away from sin, where do we turn? We turn to God. Turning away from sin in order to turn to God is what we usually call conversion. But I prefer the expression “pagbabalik loob sa Diyos” (reconciling with God). And to me, this is the highlight of Lent. And this we celebrate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Lent, therefore, would be seriously incomplete with going to confession.