On the Way Home

Hello everyone! When i started a 2nd blogspot, i relegated this to my travels. Circumstances however were not very favorable for me to do that, so this one got lagged while the other one has been so busy. It was assigned for the plants and biodiversity in my garden and nearby areas. Suffice it to say, i now just realized that it is almost one year that this has not been given any entry.  Maybe i just got too busy too because i can always  put some minor travels here. That is how i will start with my posts here again. 

I work in the big city which is just 3 hrs by bus from my house in the province. This travel time cannot materialize these days when our highways, streets and even expressways are normally full of transport vehicles. There are only a very short window on Saturday early mornings when i can travel home by bus at the shortest time of 4 hours. Most other days, we loose at least 5 hours inside the buses. At least the buses are comfortable with TV or music and passengers can recline seats and sleep. Most buses also have WiFi on board. 

One morning bus i took one Saturday morning is not full. It is a bit perplexing that only a few passengers are here. I was fascinated with the decorations inside the bus.

i like the pair of light filters with doggy in the basket

another pair of stuffed toy hanging at the side of the driver, aren't they cute.

We are at the middle of the rainy season so you can see all green everywhere, crops here are growing nicely with the regular rains.

above fields could be cassava plants, while at the back are still for planting

The STAR Tollway, the expressway direct to the Batangas International Port

the signboardd shows where we are going

above photo was shot last May, remnants of the dry season fire trees along the highway

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These fire trees, Delonix regia, is an introduced species but already naturalized here. It provides a colorful happy view on the otherwise all green landscape. It is a very welcome sight along the travel routes. Other highways also plant more of these for better vibes.

Tropical Highway Scenes

I am fond of taking photos while inside the bus going home to the province on Saturday mornings and returning to the big city again the following day. This time I make sure to sit on the left side of the bus for the sunset views. It is very difficult to take photos while the bus is in full speed at the highway, but i just keep on shooting, sometimes i get a few decent shots.

Akasya trees or raintree (Samanea saman) are towering above other vegetation in this side of the highway. It is untypical canopy for this tree, but they are regularly pruned to behave that way. Fruit trees below them need partial shading for proper growth and development. 

This is a scene in one of the toll gates. I like the combination of the  hedge colors here. 

 It would be very nice if the bus will just stop here for me to take nicer shots of this landscape. I love the white sugarcane flowers in the foreground. They glisten with the afternoon sun, but they gently sway with the wind, producing the blurry effects.

The sun here is already hiding beyond the tall bamboos. How i love to have a long zoom lens on the ground to take this scene. Never mind, a private car one of these days will solve this wish. 

I am joining Tina's PicStory to give them some deviation from the winter grey skies at the other side of the world. Our tropical skies seldom get grey in the whole year.

  

South Luzon Expressway

Going home to the province is always an exciting moment. I go home twice a month, and it is like an answered prayer when it coincides a long weekend. That means I can eat more home cooked food, organic vegetables from the property, fresh fish and whatever fruits are in season. Moreover, i can always be on the lookout shooting insects, spiders, larvae, plants, flowers, and whatever comes in front of me. It has been my preoccupation these past few weekends to search for small insects and spiders, as i mostly post in my other blogsite. It is timely, as butterflies don't seem to emerge these days. And most special among all these, is breathing freshly produced oxygen from our natural and plentiful oxygen generators. I hope the pollution in the city dwelling in my lungs can be displaced by the newly manufactured oxygen, fresh from the factory!

This is the decoration in front of the bus driver, together with the round mirror, and the view of the road. Maybe some of you recalls my previous post a few months back, when i also posted the decoration inside the bus. This time the bus has angels,  although the biggest angel is not fully shown in the photo. But the mirror easily shows the driver, the standing conductor and someone sitting near the driver, for lack of available seat. 

 The South Luzon Expressway is now continuous from Metro Manila to the Batangas International Port. It takes more or less two hours to drive this route, depending on the traffic situation or the weather condition. Rains surely slows down travel time. This highway brings you to the south of the Philippines if you prefer the land route. There are what we call "ro-ro vessels" (roll on-roll off) at the pier that takes your car in it, so you can drive your own car to the other islands and provinces south of the Philippines. There are also buses which do the same. The passengers get off from the buses while on the ship and board their bus again upon reaching land. This SLEX can even bridge your trip to Mindanao: Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon, etc, as well as Visayas: Tagbilaran, Tacloban, Cebu, etc. But most of the travelers are tourists to Puerto Galera, Mindoro; Romblon; Anilao, Mabini, Batangas at the least.

 I love looking at those white grass flowers swaying with the wind. Even the sugarcane fields produce the same kind of flowers and beauty.

 The greens on both sides of the highway and all throughout the journey is so relaxing for the eyes. I never sleep on the journey at all times, and I never tire looking at the beautiful scenery.

 The view of Mt Makiling is very special, as it seldom allows full view. Clouds normally cover its top. This mountain has a very special meaning for me, as our university where i studied and worked for sometime is at the foot of this on the other side. I also have reached the peak four times in the past when i was still in the university campus. It is still heavily forested because it is a national park and forest reserve. It contains a lot of representative biodiversity species of flora and fauna in the country, and some endemic species are found only here! I am sorry for the haze affected by the glass windows of the bus.

The smoke you see at the middle of the valley is from a factory in between the big mountain and the low hills in the foreground. And i would like to inform you this is a dormant volcano, only not erupting because of so many energy outlets at the foot. A big hot and boiling mudspring at the other side gets wider through time.

This tropical rainforest always reinforce its name, because it often rains at this part of the highway, even if other areas are very dry. When it is as clear as this, i always bring out the camera to try shooting even inside  the running bus. You can see the movement on the grasses in the foreground. I always savor this special uncommon scene of our beloved mountain, Mt Makiling.