Sunset at Caliraya and Other Wonderful Sights at Cavinti, Laguna

It's officially summer! While this memory I'm sharing is still from the month of hearts, I still want to have this story told (or shown as might be the case) just because it provided me a much-needed respite from the city bustle and gave me the chance to appreciate the beauty of nature once more.

Caliraya Lake

Heads up to those of you who may have started to read this post. There's not much going on in this story since we mostly spent it snapping away at all the beautiful places we were passing by. So if some of these pictures look blurry, I apologize. They were taken in a fast-moving car, with a digital camera but mostly with a camera phone. I still think we managed to get decent pictures, so you may enjoy the rest of this photo album if you still want to see more.

After our Hulugan Falls trek, we took lunch, found our way to our accommodation, took a much needed bath despite the cold weather and all fell into an involuntarily slumber. Until 3 hours later that is, when we all woke up to prepare for the next destination.

I can still recall the ache of getting out of bed (I was on the top bunk of a double deck) and having to dress up to go out was a chore. We walked slowly and we looked funny as we navigated the tall flight of stairs to get down and out of the house and then tried to jump through puddles to get into the car. We walked and struggled quite a bit and I bet the neighbors who saw us were amused and wondered what kind of beating we took to move like robots or they might have thought we were riddled with arthritis at such a young age.

Since we were physically tired from the morning's trek, we wanted a relaxing activity to finish the day and so we opted to watch the sunset at Caliraya. But we were also treated to a lot of scenic spots along the way and so we scrambled (with both mobile camera and digital camera) to snap whatever we could -- picturesque sites that made us want to keep them in our memories forever.

Here are some of the results of our enthusiasm and shaky hands.

Clumps of greenery as we rushed by.

More greenery but really relaxing to the eyes.

A view of the mountain peeping through palm trees.

This looks like a diorama but this is an actual place.

Green meadows, the mountain in the distance and blue sky.

A house with a red roof makes this scene so picturesque.

A view of the lake from the far side of the bridge.

A close view of the lake from the bridge.

A scene out of  a post card beside the hi-way.

Our view of the setting sun.

Just makes us feel thankful for being able to appreciate another day.

A closer look at the warm shades of sunset.

One last burst of brightness before enveloping everything in shadow.

The road back home now in shadows.

We had an awesome time watching the sunset on a hill with the lake just across the hi-way from us. Although the pictures look warm, it was really cool and windy but the sun provided a nice warmth that compelled us to leave our jackets in the car.

There's something almost final about a sunset. But knowing that we'll see the sun again makes it a symbol of things yet to come which makes goodbyes kind of beautiful too.