A Short Trip Down Memory Lane: Baguio City

It was six long years before I got this rare opportunity to return to the Philippines. To make the most of it, I revisited the Baguio of my youth to once again whiff that distinct pine scent and breathe that cool Philippine mountain air. Fortunately, there were two days between the President’s Dinner for UPAA Awardees on Aug. 14 and the formal Awards Ceremony on Aug. 17.

It’s now so accessible with just 3.5 hours of driving after the TLEX (Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union Expressway) was added to the old NLEX (Norther Luzon Expressway) from QC to Pampanga. Five BFFs joined my daughter, my eight-year-old grandson, and me. We rented a 12-seater van cum driver for a little over $300.

The Trip Up/First Dinner

The predominantly senior group prioritized food-tripping. Just an hour into our trip, we stopped at Lakeshore, the last gas stop at the end of NLEX. For only P299 ( $5) per person, one BFF treated us to a breakfast buffet of Filipino favorites. (see headline photo)

An hour before Baguio, we stopped at the foothills of the Cordillera Mountain Range. Naguilian, La Union, was my father’s hometown and is the entrance to the zigzaggy Kennon Road. Later, the canyon waterfalls gushed for us. But we didn’t stop at the iconic Lion’s Head, which was swarming with tourists.

We reached Baguio at lunchtime, so we went straight to the popular Fil-Chinese institution of good affordable food: Good Taste. We binged on the not-so-crispy pata, a great lomi, and their bestseller buttered chicken, the treat of another BFF.

Next, we checked in at the Forest Lodge, the midscale option of Camp John Hay, a military base for the US Armed Forces until its turnover to the Philippine government in 1991. The sprawling camp has become a tourist destination with lodging, restaurants, shopping, and entertainment.

The day ended with a fine dining experience at Hill Station, courtesy of a third BFF. The popular restaurant is in Casa Vallejo, a pre-WWII structure with a log cabin interior. We ordered appetizers to start but the combination of paella, sangria, and canonigo at the end will be long remembered.  

The Big Baguio Day

We started our Big Baguio Day with Filipino favorites and the legendary thick cup of chocolate at Chocolate de Batirol. It was my turn to treat everyone to this popular garden-type eatery within the Camp, which is very near our hotel.

After breakfast we made a nostalgic trip to nearby Teachers’ Camp, a teacher training center and events venue established in 1907 by Americans and turned over to the Philippine government in 1988. We inspected a select cottage reserved for upper management since a BFF’s son is now Undersecretary of the Department of Education. 

It brought back fond memories of our family summer vacations when my mother was the Principal of the government-owned Philippine School for the Deaf and the Blind. She had a week’s use of a standard cottage every year.

The next stop was Mirador Hill where the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto was established in the early 1900s. Without a car, my mother always had us climb the 200+ steps to reach it. This time, however, our van took us up the hill via a narrow zigzag road. The views of Baguio City from the Grotto are exceptional.

My daughter took my grandson to Mines View Park to shop for souvenirs and a photo-op with the Giant Dog. It surprised us to find another Giant Dog at the junction of Wright Park and the Mansion House. The huge St. Bernard is a nice addition to these two standard first stops for every Baguio visitor.

Five kilometers away at the entry to La Trinidad, Benguet where we used to pick strawberries from the farms is the now famous StoBoSa Valley of Colors. Built-in 2016 by the Tam-awa Villagers, the area of about 150-200 houses has been transformed into a small version of the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro. StoBoSa is short for three sitios: Stonehill, Botiwtiw, and Sadjap.

SM Baguio is part of the SM national chain of supermalls. Although it was opened in 2003, I didn’t have the chance to see it before I left in mid-2004. It’s located at the upper end of the main artery of the city Session Road. With its floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the legendary Burnham Park, Vizco’s was a good place for a late-light lunch. The Park was where, as a young girl, I helped my father paddle the swan boats on its man-made lake and rode the play bikes around its perimeter!

Baguio Country Club was our next stop to feel its upscale surroundings and bring home its bakeshop’s famous raisin bread.  Back at Camp John Hay, we met up with my daughter and grandson who had gone horseback riding around the Lodge.

Our farewell dinner was at the Camp John Hay Clubhouse courtesy of a former BIR Commissioner and friend whose husband was playing in a Camp golf tournament. It was Friday evening, so there was a band. That occasioned singing and dancing, a great way to end our short nostalgic stay in Baguio.  

Last Breakfast/The Trip Down

The morning after, the last BFF treated us to a hefty breakfast at Le Chef, the Lodge Diner. But we had to hurry to leave since we all had to be at the Awards Ceremony at 4 pm. We made it back by 1 pm, with a short burger stop, giving us plenty of time. 

I love this trip I got to do with my BFFs and part of my family. We got to eat a lot of great food. We didn’t encounter the horrendous traffic I had read about, and nostalgia was everywhere. The new additions did not distract us from the Baguio of my youth.  

3 WAYS YOU CAN KEEP FIT EVEN WHILE YOU’RE ON THE GO

dancing in Sedona

Health issues became a nagging problem when my husband and I RVed full-time.  Cardiovascular problems plagued Bill while gastrointestinal and other stress-related conditions hounded me.  Mesmerized by America’s beauty, we were always on the go, forgetting to keep fit. We should have paid more attention to it in three areas: exercise, food intake, and healthcare.

 Regular Exercise

Before our RV cruising days, we went to the gym regularly. However, campground fitness facilities proved inconsistent when we started our cross-continent runs. We thought hiking would be our main regimen, but many times hordes of mosquitoes feasted on us! And it was either too cold or too hot. And, even if sightseeing meant plenty of walking, it was only strolling.

 Over time, we learned that we just had to do at least two of the following or suffer the consequences. When Fitbits became popular, we aimed to do at least 6,000 steps a day.

 1.      Play a sport for at least 30 minutes five times a week. Choose from available facilities: table tennis, billiards, mini-golf, golf, tennis, and pickleball. Or dance!

 3.       Exercise for at least 30 minutes, five times a week, gym or no gym. YouTube offers many exercise videos. We like Jennifer McClendon.

 2.       Walk for 30 minutes at least five times a week after dinner.

 Healthy Food Intake

 During our early cruising days in our smaller RV, we would cut up a lot of veggies and fruits and have nuts available for snacking on, with lots of water to wash them down, while we moved from place to place. When we settled at campgrounds longer, nesting in a bigger RV, we began to cook more meals. Loving to try local cuisine, we succumbed to heartier eating.

 When the Blue Zones became well-known, we went into a modified Longevity Diet: more vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and fruits, regularly adding fish and seafood, and occasionally, chicken, pork, or beef. We had to make the following rules:

 1.       Eat one big meal a day, preferably lunch, and two other small ones or just two regular meals, late breakfast and early dinner.

 2.       Graze throughout the day with light morning, afternoon, and evening snacks, such as nuts, fruits, or vegetables.

 3.       Eat out infrequently, preferably only during an occasion for celebration, and compensate with smaller meals the rest of the day when we do.

 In addition, we discovered two novel ways of skipping a meal at least once a week. One is to have a popcorn lunch while watching a movie in the theater. The other is to lunch with free Costco food samples when we shop for supplies.

 When we started to travel the world after our RVing phase, we stayed in our timeshare units. They always have kitchens, enabling shopping at local groceries, where there are many goodies we don’t find in stores back home, and cooking new and exciting local fare.

 Beginning in 2019, we converted our El Cid timeshares in Mexico to be all-inclusive. Instead of encouraging us to eat more, we became smart and upped our resolve with buffets' abundant seafood, vegetable, and fruit choices.   

 Preventive Healthcare

 At the beginning of our full-time RVing, we forgot about preventive healthcare. Later we became snowbirds and settled our RV in Phoenix every winter. It was the smartest decision we ever made. There is excellent care for seniors because of the high population of retired and visiting seniors. Arizona ranks #15 among the 50 states in terms of elderly care. It is one of the reasons we chose to settle here permanently. We found an excellent family doctor who keeps track of regular screens and refers us to the best specialists needed.

 We travel less now but the habits we formed have stayed with us. With regular exercise, healthy food intake, and consistent preventive healthcare, we look forward to some travel, even past our 70s and 80s.                                                                                                          

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Becoming an American without Losing My Roots, Part 2

I had to renounce my Filipino citizenship when I took my oath as a US citizen. It was a heartbreaking technicality.   

Although having lived here for almost 20 years, I must admit I have changed. My dancing turned from disco and ballroom to country and rock, my singing from pop to country, and my clothes from blouses and skirts to tank tops and shorts. My kitchen is shifting from cooking pancit and lumpia to grilling steaks and baking pies. My everyday conversation has become American English, not Tag-lish. 

Still, my sixty years of Filipino upbringing are a solid foundation. I felt lost when I was thrust into a largely white community of RVers, meeting only a handful of African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American couples in eight years. Even in Viewpoint’s thousands of households, there are only three Filipinos.

When I am with kababayans, I readily shift to Tagalog because that is how I think. That’s why I can confuse genders. Tagalog words, except for those that connote respect like kuya for older brother and ate, older sister, are the same. Son or daughter is anak; wife or husband, asawa; brother or sister, kapatid. Speaking in Tagalog will always be easier for me.

I miss authentic Filipino food, too. A sandwich is not a complete meal because there’s no rice. Pan de sal (bread) is only for snacks or breakfast. The Philippine mango is still my favorite fruit. And I will never erase the fact that my skin is brown, and my nose is small. Nor do I want to change any of these.

When I meet Filipinos worldwide who are sacrificing not being with their families to eke out dollars to send home, I identify with the homesickness. And I take pride in Filipino triumphs and feel compassion for Filipino difficulties.  Those will always be my automatic impulses.

But there is a deep kinship between the Philippines and America. We share the Pacific Ocean and with it, the treacherous Pacific Ring of Fire. Spain colonized the American Southwest and the Philippines at the same time. Filipino nurses, teachers, and seamen are part of US hospitals, schools, and ships. And July 4 is doubly meaningful for, on that day in 1946, the US gave us our independence, 170 years after she got her own.

There are also big differences. The Philippines is a tropical archipelago of 7,641 islands while the US is more of a vast contiguous temperate landmass. Plants and wildlife are different. The wide vistas of the Great Plains, the desert landscape of the Southwest, and the glaciers of Alaska are so different from what I knew as a child.

At first, I despaired for my homeland when I saw that American systems are much more developed. But no more. The Philippines is only 78 years old; the US is already 248. And it was America who laid the foundation for Philippine highways, schools, and public administration. There is reason, time, and room to grow!

I will not be able to recapture the life I left in the Philippines. Other people are not as clannish as those with Spanish heritage like us. Sometimes friendships we build here move far away to different states or countries. The good news is that America is moving away from being a melting pot. Pockets of people can preserve their traditions and cultures, except when you marry into another culture like I did.

When I learned that the Philippines is one of the few countries where the US allows dual citizenship, I heaved a sigh of relief. But the nearest Philippine Consulate was in Los Angeles so it took me two years to get the chance to do it. On Oct. 13, 2013, I re-pledged my loyalty to my native land and became a Filipino-American.  

I did not get boiled into a thick soup melting in the pot. Instead, I got included in a colorful chunky stew, contributing to the taste, but retaining enough of my shape, color, and flavor. In this privileged perch, I see my developing homeland from the perspective of my developed home base. I have an enviable dual mission: helping the Philippines as an American and contributing to America as a Filipino.

Becoming an American without Losing My Roots, Part 1

where the "shot heard round the world" was fired: Lexington, Massachusetts

This story began way back when I was born. My father was a soldier who fought alongside Americans against the Japanese on Philippine soil in WWII.  My mother was sent to America on a Philippine government scholarship to study the latest in deaf education and to bring it back to the Philippines. Both infected me with their love for America.

Getting a high school scholarship to the American School fueled the addiction. Training by American multinationals after college further stirred the pot. I almost relocated to the US when Philippine democracy and economy were in tatters during the fall of Marcos. It was, therefore, no accident that I came to America to retire. On Valentine’s Day 2011, I became a US citizen.

Early in our RV cruising days, I unequivocally saw America's beauty. I was mesmerized by spectacular national parks like Glacier Bay, Denali, Mt. Rainier, Yosemite, Sequoia, Joshua Tree, Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountain, Badlands, Everglades, Smokey Mountain, Acadia, etc. I began to sing the song, "America, the Beautiful."

When we drove up the East Coast from Florida, I lingered in the solemn halls of Washington DC, Baltimore in Maryland, Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and Boston and Concord in Massachusetts. These cities played significant roles in the birth of this great nation. I began to hum "The Star-Spangled Banner." 

In no uncertain terms, I was starting to feel like an American. I felt sad as I walked along the Civil War battlegrounds, proud when I gazed at awesome NASA rockets, inspired among the ancient ruins and great houses of American Indians, and more. I knew the conversion was final when I began to take pride.

The technical difference between a US permanent resident and a naturalized citizen is that the latter can vote (or run for an elected post office). I cast my vote for the first time in the 2012 presidential elections. It was amazing to watch as more than 300 million people accepted the results broadcast by the press with polling centers in Hawaii and Alaska still open.

There are other systems to love. They say that there are more libraries than McDonald’s stores in America. Every county issued library cards to us even if we would only be in the area for a few weeks. The largest national highway system in the world made road trips so easy. Through Bill’s $10 Senior Golden Pass, we have visited, for free, 31 National Parks, 92 National Monuments and National Historic Sites, and both national parkways.

I have visited 31 of the forty-six American Presidents’ homes, tombs, and/or presidential libraries; even the homes of their first ladies. We came across larger-than-life heroes, brave pioneers, cultural icons, and lay and church leaders. I was inspired by Americans who came and fulfilled their dreams. Visits to the homes and tombs of literary greats gave me the final nudge to start writing.

We have been to the largest and the smallest of towns, the poorest of counties and the wealthiest of states, and everything in between. Some of America’s man-made structures and natural formations are among the tallest, the biggest, or the longest in the world. There are those that you cannot find anywhere else. We visited factories of products made in America and headquarters of noble institutions that serve the world. It was cool to discover that we had been to half of the suggested places in the July 2014 article in Readers’ Digest, “A Quirky Tour of the US.”

My American education was an intravenous transfusion, not just an injection. I am no longer a Filipino tourist or a permanent resident. I am not even just a US citizen. I am an American. But to be a US citizen, I had to surrender my Philippine citizenship. Did this mean I ceased to be a Filipino? The answer is in Part 2.

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Every Traveler Heavily Depends on Great Transportation Infrastructure

Born in the slums of Manila near the railroad tracks, my favorite mode of transportation had been the vintage jeepney that became popular after the war. Since I migrated to the US, RVed the continent, and traveled the world, I have experienced other transportation infrastructure that serves each traveler well. Here are the best and our favorites: the roads of America and the railways of Europe.

The Great North American Road Network

Our eight years of RVing full-time in the US, Canada, and Mexico gave us great experiences on the great North American road network. The largest component is the US highway system, the most extensive in the world. Today it constitutes about 165,000 miles of roads. 90% of US tourist traffic is carried in the system.

This is complemented north of the US by the Trans-Canada Highway, Canada’s transcontinental federal-provincial system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Atlantic in the east. The main road spans 4,860 miles across the country, one of the longest of its type in the world.

And, in the south, the roadway network in Mexico also does not disappoint, especially with the concretization of Hwy 15 that connects to Arizona. There are 72,577 paved miles, making it the largest paved network in Latin America, 6,508 miles of which are multi-lane expressways, including six-lane ones.

This great North American road system is complemented by a network of campgrounds and motels/hotels that provide lodging options with no equal in the world. Road travel in America is ultra-convenient. In addition, RV models range from small camper vans to huge luxury motorhomes. We also experienced the same satisfaction in the Australian road network.  

The Reliable European Railway System

The European Railway system consists of the following:

Tier One: Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and France.

Tier Two: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, the Czech Republic, Norway, Belgium, and Italy.

 

Tier Three: Lithuania, Slovenia, Ireland, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Bulgaria.

 

We have used all seven in the Tier One systems, six of the eight Tier Two, and three of the ten Tier Three. We especially loved our train travels through Llubijana and Bled in Slovenia, Vienna, Salzburg, and Innsbruck in Austria, Munich and Oberstaufen in Germany, St. Gallen in Switzerland, Vaduz in Lichtenstein, Paris in France, and Brussels in Belgium. We covered all of that in four weeks and a half.

We have tried economy and first-class trains, taking us to small towns and big cities. The rail network is seamlessly interconnected to buses, taxis, and Ubers. Not a single train ride was late or canceled. The stations were sometimes airport-like in the big cities. In the small towns, quaint little shops are built around them as walking malls. I love train travel in Europe.

Bill did, too, because he did not have to worry about driving and enjoyed the scenic views of country and city life that unfolded before us: dwarf apple trees, tiny garden sheds, rolling hillsides, etc. Sometimes, the wide windows can even be opened for a better camera shot. We enjoyed the bars and dining cars, too. I even found comfort food for my upset tummy on a train ride between Innsbruck and Vienna.  Trains were certainly better than driving rental cars on the other lane and on narrow roads of the UK.  

The airline industry has successfully introduced more flights and even budget ones in Europe and the US. They are getting popular, too. But my husband and I will always prefer to travel across America by road and Europe by train!

I

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Inner Journey #1: Becoming a Wife Without Losing Your Identity

Right before I met Bill, I was again caught in the web of a driven life in America. Aside from babysitting a grandson, I was teaching in three schools of higher learning and volunteering to counsel small businesses for the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). I felt doomed; I was truly not wife-material! 

Enter a knight in shining armor. Bill was almost as driven as I was. He had been President/CEO of a national printing solutions company, board director for the Document Management Industry Association, active in church and politics, and owner of a printing franchise. Early in 2007 we “fashionably” met on the Net and at 8 pm on 08/08/08, we married on Champagne Lady, a private cruise ship, on Washington’s Lake Union. We cruised together to a life of cruising in an RV. 

We crossed the continent in a whirlwind, from Canada to Mexico and all over the US. It became an extended honeymoon. But in the mainly white RV communities of campgrounds, I met only one Asian, a Hispanic couple, and a few African Americans in almost five years. So different from my homeland, the lifestyle was fatal for the Filipina in me. I longed for a familiar social support system. At first, each scenic sight became a coping mechanism. But soon I wanted to throw out the pillow we bought at the Palm Springs Villagefest. It said, “We get along in our RV ‘cuz we have no room to disagree!” 

All couples disagree. John Gottman's bestseller The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work says that 69% of a couple’s problems will never go away because most disagreements are rooted in fundamental differences. Dan Wile said it another way in his book After the Honeymoon: “When choosing a long-term partner… you will inevitably be selecting a particular set of unsolvable problems that you’ll be grappling with for the next ten, twenty, or fifty years.”  

For us, that 69% statistic may as well be 96%! We met with values and habits very set and with personal, gender, and cultural differences to boot. I found out that I was way more driven than he was. He had patience, I didn’t. We increasingly had fights and we weren’t doing it right. Another best seller by John Gottman (with wife Julie Fight Right was published in Nov. 2023. It could have helped us turn conflict into connection. 

On January 2013 after New Year’s Day, Bill left me in Seattle with my daughter and he went to his son in Boise. During tough times, I usually bury my attention on something else. That was when my first book, Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream, was born. It reaffirmed who I was as a person. When Bill came back on Valentine’s Day, we were able to see that neither had to change himself/herself. We found out that we still shared our passion for travel (Lesson #5). We just had to change our circumstances (Lesson #9) and go on to a new phase of discovering the world. 

After a survey of the Southwest, in October of the same year, we settled on Viewpoint Golf Resort in Mesa, Arizona as a base. I have been to thirty-five countries from that base, he was with me in twenty-five. Four years later, our base was no longer a parked RV. He carried me over the threshold. It was a thrilling first experience, at 69!    

We were assured that we had a good level of compatibility with 7 Qs (Lesson #8): intelligence, morals, finance, religion, politics, and desirability.  My tremendous luck is that he is a man with a high emotional quotient. He had a twenty-nine-year marriage that ended only because she passed on due to cancer. My first lasted ten; the second, two. 

Bill’s consistent request was for me to view the totality of the relationship, not any specific situation, certainly not the moment, and not to withdraw every time there was a difficulty (Lesson#3). I learned how to stay, without losing my identity. It was the deep respect we had for each other, being similarly accomplished, that made us stay and remain committed (Lesson #10).

Last August, we renewed our vows on our fifteenth anniversary (headline photo) on the island of Oahu in the presence of our families. My inner journey to becoming a wife is complete.  

Next Week: How to Stay Young as Late as Possible: The Longevity Diet Part 1

Celebrating Cruising Past Seventy in These Trying Times

Today is the day after Thanksgiving in the unusual year of 2020. Coronavirus cases are increasing exponentially in the dreaded second wave. Hospitals are again getting filled to capacities. And travel seems farther off into the future. Still, I am thankful for a couple of things. On Nov. 25, I turned 72. And my second travel book, Cruising Past Seventy. It’s Not Only about Outer Journeys. It’s Also about Inner Ones, was released by Amazon as a paperback on Nov. 24 and as an ebook on Nov. 28.* 

I know that the title is too long. Actually, it should have been Cruising Past Covid. This is because, one, I finished it while on lockdown. Two, I have an important chapter
entitled “Travel during the Time of Coronavirus,” espousing six safe travel rules based on CDC guidelines. But these weren't enough to change the title to the shorter version.

Lessons Learned, Changes Made, and Insights Gained

It is because, although I may not have intended it at the start, the book came out as very relevant for these trying times. We may not have the opportunity to make “outer” journeys but I know that we have a treasure trove of “inner” journeys inside us. The last paragraph of the book says it best: “Even if we are traveling less, we can look back at past trips, and look forward to future ones. And, from each trip we make, let us build our books of lessons learned, changes made, and insights gained.”

These are the three themes I discovered as I compiled all my best-loved and most widely-read posts from this blog after the first 250 that was the foundation for my first travel book, Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream. In this new travel book, Part 1 describes the lessons we learned from eight years of RVing across North America. Part 2 details the changes I went through from those days and also from our travels to forty-eight countries outside the continent. And Part 3 summarizes the insights I gained from all our trips about common travelers’ concerns. These inner journeys are the best gifts and the deep and long-lasting benefits of travel.

As an interesting note, the second part of the book’s last paragraph goes on to say: “The secret has been and will always be simple. Do not deny your traveler’s soul. Let it roam free. And eat lots of chicken wings and, if possible, also chicken feet.” Those two glorious chicken parts are the foundation of my traveler’s soul: chicken wings with which to fly the skies and chicken feet with which to roam the land. I intend to go back to eating more of them when travel will be more open for us.

chicken wings and chicken feet

Aging Gracefully and Shifting Gears

Seventy-two years is the approximate average life span of a Filipina, a female from the Philippines (which is what I am). But after I migrated to the US in 2004 and became an American in 2011, you can see that I am still alive and quite healthy at that. The average life span of an American woman is about eighty-four. Perhaps I have added twelve years to my life, just like that. And having more years means a longer period to age gracefully.

I may have to give up my tank tops and short shorts, as my husband has been urging me to do. But, as a traveler, it means shifting gears to a lower level, or downshifting. This is the overarching theme of the book. There is an acceptance of time getting shorter, energy becoming less, and even money no longer coming in. How do we travel more gracefully?

Mother Teresa's Chapel in Skopje, MacedoniaAdd caption

My bucket list has become shorter now. My husband and I have begun to scrutinize a destination against a higher bar of “Is it a case of been there; done that?” We have become more selective because we want to travel more comfortably and conveniently, even if not stylishly. I have given up the dream of visiting every country. We have even agreed that some adventures may have already passed us. But there are some more explorations to be made and certainly more pilgrimages to be done.

So I thank the universe for all the blessings, celebrate not only aging but also traveling gracefully, and offer my new travel book to all travelers like us.

*Available on Amazon: ebook at $2.99; paperback, $8.99 https://tinyurl.com/y22sfwds

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Through Our Hugely Important Eyes

"Almost nothing need be said when you have eyes,” Tarjei Vesaas, The Boat in the Evening

Except in little posts like this with a few images. As travelers and bloggers, we know how hugely important our eyes are. They give us both the details and the grandeur of each landmark we visit. Then they help us put the thrills and excitement into a few words and images. So I had always hoped that I would enjoy the benefits of good eyesight until the day I die. Last year, however, I turned 70. And soon after, age-related problems started to catch up with me.

Last July, while I was on a five-week road trip. during mass in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, I noticed that, when I closed my left eye, the priest seemed so far away. It was scary. When I tried to read the words of the gospel songs projected on the screen, the letters were all distorted. That was scarier. I called my eye doctor in Phoenix, Arizona and told the clinic that, if I had to, even if I still had two weeks left on my road trip, I would go back. The nurse practitioner said that the doctor was not available until two weeks anyway. But she warned that if I see flashes of light, I should go to an emergency room right away. That was scariest.

When we got back to Phoenix, the doctor immediately referred me to a retinal specialist. His diagnosis: a full-thickness (Stage III) macular hole in my right eye. (The macula is the part of the retina responsible for detailed central vision). He ordered a vitrectomy and membrane peel. It is a delicate surgery that involves the suctioning of the vitreous fluid from the eye, repairing the hole with tiny instrumentation, and placing a gas bubble to allow the hole to close and heal and the fluid to refill the eye. There was only one catch. The four-month recovery period includes the first to second week must be done face-down. This is key to keeping the hole closed but anyone who knows me would say that is an impossible task for this Queen of Impatience. But that was the hand I was dealt. 

Vitrectomy Support Equipment

It is good that a company now rents out a Vitrectomy Support Equipment for $189 a week. It is a chair that allows face-down positioning to be bearable, even somewhat comfortable, seated or when taken apart, lying down. However, the surgery, which should have been done immediately the week after the retinal specialist saw me,  would have prevented me from flying (or even driving anywhere with an elevation greater than 4.000 feet, for three to four months because the atmospheric pressure may reopen the hole. Because I had to be in San Francisco Aug. 30-Sept.2, the surgery was

face-down recovery

to Sept. 4, the day after I come back,

The special chair arrived the day before we left so that I could have more time to set it up and get accustomed to it. My husband had it ready for me in no time. It even came with a system of reflecting mirrors so that I can watch TV face-down. That accessory let me enjoy the US Open from Round 1 to the Finals which my favorite Nadal won.

On the morning of Sept. 4, I was wheeled into the pre-operating room. My BP shot up to 160/85. It was a good thing that, when the anesthesia was delivered to my IV port, I fell into the twilight zone immediately. When I woke up, my husband was at my side, getting all the post-operation instructions and absolutely ready to take me home. We were ecstatic to find out that my face-down recovery was needed for only five days instead of ten.

Then the unimaginable happened. I survived the first day of face-down recovery on my chair and slept on my left side with my nose down. It required lots of discipline. But on the second to the fifth days, things became increasingly unbearable. My back started to hurt more and more. I could not sleep without the help of Xanax which my family doctor allowed me to take, together with Tylenol for the pain. 

Vitrectomy support equipment

My Facebook posts gathered hundreds of prayer warriors but it was my husband who was my angel. He gave me my round-the-clock medications and eye-drops. He kept me supplied with Redbox movies, his signature grilled cheese sandwiches,  fresh yellow flowers, and Ben & Jerry’s chocolate therapy ice cream (I finished five pints). Another angel-friend prepared additional dishes for me even if her house was very far from ours.

In short, I was well taken care of. But the boredom nearly killed me because I could not read well. After six weeks, when no further improvement in vision was expected, my optometrist took measurements for new glasses. I had read that patients usually improve to 20/40 but sometimes end up with 20/50 (20/20 is best). My bad luck is that I got stuck at 20/60. The hole repair unluckily left more scarring than expected. I now read with 12-14 font text against the brightest display.  And the distortion could not be eliminated.

But I am happy I did not lose my right eye's central vision. Statistics show that if you develop ailments in one, the other eye would follow, too. Our diet is now focused on eye health. I had eliminated eggs after my husband's cardiovascular problems, but I brought them back because they are great for our eyes. He also suffers from macular degeneration. And I have doubled our intake of fruits and vegetables, reducing meats at the same time. They are rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants needed by the macula. Also important are foods like walnuts, wild-caught fish, and other foods that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. 

Our eyes are hugely important, especially for travel-bloggers like us. I had intended to release my second book before the end of this year but now I think I will only be able to do it next year, a full five years from the time I published my first. This compilation of not only obvious but also inner journeys is being completed while I am under this difficult adjustment period. It's hard to put into paper my thoughts. It's even harder to process the raw images from my camera. But the difficulty also makes me more highly introspective. So I promise to make it extra special with these new eyes.

As Marcel Proust once said: "The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes."

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