I don't usually go to church to attend mass (don't tell my folks about this). Not that I'm an atheist or agnostic. I believe in God, I pray before eating, sleeping or before leaving the house. Just like a good Christian. But going to church on Sundays is something I rarely do. In fact, I only go to the holy house when I'm out of town and I happen to see an old church in the area I'm visiting. I really like my church to be serene and peaceful - and you can't find that in the metro during Sunday masses. So yeah, you can pretty much say that, that's one reason I stopped going to church.
To have some serenity and peace wasn't exactly the reason we wound our way up this hill overlooking the idyllic town of San Jose in Tarlac. I'm not sure whose idea was it either. After our fun whitewater kayaking, the group unanimously agreed to make a short detour at Monasterio de Tarlac, a religious monastery perched atop the mountain.
Synopsis: 14 young people who have an insatiable hunger for thrill and adventure went on a whitewater kayaking escapade in the scenic rivers of San Jose in Tarlac.
Idyllic town of San Jose
Location: San Jose, Tarlac
San Jose is considered as a fourth class municipality in the province of Tarlac in Central Luzon. It has a population of approximately thirty-two thousand with an economy that is dominantly agricultural. To get there from Manila, take a bus bound for Tarlac City then from the Central Terminal, hop on a jeepney to Barangay Villa Aglipay. The jump-off point of the whitewater kayaking is at Maamot, an idyllic barrio nestled up the mountain about a 30-minute ride from the town proper.
