Turumpo
Turumpo is made of wood, a tiny a cone-shaped toy that can be made to spin.
Homemade kite or saranggola. Since we were poor, ours was made of plastic grocery bags, some bamboo and "sinulid" or nylon.
Here are Aparrianos playing sungka. Photo courtesy of adegarcia@wordpress.com.
Mind you, this is the real one. In the full moon, dark night and vast neighborhood to roam and hide. You see, in my little paradise, you can still see the sky, as bright as it should be, without any sky pollution... you know, those annoying satellites, too many airplanes hovering and giant billboards. I love taguan or hide and seek. It is so much fun! Then you can go to sleep soundly after that.
"Tagu taguan, maliwanag ang buwan" ( Hide and seek the moon is bright). Tama ba?
Oh, the joy of childhood. Our little fishing village seems to be extra special too. We are surrounded by water! We have the Cagayan River, touted as the longest river in the Philippines and the China Sea. Our town's unofficial slogan is " Where the River meets the Sea." Aparri delta boasts a windy experience because here in Aparri, lies the Cagayan River's mouth. If you choose serene swimming in a river, go! If you want the rough waves of the ocean, you can too! It is a paradise for water babies like me. In fact, it is the favorite stop for the summer of the whole province! No one can make that claim in the whole Cagayan! Although it does not have white sand beaches, it has these grayish, fine granular characteristic, and the beach line seems to go on and on. If I am not mistaken, only in Aparri can you find gakka, little edible shells where you just pour hot water, little bit of salt and presto! A yummy treat!
Water breakers
Always a pleasure to walk in these sands, you never know what you will find.
...beautiful sunset. you shoud see the sunrise! heavenly!
You would always see fishermen take a walk to scout the waters. For some reason, they have the skills to know when it is good to go fishing.
And here, my friends is gakka, the male variety. i have yet to discover it's scientific name!
This is the way commercial gakka catchers do it. Me? I just wait for the waves to pull back, press my foot on the sand, if I see a tiny hole, presto... gakka!
The colorful bancas. We call them barangay--- ba-ra-ngay!
My family happens to own bancas for fishing purposes. This brings me to what makes me so happy I was born there! I love seafood! I love seafood! Did I say, I love seafood? I do! We always get the freshest catch of the day. Swordfish, shrimps and tanigue abound. In fact, Hubby was grossed out when he saw me eating what we call the "jumping salad". It's fresh shrimps, still alive and jumping, pour sugarcane vinegar, chilli ( siling labuyo) and a dash of salt. Eat! I super duper love it. Same goes with squid salad. We make ours simple. Slice squid into bits including the head part, vinegar, siling labuyo, and onions!
The "pusit" in Aparri is delicious, chewy but not rubbery and a hint of sweetness. They change colors too. For real! Depending on how light strikes, it's purple, bluish, reddish and array of colors abound.
We use these "sili" to flavor anything!
Prawns are the variety most likely to be available in Aparri. My sisters and I love eating little shrimps as our "jumping salad". Eating it this way we inherited from our Tatang!
