We had such an enjoyable week-end vacation up north though it was only on Holy Tuesday that we got to finalize where exactly to go. Thanks to Joey, my daughter Rhea’s classmate in Med School who offered their home in San Juan, La Union. The 6-hour (including stops for pees and eats) road trip was comfortable riding in a borrowed van courtesy of a friend while the rest rode in our SUV in convoy. There were no boring times because each of us brought along our gadgets. Rhea and I watched separately on our portable dvd player, Kisses with her laptop and Keren with her apple ipod nano. Even our helpers played games in their cellphones.

We left at 9:00 a.m. of Good Friday and while passing by some towns in Tarlac, we saw devotees performed extreme acts of penitence to atone for their sins. Their religious ritual involves performance of self-flagellation acts like carrying heavy wooden crosses, whipping their backs until they bleed, believing that their sacrifice would somehow grant salvation for their sins.The ritual involves believers marching for several hours under the scorching heat of the sun with their arms and legs tied while they were inflicted wounds on their backs with a blade and sometimes even have themselves nailed to crosses as expressions of penance.