JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

On Saturday I learned an important lesson. If you are driving up to Baguio in a van, remember not to sit on the left side. Even if the windows are heavily tinted, you will be fried by sunlight, especially if you leave Manila after 11 am. Or you could put blackout curtains on the windows, if you don’t mind being mistaken for an undertaker.

Traffic was light up to Luisita, quite heavy all the way to La Union. Then the traffic eased up and it got a lot cooler.

I tagged along with the SM marketing team. Present at the Baguio launch were (from left to right) Tina from Naga, Karren from Baguio, Melody, Lilibeth from Lucena, Athena, and Ms Millie Dizon, VP for Marketing and creator of the myCity, mySM project (I think of her as the Minister of Tourism for the Republic of SM).

Photo by Wayne Lim.

My main objective was to visit the BenCab Museum, which celebrates its first anniversary on the 27th. The museum houses BenCab’s vast collection of granary gods (bulol), lime containers, native implements and crafts from the Cordillera (No S please, it’s the plural form), as well as his Filipino art collection and his own works (the ones collectors are dying to buy but he’s not selling). The building was designed by architect Raymund Sarmiento.

I also interviewed BenCab, who apart from being a National Artist is probably the best-known Filipino painter (besides Amorsolo). Everyone calls him by the famous contraction, so he is frequently mis-identified as “Benjamin Cabrera”. It’s “Benedicto Cabrera”, do hire an editor who can read. The artist with his 12-year-old askal, Fatso.

The duck pond outside the BenCab Museum. In this case I know where the ducks go: they’re gone. The ducks were transferred to another location because they kept eating the strawberries in the farm. By the way Ben knows about the egrets that hang around Buendia in Makati. He says there are plenty of guppies in the creek/canal and the egrets go fishing.

One of BenCab’s favorite pieces: a painting based on Carlos Bulosan’s America Is In The Heart. My interview with BenCab appears in the Star next week.

Despite our fairly hectic schedule we managed to get a bit of shopping done. Strawberry jam, raisin bread, strawberry, blueberry, and rice wine.

Plus blankets and walis from the market. I’m completely useless at ukay-ukay but I found some great stuff at the Commissary, knits and gloves at the souvenir shops beside the plant and flower sellers at SM, and a potted desert rose.