Swimming at the Beach/Pool

Summers were always spent at the beach. My cousins from Butuan, Paolo, Pating and Bonjo, made their way to Cagayan and spent their summers with us. Our grandfather, Daddy Ongcs, would take us to Opol beach (San Pedro beach that later became Marvilla beach), pay the $2 entrance fee and park the owner-type grey jeep by a little hut. It was almost always Saturdays whenever we did this and we usually left the house at 8 or 9 a.m. We would play in the water up until 3 p.m. and almost always, we'd be black as soot. We had two lifesavers (salbabida) to play with. Daddy would sometimes bring his sailboat. It was almost always just the kids with Daddy and no one else.

One summer, Daddy enrolled us in swimming lessons at Palaro. Our teacher's name was Sir Rene. We had styrofoam boards to practice our kicks and as always, we had to do 10 bubbles after every lap. I remember one day, we were learning how to dive and because I was very nervous, I dove right into my coach's face. My cousins tease me to this day. I think I stopped by lessons because of that.

Daddy was a good swimmer. He encouraged us to be the same.