Yeyette and Abra de Ílog are one and the same

^{My wife gestures towards her municipality’s town center or Población, the exact place where she had spent her happy childhood days. I took this photo of her eight years ago on top of a hill which locals call “Prayer Mountain”.}

My dearly departed wife had always been proud of her obscure but stunning hometown, a place filled to the brim with nature’s delights: scenic mountain ranges, uninhabited beaches, hidden waterfalls, mysterious caves, crystal clear streams, etc. I do not know of anyone else from there who shares the same passion and pride that she had for the place. She was Abra de Ílog’s number one campaigner, promoting its ubiquitous natural spots and local cuisine whenever she could using her social media accounts. This kindred spirit that she had with the land of her youth was prompted me to say that she and Abra de Ílog are one and the same.

When I first set my eyes on my this place (off its port on a ferry from Batangas), I immediately fell in love with it. It was on a hot April afternoon in 2001 when I first gazed upon its beauteous landscape. My wife and I were very young, first-time parents: I was 21 and she was 24; Krystal was only nine months old. Since then, my love affair with Abra de Ílog flourished, so much that I even often joked that I love my wife’s hometown more than her. 😂

But it was only after her death when I realized that —as I have just mentioned above— Abra de Ílog and she are one and the same.

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