Summer is the best time of the year in this tiny tropical country of ours – Pilipinas! We grew up in a small community in Albay where we spent our summers basking under the sun and in full view of its beautiful beaches. But what really brings us all together whether it’s family or friends for some summer fun in the sun is the food! It’s not just about enjoying the beach; it’s all about time well spent with family and friends over lunch by the shore and nature’s relaxing breeze.

Photos borrowed from the Legazpi City Facebook Page

Picture this! Warm beach sand under your feet, everyone slipping into the shade of a bamboo cottage, giant banana leaves as plates running lush across the table and on it are your lutong bahay, lutong bicolano favorites like inihaw na Moblad, Bicol express, Pinangat (Laing), Adobo sa Asin, Cocidong Bulangawan, Pasa-pasa (Kinunot) and some ice cold soda or beer to go with it all. And the best part is the seemingly endless and warm conversations and getting a kick out of that distinct Bicolano humor.

Photos borrowed from the Legazpi City Facebook Page
This pretty much summed up my summers when I was younger, much younger than today. It’s been ages really since I’ve had my tranquil leisure time by the beach. But still, summer is a persistently fun and fiery celebration of life on the beach. We just tweaked our favorite way of celebrating life in this tiny tropical island a little bit. Growing up, growing older and hopefully wiser, we found ourselves moving to the city; closer to our hopes and dreams but farther away from the beautiful beaches, the laid back province, and our old little selves.


We may have gotten out of the province, but we can never take the province out of ourselves – Proud Bicolanos here folks! So this summer, we started our fun under the sun just like so. We went on a road trip, my Jesse and I, with my two brothers (Charles and Christian) along with Christian’s family; Maica and my niece, little Melissa. We drove up to Clark Field, Pampanga with all our road trip conversations, stopover hearty meals and then jumped right into the cool waters of Fontana Water Park and we had so much fun! It may be a little different from the salted beach waters we’ve grown up to and so loved but we made it just as warm and fun under this summer’s sun.