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| The Cagsawa Ruins and cloud-shrouded Mayon |
Our Roll-On Roll Off (RORO) ferry from Allen (Northern Samar) finally arrived at Matnog (Sorsogon) by 12:15 PM and as soon as the ferry ramp was down, Charlie and I were soon on our way to Naga City (Camarines Sur), hoping to make it there by evening. At Legaspi City, we had a late lunch at Waway Restaurant along Penaranda St., famous for its Bicolano fare such as laing, Bicol Express and chicharon bulaklak. This done, it was back to our Ford Explorer but, just out of the city, we just could resist making a stopover at the Cagsawa Ruins in nearby Daraga town, with its panoramic backdrop of Mayon Volcano, one of the Bicol Region’s 2 great landmarks (the other is Naga City’s Penafrancia Shrine, home of the Virgin of Penafrancia).
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| The swirling clouds around Mayon Volcano |
Though we can not see its cloud-shrouded perfect cone, the view wasn’t quite disappointing as the swirling clouds covering the volcano halfway up the cone were a spectacle in itself. Most pictures of Mayon Volcano (including ours) are taken with the Cagsawa Ruins in the foreground. Many people doing so within the ruins do not know that they are standing on a mass grave.
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| Ruin’s of priest’s house |
During that dreadful morning (8 AM) of February 1, 1814, the volcano erupted, forming giant cauliflower-shaped gray clouds and spewing red-hot boulders and a river of boiling lava from the volcano’s crater. It became dangerous for people living around the volcano to stay at home as the huge, hot rocks fell on their roofs and spread fires. About 1,200 people fled their homes for the seeming safety of the church. Here, they were buried alive when 40 m. of mud and ash engulfed them. By 10 AM, the large stones had stop falling, raining sand instead, and by 1:30 PM, the skies began to clear and only clouds of smoke and ash spewed out of the volcano. Mayon’s short-lived, 6-hr. eruption was over but so were the lives of the people trapped in the church.
Today, only the blackened top section of the church steeple and some walls of the priests’ house and the municipal building remain. Stores within the area are now doing brisk business selling souvenirs (T-shirts, postcards and actual photos of the latest eruption) and foodstuff (pili nuts, etc.). Only the ruins and a historical marker installed in 1940 tell the story of that dreadful day nearly 2 centuries ago.
