We pushed through with the beach trip to Real-Infanta Quezon. Initially we attempted to use the unfinished scenic Marikina-Infanta road. No luck. Smack in the middle of the trip, a recent landslide has made the dirt road impassable and we had to turn back. We instead used the Tanay, Rizal route. The whole trip less the back tracking would have been around 4 or more hours. I estimate that if in 2 to 3 years the Marikina-Infanta road is fully finished, we can make Infanta in around 3 hours or less.
On to the beaches in Real. Our volunteer native tour guides initially wanted to take us to Alderico Resort. But to our dismay, once beautiful Alderico has closed and is out of business due to the recent Infanta disaster last year with the typhoon collaborating with the loggers causing hundreds of logs and loose soil from the mountains to come crashing down and buried many in Infanta. We wound up staying overnight at Club Manila East as their rooms were easily accessible from the parked car. This was very important due to my Parkinsons disease stricken grandmother. But the beach access from Club Manila East had 10 steps down which my grandmother refused. So for the beach, we went to the small informal beaches on the same stretch.
My grandmother had a nice time. It was initially just me and the driver. But a couple of lady acquaintances with a 1 year old kid lightened up the spirits of my grandmother. Driver Vic doubled as the digger of sand and helped with the salty sand covering on my grandmother. We took on the beach once on Saturday afternoon and once on Sunday morning.
Results? Me and the driver think she grew stronger and could walk better and longer now. But this was Sunday evening as we took her home to Makati city.
I just called up my grandmother this Monday morning and found out her arthritis is acting up on her knees!
