Russtum G. Pelima
GUMASA, Glan (May 1, 2011) – It’s nine in the morning and Isla Jardin Del Mar, tipping the queue of white sand beaches in Gumasa, was as quiet. Naturally, the sea was calm this time of the day.
It was a bright summer day. The sun heated up the pebbled white sand along the resort’s 750-meter shoreline. Yet the resort’s maintenance staff didn’t mind as they were busy sweeping some dry leaves.
The resort was obviously landscaped. Other resorts in Gumasa have canopies at their shores, but Isla Jardin has this young coconut trees lined up a few meters away from the shore to screen the sunlight over air-conditioned cottages to the right, there are twenty of them, a score of suite rooms and a couple of rows of open cottages to the left. Well, a restaurant and a huge convention center in the middle of the resort is more than the idea to offer food and information. It’s conspicuous, too, for a view of the bay and the two volleyball courts.
Supervisor Gil Cortes said the resort built the convention hall only recently designed to accommodate 250 guests. Obviously, the resort is getting ready for this year’s most awesome party revolution in this part of the country - the Sarangani Bay Festival - on May 19 to 21.
About an hour later, organizers Rain Ramas and Cheng Espinosa of the Bay Bodies Competition arrived at the resort with their hunks and babes for a day’s photo shoot. Suddenly, the quiet resort turned into a playground as the contestants got ready for their sexiest shots.
This year, the Bay Bodies competition is open for online voting at Sarangani Province’s facebook account (www.facebook.com/sarangani.info). See the hot babes and hunks’ names and photos and click “like” to vote for your favorite contestant! Awarding will be in the evening of May 20.
For some beach hoppers, Gumasa’s white sand beaches are a must-see destination. Surprisingly, city-grown Marie Angelie Francisco has been here two times yet. Angel is born-General Santos City girl. Her first visit to Gumasa was four years ago.
“I like the place this quiet. It’s really beautiful here, no overcrowding people around and the resorts are really clean. I haven’t seen yucky dirt messing over the place,” Angel explained. Angel is a third-year architecture student from UP-Diliman and Rain Ramas’ intern in interior design.
The models now have moved to Brod Louie Resort and Spa to continue the shoot. This time, they posed with the jetski and banana boat rented by the organizers from another resort. In Isla Jardin, the contestants posed at the rocky side of the beach, in the sand, and with a green kayak.
Organizer Cheng Espinosa owns Brod Louie in Taluya, Glan. She said the resort has been undergoing renovations for its two-storey air-conditioned house for guests, the viewing cottage, a receiving hall and two open cottages. Three years ago, spectators and marine life experts from the provincial Capitol rushed to the resort for a sea cow, locally known as dugong, sighting a few meters from its shore.
Sarangani Bay Festival is a yearly tribute to the bay and its bounty led by the provincial government. Thousands of communities living in coastal areas from the province’s six coastal towns depend on fishing for livelihood.
Essentially, when former Board Member Rommel Tomas Falgui passed a resolution for the institutionalization of the festival each May, the purpose of the celebration is to raise awareness for the preservation and protection of the bay.
With beach sports such as volleyball, football, skimboarding, waterball and windsurfing, sand sculpture, bay fair, the historic 15-kilometer swim-across-the-bay, frisbee, fire dancing and all the fun-by-the-bay you like, the Integrated Eco-System Resource Management orientation program by the provincial government’s Environmental conservation and Protection Center is a significant part on the day-2 of the celebration.
For the businessmen and the busiest professionals, the party by-the-bay is the true meaning of recreation.
For the artists, the lovers, and the journalists, Sarangani Bay Festival is inevitable as nature.
The shoot team packed up for home before sunset. As we leave, I still see at least two more ladies, Jane and Angel, I wondered did not join the shoot.
At least Angel enjoyed herself, took a short dip into the water before heading home. Jane was contently watching the horizon as it begins to explode with the colors of the setting sun. (SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)
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