Lomography

San Lorenzo Ruiz Shrine - Abra
written by halfawakehaiku on August 6th, 2009 , one comment (1 vote)

Please activate JavaScript to see this gallery.

Abra isn’t the usual tourist town that some of its neighboring cities are. It is land locked between mountainous areas. It has seen its share of violence in recent history due to the presence of rebel groups and the regular occurrences of violence spurred by rivalry in politics. But this by no means is an indicator of the state of affairs in Abra as now it is generally peaceful and safe. My grandparents were from here where our ancestral home was built by my grandfather with his bare hands. He was regarded to be one of the best in town. I still have one of his wooden stools inside my bedroom as a reminder of where we came from.

I arrived on a rainy afternoon at the town center 410km from the place I call home. I haven’t seen Abra for over 17 years, strange that the LCA race would lead me back there. I couldn’t recognize the town center anymore my memory being limited to just a few areas now the town was buzzing with activity, the old scent of it was being overwhelmed by the downpour. My uncle knew why I had come and we sped off to San Lorenzo Ruiz Shrine near the edge of town to visit this cemetery church. I brought out the Krab underwater case to protect the camera from the weather and started shooting the old church. The century old weather beaten church contrasted well with the dull sky. Sadly it wasn’t open during the time and I had to make do shooting around it. This led me to the cemetery nearby, that unlike my earlier location was quite creepy due to the overgrown grass and some badly kept graves the bad weather wasn’t doing it any favors either. What caught my attention though was this set of hot pink Virgin Mary and angel statues that stood underneath their similarly colored shed.