Since I'm mostly at home for more than a year since the first lockdown, I now look forward to leisure walks. Though I consider myself a home buddy and an introvert, I still find it agonizing to be stuck in the house for a long time.
Gladly, my girlfriend visited me this weekend. She lives a couple of miles away from where I live. She told me that she also missed walking distances. We've both become sedentary in the last few months. So we grabbed the chance to stroll around the city parks!
As a background, I live in Marikina City. It brags itself as the shoe capital of the Philippines. It is at the east of the National Capital Region and is adjacent to Rizal province. What I love about my city is how it preserves its reputation as one of the cleanest and greenest cities in the country. And the healthy Marikina River is a testament to it.
We started walking from what we call the Marikina Riverpark. It is a winding 2km walk on the riverside towards Marikina Riverbanks. Non-Marikina residents often confuse the two. The Riverpark is home to bars and restaurants, while the Riverbanks houses the Amphitheater, a mall, and "tiangge".
Along the way to the Riverbanks are zoo-like mini-attractions called the Animal Trail. Some farm animals were kept in spacious cages. I believe these were placed to resemble at least a farm-like environment. Living in the city means more cars and buildings and machinery, and fewer animals and trees. At least with this initiative, we can have a taste of what nature feels like. Some of the animals that we saw are cows and carabaos, geese, peacocks, pigs, and goats.
On top of that, there are also statues of animals to keep people entertained. Though some are already damaged due to flooding, the city gives its full effort to maintain the beauty of the trail.
We stop from time to time to rest and to talk about life, as we appreciate the beauty of nature. However, we're both looking forward to the day when this pandemic will be finally over, and we can spend our weekend out of town.
As soon as we arrived at the Riverbanks Amphitheater, we stretched our legs, took a rest, and had some fun talking about many things about our relationship and our future plans. We're also glad that at least there's already a peek of normalcy as some children are playing near us. Pre-pandemic, Riverbanks Amphitheater is filled with children who happily run without any care in the world. Now I can almost count the children with my fingers. But at least, we're getting there, soon.
When we have mustered enough strength, we decided to walk again, this time another 2km going back. We arrived at home tired and with sore legs, but we're both happy. At least we're not sedentary that day.
