¡LA FAMILIA VIAJERA!

UPDATE (15/01/2015): Please click here before reading the blogpost below.

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¡Un buen día a todos! A good day to all!

Welcome to LA FAMILIA VIAJERA, our family's online travelogue!

Since this is our very first blogpost, please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are the ALAS Family, a simple and God-fearing familia filipina from the promising and historical province of La Laguna.

Iglesia de San Agustín. This is the first church established in Filipinas. Many people do not know that the official name of the San Agustín Church in Intramuros is not San Agustín but the Church and Convent of Saint Paul (Iglesia y Convento de San Pablo). It is only popularly referred to as San Agustín because of the fact that it was founded and is still being run by the Augustinian friars (Order of Saint Augustine). Click here to view photos of our most recent trip to this historic church-museum!

My full name is José Mario Alas, the padre de familia and main writer of this blog. Just call me Pepe. Chances are, you have met me before either in my obscure blogs ALAS FILIPINAS or FILIPINO eSCRIBBLES, or perhaps somewhere else on the web (I troll around from time to time, hehehe!). This is the first time that I have created a family-themed travel blog, and I will be assisted by my beautiful wife, Jennifer "Yeyette" Perey de Alas, that lovely lass from Mindoro Occidental.

Me and Yeyette have been together for 15 beautiful years and have been blessed with two beautiful daughters and three handsome sons, namely:

1. Jewel Krystal Rose (Krystal)

2. José Mario Guillermo II (Mómay)

3. Jesús Felipe (Jefe)

4. Juan Pablo Benedicto (Juanito)

5. Junífera Clarita (Clarita)

And just by the name of our blog, it is easy to surmise that we love to travel! We have no car (don't let the photo above fool you), but we do not complain. We love traveling on foot (Hi Glenn!). We love old churches and ancestral houses! We love to savor good food after some nature-tripping! Yes, nature-tripping, because God's masterpiece fascinates us so much! So don't be surprised if you find all of us within deep forests and little-known beaches. We'll also tread upon old roads and bridges, and even in obscure but historical callejones (alleyways) and teeming marketplaces. We just love meeting new people and making new friends! We love Filipino culture and heritage! We love everything Filipino!

Since we also speak in Spanish and Tagalog, we will be using those languages on this blog from time to time.

Join us as we embark on an ambitious journey to travel the whole country! And since we are not as fortunate as other travelers out there, we can only strive to travel together —all seven of us— at least once or twice a month.

This blogsite is dedicated to God. Because this is our motto: ¡Enaltecer la familia para la gloria más alta de Dios!

¡Vamos a viajar!

13 January 2015

Feast day of Santa Iveta de Huy

(patroness of large families)

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¡Feliz 8° cumpleaños, Cuya Jefe! Ain't this day extra special? Coz this blog is launched on your birthday! Awesome!