A street Vendor , selling his Bayong
On the Second Day of traveling Rizal, Town of Baras was part of the itinerary. It is located next to Morong, Rizal and it is a Municipality before you will reach Tanay Rizal. Basically it is very easy for you to locate such location. It is geographically located at south-eastern of the Province. If you came from Manila, several medium of transportation are available to choose. Example, in Shaw Blvd. you can choose either to ride an FX or Jeepney bound to Tanay, or In Divisoria, you can ride a bus bound to Tanay as well, it will pass through in Baras Town Vicinity.Baras Rizal, is just a small rural zone, in fact it is politically divided into ten Barangays.
Here is the list of the Barangays:
• Evangelista
• Rizal (Pob)
• San Jose
• San Salvador
• Santiago
• Concepcion
• San Juan
• San Miguel
• Mabini
• Pinugay
At the Arch that served as an entry point of the municipality of Baras, Rizal, a welcome signage will greet you saying “WELCOME TO BARAS, RIZAL Home of Sikaran and First Organic Town”. While reading the welcome note, you will wonder what Sikaran is all about and what about the Organic Town Title?
SIKARAN
Baras, in the Philippines is the acknowledged historical place of origin of a distinct Filipino martial art that involves hand and foot fighting the so called Sikaran. As per the residents here; it has been practiced in Baras long before the Spaniards came in the Philippines in the 16th century. Sikaran came from a visayan word meaning Kick
Moreover, Sikaran was a local recreational athletic activity of farmers that augmented as a system of fighting and self-defense which is now very famous sport and martial art internationally. It is the grandfather of all martial art in the world (This Claimed was already proved as per Meliton Geronimo, President, and Founder of the World Sikaran Brotherhood).
Because of the said popularity, the local government erected the Baras Gymnasium, to be the venue of the Sikaran Day Festival. (More Readings; Emmanuel ES Querubin http://www.sikaranpilipinas.com/History/pdf/Baras_Home-of-Sikaran.pdf )
The Organic Town of Rizal.
Baras, Rizal has become the earliest in order town in the entire Philippines to strongly push, develop and advocate organic agriculture. In addition, Baras Organic Products Center (OPS) was launched; the products put on sale in the Center include organic vegetables, rice and fruits. Also, organic fertilizers, fermented foliar spray, botanical pest spray, vegetable seedlings and open pollinated vegetable seeds are available. (More Readings; http://prlog.org/10305527 )
As we continue our travel, we enjoyed looking at the green fields while we were inside in the tricycle. It was visually cool, while gaping the surrounding, it reminds me on my childhood memories. The Nipa Hut, the Rice Fields and the Carabaos, everything are perfect memoirs.
And the good thing if you travel, you will enjoy it because the road is very well developed. Unfortunately, we were not able to visit the resorts but our main goal was to visit the St. Joseph Church. (Watch Out for the Church review).
Here is the MAP