During my long walk to Dasmarinas st., my plan is to visit a Chinese restaurant that my sister recommends, I haven’t tried it before and I have this interest to try their food and I want to drop by a visit. Then I noticed that the crowd in that street starts to go super thick, then I saw that Im walking to the path of the procession of the Black Nazarene. The area is too small and its dangerous to wait for the arrival, because I might get pinned down at an establishment while standing around.
so let me continue my story when I walk down to Dasmarinas st.
While at Sta Cruz Church, I decided to move forward and eat my lunch
Since Ted is not responding to my messages, I sent him a message that I will forward and continue my journey alone.
Its so hot that day and Im glad that my Kujaku one touch steel vacuum bottle is filled with cold water
I hydrate right away and continue to walk
The crowd is so thick here because the image of the Black Nazarene approaches this location,.
Two ambulance are on red alert..speeding to fast and I just thought that maybe there’s a devotee that need serious medical help.
I also read on Twitter that there’s one guy who died already on that day due to respiratory problems.
There are two roads that I need to choose
An easy road going to Ongpin and a road that leads to Dasmarinas st.
I remember that Ying Ying restaurant that my sister recommends is at Dasmarinas st.
So my mind here tries to decide which route should I take
the easy route with zero crowd..or the hard route but will take me to the restaurant much faster but I need to dodge first those thousands of devotes exiting the street.
So I armed myself with a my Kata M2L smartphone and looked at my Google Maps to see if taking Route Ongpin is good..
After checking the map, I noticed that Im at Dasmarinas st already.
I decided now to go straight to Dasmarinas to eat my lunch because I am so hungry already…its almost 2pm that day.
At the other side of the bridge that leads to Dasmarinas st.
I saw this big crowd….. whoaaa
then I realized that at the end of that crowd is the Black Nazarene.
Look at that crowd…
I was here last year for the Chinese New Year, it was crowded too, but the Nazareno crowd is much thicker than the Chinese New Year celebration.
I have no choice here but to face these crowd and move forward to meet the Black Nazarene.
Almost everyone are exiting the street and some of us are trying to get inside it
Its like a never ending dodging with elbow to elbow and shoulder to shoulder and body contact.
Then I stopped because the way is already blocked by waiting devotees
I think they stopped there because the anda of the Black Nazarene is coming near
Then noticed a commotion here, some bully opened the steel gate of this Pioneer Tours Corporation office space. The bully opened the gates and then he grabbed a chair and started banging the steel gate.
The devotee crowd shouted and then told the people up the building viewing us from above that the gates were destroyed by a bully.
Then our attention shifted to the other side and saw that the Black Nazarene arrives.
Everyone shouted Viva! Viva! Viva!
and then wave their towels with image of Jesus Christ.
I didn’t noticed that I stood there under the shed of a building of BDO
Its dangerous too to stay there because I might get pinned down to the walls of the building, so I moved forward in the mid crowd so that I wont get pinned or crushed to a cemented wall.
But as the crowd moved forward.. I was dragged towards near the wall of BDO building
then I got stuck there….
I stood there for awhile and secured my small items inside my bag. I shifted my back pack to my front so that it can shield me from the warm and sweaty bodies of the people around me, because there will be a lot of pushing, pulling and falling when the Black Nazarene arrives infront of us.
We spotted a mommy with two small kids standing near the wall of the building, we noticed it when beside him shouted that there’s a child behind them..
We told the mom to move away because its dangerous to stand near a wall. They might get crushed by the incoming crowd. I told them to move away and stay at the stairs area of the BDO building, which is much safer and elevated.
The image of the Black Nazarene arrives and we saw that someone from the BDO building drops a bucket of water to cool down the crowd… everyone were happy and requested for some more water
I took my GoPro camera and my Nikon DSLR camera to take some footage and also get the best photo of my year in covering the Feast of the Black Nazarene.
I didn’t expected that the procession will be fast…I think it took 6 minutes for the andas to arrive and leave the space infront of me
There’s a lot of pushing and pulling as expected…I positioned myself away from the wall and I raised my two hands and started to press the shutter of the two camera.
I have a video of this experience and it will be uploaded later in my Youtube channel
just check out www.youtube.com/azraelcoladilla
I noticed that that andas is much more elevated compare to the previous years of the procession.
People are having a hard time to jump on it and reach for the cross
During this moment… my spine and back started to ache.
I think it got a strong push from the back of the crowd.
When we were almost got pinned in the wall. I shouted that we should push back the crowd to the street. I counted 1…2..3..and then we pushed everyone back in..because they reached the “bangketa” already and it’s a danger hazard already.
I scanned my photos and I think this is the best photo of my year in covering the Feast of the Black Nazarene
Lots of actions are happening here
As the Black Nazarene moves away from us… the crowd infront of us started to deplete.
The back of the andas were followed by the procession and prayers of people.
The BDO building started to shower again the crowd with cold water
All are happy…they requested for some more, and then I think the person above used a hose already to shower everyone
Okay..shower is done..time to cool down.
But then..the walls of BDO weren’t spared
the corner turned into a pee area
Thanks BDO building for housing us
My Feast of the Black Nazarene journey and coverage is done here…
but my day is not finished yet because I haven’t eaten my lunch
I saw the Ying Ying Restaurant in Dasmarinas st. but they are closed.
So I decided to exit this street and take the Binondo road to proceed to my chosen restaurant.
--- end of part 4 -----
Read my entire blog series of the Feast of the Black Nazarene 2016 here at
http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com/search/label/feast%20of%20the%20black%20nazarene%202016
