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Luna’s sand and pebble gatherers

Pailful of sand and pebbles
Filling his container

Thunderbird Resorts invited us bloggers in a familiarization tour of their resort in Poro Point, La Union and took us to the tourism sites in the surrounding area of San Fernando and Luna. It was an opportunity to visit what I wanted to go to: the Pindangan Ruins and the Luna watchtower. Just near Luna’s forlorn watchtower, several men are toiling to fill buckets upon buckets with sand and pebbles from the shore. Quarrying is rampant in this part of the beach in Luna. I’m not sure if its legal, with permits and all, but the long pebbly coastline would surely suffer in terms of aesthetics as well as further undermine the integrity of the watchtower, weakening its already precarious hold and may lead to its collapse.

The stretch of beach where sand quarrying is rampant
Standing by his mound of sand. CLICK TO ENLARGE

While thinking about these things and the impact of such an activity to a heritage structure, life just goes on. A man alternates with his coworker in fetching a bucket full of sand from the shoreline and transfers it to a bigger container. Once full it is transported to his small private plot and off he goes again to the shore.

Looking farther along the stretch of beach, there are several more men and mound. Its really an industry here with the natural products probably making their way to construction sites in the city or beyond.

The costs of progress.

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