R&R

Welcome to Casa San Pablo, a garden resort in San Pablo City in the province of Laguna, where our office had its annual R&R last Friday.




Before WWII, it was a 7-hectare coconut plantation owned by the Azores-Gomez family. After it was divided among the six siblings, one daughter cut down all the coconut trees in her land and planted fruit and pine trees in their stead. Now, her son runs a small but lovely resort and artists' haven on the same land.




Vinya Gomez Alcantara, now in her 70s—and the funniest, most charming and life-loving widow I have ever met—still lives in the same compound where she grew up, in a gorgeous house just across the lawn from the guest cottages.