When our friends wanted to do their prenup (wait, is it still called a prenup if the couple is already married?) they decided to go to Tagaytay…Caleruega Transfiguration Chapel, to be exact, on a rainy friday afternoon. Small problem was we all didn’t know how to go there.  Fortunately, I had my Motorola Milestone and my Smartbro plug-it SIM card in it. I opened the Google Maps app and to my amazement, it was disappointingly slow. Yes, 3G wasn’t always available on the roads to Tagaytay. It took a long time for the map to load, and Caleruaga wasn’t on the map (or so it seemed).

During those sad moments, I was thinking how much better Nokia Maps on my Nokia E71 was compared to this: at least with the Nokia Maps the maps were pre-cached so you didn’t have to wait for the maps to download. You only needed to download the map  for the country you’re visiting prior to your trip, and then you’re all set.

I then did something which I should have done earlier. Search for Caleruega in Google. On top of the search list was the link to the official Caleruega Chapel site. There was also a downloadable map. Downloading the .pdf map with direction was fast. Soon we were able to find the place.  But—it was already 5pm and the place closes at 530pm. Worse, they don’t allow pre-nup shoots anymore.  And to top it all, you need to pay 30 pesos entrance fee per person which wasn’t mentioned in their website.
To cut the long story short, we only got a few poses in for the prenup, we were drenched by the rain and we were hungry.

Lessons learned:

• Do your research. It will save you the hassle of trying to look for the map.
• Have a hard/printed copy of the map with directions/instructions if possible.
• Call ahead. Ask about permits, fees, and allowable activities before going to the place.
• Above all, don’t depend on mobile phones for last minute help especially when that information depends on connecting to the Internet.

After Caleruega, we were famished. Our next stop was Bag of Beans. There we had great coffee ( I ordered bottomless house blend). I realized after that if you drink 2 or more cups of strong coffee you’ll have headaches. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the coffee but I just didn’t expect it to be that strong. Maybe next time I’ll be more prepared and starve myself of coffee for a year.

After dinner we did a short shoot. The Bag of Beans yard had a good looking lovers nook. Here’s how it looked:

This image is color corrected in Google Picasa.

All in all the trip was fun because I was with great company. So next time you head out to your next adventure make sure to bring a real map.