Marinduque Day 2 (afternoon): Back to Gasan, Back to Boac....with a boy genius and a lot of blood in between

The Antipos of Gasan

AFTER having lunch, we then boarded our jeepney again to return to Gasan to document the Antipos/Flagellantes.  Before that, we did a brief stopover in the ancestral home of some of Boyet's relatives.  He said it was the home of a former mayor and it's a house that President Ferdinand Marcos himself visited when he was in Marinduque, and even pointed to a chair that the late president actually sat on.  After taking a few photos of the home's interior, it was time to move on.

dining area of an old ancestral home in Gasan

If there ever was something I wanted to steal from that ancestral home, it's this excellent set of figurines.

The Antipos traditionally are based in the Catholic Cemetery of Gasan near the church we visited that morning.  On the way there, we got some help with directions courtesy of this Manny Villar supporter:

"Si Villar lang ang may kakayahang ibili ako ng matinong shorts"

We did find them there that early afternoon with tourists already taking pictures of them a very short distance away.  My TF photographer buddies' faces were apparently made of thicker stuff because, while other tourists were content in snapping photos from a few meters away, we in the TF group found ourselves milling around with the Antipos snapping pictures literally inches in front of them.

The Gasan Catholic Cemetery on Good Friday

I was there.  This is definitely not red paint.

Getting up close to the Antipos educated me on how they went about making themselves shed blood.  Contrary to popular belief, they do not whip themselves until their skin gets lacerated and bleeds.  What actually happens is that they initially have someone use a razor blade to make shallow cuts of the part of their skin they want to bleed.  They then use a hand-held, windchime-like contraption to slap the cuts, making them bleed.  The more experienced the Antipo, the more cuts he instructs that be made on him.  This isn't very hygienic because I saw the designated "cutter" use the same blade over and over again for different people.

the designated "cutter" in action

Soon after, Boyet had this crazy idea of us hiking towards a "nearby" park where our jeepney could pick us up instead of going back to the Gasan town center.  That would have been alright were it not for the fact that the "nearby" park could be reached by first going down a very steep slope with a sad excuse for a path (making us think whether we signed for a Photoholic* tour or a Conquer* tour).  And then we had to hike up a long and winding 45-degree sloped road.  Thankfully, the park was not a disappointment as it is located on top of a hill higher than the church and it gave a sweeping view of the Gasan coast.  There was also a pretty gazebo on top with some nice flowers planted around.  It was truly a nice place to relax.  Take a look:

pretty, eh?

yeah...purrty

Our next stop was a butterfly farm - one of a few in Marinduque.  Not a lot of people know that Marinduque is actually the Philippines' number one exporter of live butterflies.  So with this particular farm we visited, they offered informal lectures on the life cycle of butterflies and how they affect the natural balance of plant and animal life.  They even gave us butterflies to be released in the wild - with the instruction that we must wish for something before we release each one. 

butterfly (duh!)

Now, that's corny and boring stuff.  What's not boring, however, is the fact that they had a "resident" boy genius who knew absolutely everything about butterflies.  You just can't shut him up!  Try to imagine yourself from kinder to second grade, studying nothing but goddamn butterflies.  Well, that's how that boy is configured.  Anyway, I was wrong.  You can shut him up... by letting Rico have a few words with him.  Hahaha! 

The Wonder Kid himself. 
Inside that humble exterior is a million and one useful (and useless) facts about butterflies.
(Also, if you ever wondered what the 40-year old virgin looks like 32 years prior, well... now you know.) 
(photo credit: Floro S. Villamin, Jr.)

Personally, the sad thing about this butterfly farm is that this was where my camera battery ran out.  And its sad because this is the reason I missed out on taking pictures of probably the best Holy Week religious procession in all of Marinduque.  I'm talking about the Good Friday Processions of Gasan.  In structure, it resembles any other Catholic procession on a Good Friday where floats of scenes in Jesus' last moments are exhibited and the faithful follow them around the procession route with lighted candles.  The added flavor in this one is the presence of noisemakers to announce to everyone the start of the procession.  These noisemakers are a platoon of teenage to young-adult boys with pieces of bamboo that make a loud "rat-tat-tat" sound.  The combined sound of all these noisemakers is enough to make themselves heard by almost everyone in the town.

So the procession began in the late afternoon and extended into the twilight hours.  I was impressed by the construction of the floats.  Most are grandly designed and does contrast sharply with the generally "humble" atmosphere of the town of Gasan.  I think each baranggay of the town was assigned one float each.  So in a way, the construction of each float is a community effort.  There were two surprises for visitors towards the end of the procession.  First is the presence of a lot of black-clad barefoot women wearing fresh bushes on their heads partially covering their upper faces.  It's apparently a panata for many women in Gasan.  (For those who have been in Batanes, you can best imagine these women by imagining an Ivatan woman dressed all in black, and the vakul is made up of fresh grasses instead of dried ones.)  They mark the tail end of the procession.

Since I don't have pictures of the Good Friday procession, this will have to do. 
It's the last one I took before the battery ran out.
(Try untagging this, Fung.  Bwahahaha!)

As for the second surprise, just when the sun has almost completely set and most tourists think the procession's already over, a fresh wave of "rat-tat-tat" sounds was heard from the distance announcing another procession.  Apparently, the procession we just witnessed is the one for Roman Catholics.  The new group is the one for the Iglesia Filipina Independiente - more commonly known as "Aglipayans".  They have a more colorful and dramatic entrance.  For one thing, their noisemakers have, as Boyet put it, "Ku Klux Klan costumes" - except that some were colored red and some were colored blue to reflect that particular church's nationalist slant.  They also hoisted and carried flags military-style at the head of the procession.  I was told that Marinduque is one of the few remaining places in the Philippines where Aglipayans still had a strong influence, and this procession proves it.

Since most of the second procession was much of the same thing (and since I could not shoot anything anyway) I decided to walk back to Reyes Park and sit by the sea wall to view the evening seascape.  Minutes later I was joined by Jessie and we stayed a while there lamenting our sticky skin due to exposure to salt water, and other small talk.  We somehow lost track of the time and had to hastily walk back to the town to look for the others, whom we learned already went ahead to Barbarossa Restaurant where we were supposed to have dinner.

At Barbarossa with Poms, Jesse and Julius (partly hidden)
(photo credit: Floro S. Villamin, Jr.)

Like the two restaurants that we previously visited, Barbarossa was packed and the reservations that TF made were effectively rendered nonexistent.  Thankfully, the food was good enough to make the loooooooooong wait seem worthwhile.  When you're hungry, thirsty and your skin seemingly has a 1mm layer of dust, saltwater and sweat, then a meal as simple as sinigang, fried chicken and rice would taste like something worthy of the entire Pantheon of Roman deities.

I'd love to say that after dinner, we went back to the resort, cleaned up and slept soundly.  Unfortunately, A&A Resort chose that evening to have all of its services conk out one after the other.  So we were victims of a disconnected cable line, air conditioning malfunction and a busted water pump - which was particularly inconvenient for Fung, who at that time was in the middle of taking a shower.  Responding to the pleas of our bro, Albert and I went to the person in charge to complain.  Luckily, the owner of the resort was actually there and so quick action was taken in repairing the water pump.  For the meantime, they supplied Fung with 2 Orocans full of water to finish his shower.

And so before finally being able to shower on my own and retire for the night, Albert, Jesse and I spent some time exchanging stories.  It was actually very late before I gave up and decided to sleep, which they soon after also did.  We would be going island-hopping at Tres Reyes the following day.  That night, I didn't forget to charge my camera battery.

Marinduque Day 2 (morning): Morion Parade in Gasan, Via Crucis in Boac

SO according to Fung's comments in the previous entry, Albert and I indeed had a snore-fest the night before.  (Sorry!)  Anyway, it was a nice sunny morning on Day 2, and after doing my usual stretching exercises and push-ups, I prepared for the day's activities.  I made the mistake of not charging my camera battery before sleeping and I just hoped that it would last until the end of the day.  (More on this later.)

After having breakfast, we boarded our jeepney to proceed to the town of Gasan.  Having visited this town the day before, I was looking forward to visiting it again because it seemed to be a better-planned town than Boac.  The streets are wider, hence, it appeared more spacious.  It also had a nearby seaside boulevard called "Reyes Park" a short walking distance away from the town center (which contrasts to the inland atmosphere that Boac's town center seems to exude.)

A stretch of Reyes Park in monochrome

There was supposed to be a parade of Morions and "Giant" Morions  (more pictures, yehey!) so it was important for us to reach Gasan early.  True enough, a long stretch of the road was already blocked to give way to the parade.  We had to alight our jeepney a few blocks from where we were supposed to be and brisk-walked towards a good spot.  At this point, I'd note that Mr. Robert Uy - our travel mate - was in no hurry to catch up with us.  Sometimes, I think not being a shutterbug is a kind of bliss because one gets to go from place to place at a more leisurely pace, and gets to focus more on what's going on around oneself than worrying about whether one's camera has the right settings.

Morion parade in Gasan

It seems that we arrived just in the nick of time as the parade has just started in the other side of a line of town blocks.  We then took our positions along the main avenue and made final checks on our white balance, ISO, shutter and aperture settings to get the perfect shots.  In a couple of minutes, the Morions Arrived.  The skies, however, played a joke when the lighting conditions changed halfway in the parade, with the result being that about half of the pictures I took were a bit underexposed.  It was overall good though because we were well-positioned and it seemed like we were the only group of photographers that morning in Gasan.

Morions with a Giant Morion in the background

The parade barely lasted a few minutes and we then went up a steep hill to reach the Catholic Church of Gasan.  Remember my discussion on the town layout of Boac in my last blog?  Well, apparently, Gasan is a better example of Spanish-era urban planning that communicates a sense of Church supremacy.  The church in Gasan (currently unfinished) is built on a higher hill, and has a more commanding view of the town and the coast.

view of the coast from one of the church's balconies

such as this one:

The structure itself is also larger than the old Boac Cathedral and is surrounded by more open spaces and balconies facing the coast.  When we were there, they had tall and slender banners - the kind you see in beach resorts - propped up everywhere.  It kind of clashes with the very formal architecture of the church itself, but it does enhance it's appearance to counter it's unpainted gray walls.  I've read somewhere that while this church is new, there actually was a much, much older Church here that was destroyed by natural calamities.  This new church however was patterned after the old one, and in fact, part of the ruins of the old church has been preserved and incorporated into the new structure.

The Gasan Church

Doorway to the church balcony

Thankfully, since it is still unfinished, I was able to ascend the bell tower of the church.  (I don't know what it is about church bell towers that makes me want to ascend them.  Then again, maybe that's how I am with elevated areas in general, like lighthouses, cliffs, helipads, etc.  I long ago discovered that I have no fear of heights.  Anyway...)  I wasn't really able to take good shots of the surroundings since the bell tower's windows were too small to take panoramic shots.  Thankfully, the church has an interior balcony that extends outside.  I was able to take better pictures there.

Gasan Church interior with the retablo in the distance

I got so engrossed in this church that I forgot to check my phone once in a while.  When I finally checked it, I was aghast to discover that Jesse (Morqueda) has made 8 miscalls.  I quickly left the church, went down the hill and looked for the group.  I found them alright, just when Rico (Urbano) was being threatened by a female cult leader with fire and brimstone for taking shots of her with his camera.  This was actually a very serious moment while it was happening, but quickly turned into the butt of jokes for the rest of our stay in Marinduque.  If you've ever met Rico, you'd know that he's the type of person who doesn't talk a lot but always gets to say the last word, which is usually a funny quip.  Seeing him dumbfounded by someone in a Nazareno outfit carrying a cross, however, is downright hilarious!  :-D

That's Rico on the lower left being read the Riot Act by "Jesus".  To quote:
"Alam mo ba ang ginagawa mo?..Yang hawak mo hindi ka kayang protektahan ng parusang ibibigay ko s'yo.....blah....blah....blah...."
(photo credit: Leslie Anne Pomicpic)

Eventually, we had to rush back to Boac to catch the Way of the Cross, which would culminate in Jesus' crucifixion and Longinus' conversion.  Again, we returned just in the nick of time as the sidewalks were already crowded with spectators anticipating the appearance of the Morions and the actors portraying Jesus and the 2 thieves.  It was a good decision on my part to purchase a vented, wide-brimmed hat as there was hardly any shade in the Boac sidewalk where I positioned myself and I had to expose myself to the noontime sun when taking photos.  Unfortunately, I wore a sleeveless jersey that day, so while my face and nape was well-protected from the heat, the whole length of my arms was scorched and quickly darkened in a matter of minutes.

The crowd in Boac waiting for the Via Crucis

I was somewhat disappointed to find very little solemnity in this supposedly traditional religious-based practice.  The actors were solemn enough, but the crowd was unusually festive (and in some cases boorish) whereas everywhere else in the Catholic world, Good Friday is supposed to be the most somber and mournful day in the Church's calendar.  I will later on blog about my thoughts on the Moriones festival at length.  Putting my thoughts here would digress too much from the narrative.

a rather healthy-looking Jesus

After going around a specified route in the town, the Morions and the other actors proceeded to the riverbank where a natural hill was used as a makeshift Calvary where the crucifixions were to take place.  The town's streets were almost emptied as seemingly the entire population of townsfolk and tourists all went to the dusty riverbank.  Here, our TF group got separated as we all tried to find a spot as our vantage point to view the conclusion of this reenactment of Christ's suffering and death.

Longinus leading other centurions on the dusty road towards "Calvary"

It wasn't wise to change lenses in a dusty environment, but since the spot I was on was not near enough, my 18-55mm kit lens would not be of much help in taking satisfactory shots of the "crucifixion".  (Note:  It wasn't an actual crucifixion.  No hands were nailed, or anything.)  So I had to switch to my 55-250mm lens.  It turned out to be a good decision as a nice framing (i.e. excluding the spectators) was only possible in the 200+mm range.  I'd say I was in a good position as I found myself somewhere in the middle and that I was a bit taller than anyone else in the crowd I found myself in.

Jesus being stripped prior to crucifixion

[The crowd cracked up when the actor playing Jesus supposedly said, "Teka, teka, hawakan niyo...mahuhulog ako..." while crucified.  I personally very hardly heard it, but I did see him saying it when the crowd laughed.  Comedy on a Good Firday.  Gotta love it.  ;-)  ]

Longinus piercing Christ's side with his spear

So yeah,  Jesus was "crucified", Longinus spears his side, gets his blind eye splattered with blood, and supposedly regains his vision (but the mask still has the "unblinded" eye closed).  He then makes a profession of faith upon being converted to Christianity - which is a bit weird because Christianity did not really exist yet when Jesus was on the cross.  He then runs away to be beheaded on Sunday night.  On a distantly related point, a lot of people were impressed by the realistic mournful weeping of the actress playing Mary while cradling the "dead" Christ in her arms.

just try to disregard that guy on the right with the stupid smirk

By the time the show was over and everybody was walking back to the town center, my arms were already burned, I was perspiring all over, my throat was parched, I was dusty from the ankles up and I was really, really wishing that there was somewhere I could take a quick shower.  After purchasing a liter of ice cold bottled water and drinking it all, I managed to find the TF group and we ended up in a canteen to have lunch.  We were to return to Gasan after lunch to visit the Antipos/Flagellantes - who are Marinduque's answer to Pampanga's Penitentes, and to watch the acclaimed Good Friday Procession of Gasan before calling it a day and returning to our resort back in Boac.

Mardinduque Day 1: Boac, Kabugsakan Falls and a bit of Gasan

CHECKING my summer schedule last March, I was pleased to discover that I would be having my first complete Holy Week vacation ever since my pre-call center days.  In planning what to do with a rare and luxurious 4 free days (Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday) I was torn between going out of town on one hand, and staying at home and rediscovering the beauty of my Catholic heritage through the Holy Week rites in my local parish on the other. 

Eventually, the travel bug bit me hard enough to make me decide that I wanted to go out of town most of all.  At the same time however, I compromised by also deciding that wherever I decide to go, I'm going to be immersing myself in the local religious observations of the Holy Week, folk Catholicism notwithstanding.

It was at this point that I rediscovered Travel Factor (TF) - a tour frovider...este...provider that has apparently gained a good reputation among the beachbummer-mountaineer-photographer-backpacker crowd.  I first came across this group through a link provided by a friend last year.  Anyway, they had 4 tours scheduled for the April 1-4 period: (1) a day trip of Mt. Pinatubo; (2) a tour and trek of Sagada; (3) an exploratory trip to Palaui Island (Cagayan); and (4) a tour of Marinduque for photography enthusiasts.

Since Marinduque has the Moriones Festival, which just happens to be one of the most colorful manifestations of folk Catholicism in this country, (and because the other three tours were fast becoming filled up) I decided to reserve a slot for that trip and packed my bags for my next major trip since Batanes.

To make a long story short, soon I was in TF's hired van with 12 other people on our way to the port of Lucena to catch a Ro-Ro going to Marinduque.  The Ro-Ro turned out to be packed and filled to the brim, and were it not for our reservation, we would have needed to jostle and elbow our way with hundreds of other tourists and Marinduqueños who were trying to get any possible ride going to Marinduque in time for the Holy Week.

We left Lucena at around 12:30 midnight and arrived some 3 hours later in Boac where, still dark, we checked into the low-budget A&A Beach Resort in Laylay.  Along the way, I managed to get myself acquainted with my trip mates - which wasn't really hard to do because they were all so friendly to a TF virgin like myself.  (Hi Jesse, Poms, Boyet, Rico, Albert!)  Since breakfast was still a few hours off after we checked in, most of us took advantage of this and slept, while some (myself included) simply waited for the sun to go up.

(A Brief Digression:  In the course of texting people during the trip, I discovered that one of my friends, Kei (Somabes), was also in the same Ro-Ro as I was.  They didn't have any place to stay yet upon arriving so I helped arrange for them to stay also in A&A Beach Resort.)

So we had breakfast, and the first destination was the Boac town plaza where various Morions were roaming the town and having themselves photographed.  "Morion" roughly translates to the English word "mask", and the word eventually came to apply to those men (and lately, women and children) who don masks made of papier mache and/or wood during the Holy Week.  All Morions portray themselves to be Roman Centurions. 

We're Roman centurions...trust us.

The Moriones Festival itself is centered on the story of the Roman Centurion Longinus, who - tradition says - thrust a spear on the side of the crucified Christ.  He was blind in the left (or right?) eye, which promptly recovered its vision after it was splattered with Christ's blood.  This resulted to his conversion to Christianity and his subsequent persecution by the other Centurions.  The festival traditionally reenacts his beheading during the night of Easter Sunday.

Marinduque's version of Longinus

Being a history buff, it's hard for me not to notice that Marinduqueños have a very scant idea of what a Roman Centurion is supposed to look like.  The most obvious historical inaccuracy is the presence of beards on the masks.  In the time of Jesus, beards have been out of fashion among Romans for hundreds of years.  Another is the various colors of the costumes.  While Roman soldiers only ever wore two colors (red and bronze) in their official outfit, the Moriones festival is a joyous cacophony of as many striking colors and gaudy patterns as can be imagined.  Hence, one would see "centurions" that look more like Vikings or Visigoths (and in one case, a Spartan) than civilized Romans.

I'll hack you to death if you make one more comment about my Roman-ness

Anyway, the festival is apparently a magnet for photographers, both amateur and professional.  Second to the Morions, photographers are the single largest group to be seen in the yearly event (at least this year).  Thankfully, the Morions seem to be used to being photographed that they do not object to being asked to pose for pictures every minute.

Moriones "pageant"

We were hoping that there would be a procession or program of some sort that would feature the Morions but we found out that the play will occur in the evening.  And most of us just contented ourselves taking pictures of the town and watching a sort of "beauty pageant" for Morions.

As for me, I walked towards the Boac Cathedral hoping to find a more faith-based observation of the Holy Week.  I was pleased to find that despite the crowd and the noise in the town plaza, the Maundy Thursday religious services in the Cathedral was well-attended and tightly-packed.  I took some pictures of the church facade before going back to the town center for lunch with my group.  The red-brick facade looks nice but you can notice how it's out of place in the overall appearance of the church.  That's because it's a relatively recent conceit probably undertaken to enhance its appearance for tourism purposes.

the Boac Cathedral

The cathedral is built on a hill overlooking the town.  I'm willing to bet there's some intended symbolism at work here when the Spanish first planned the layout of Boac.  In many ways, Boac is a superior example of Spanish-era urban planning in the sense that the church is placed on a plane higher than the rest of the town (rather than just beside the town plaza, adjacent to the offices of local authorities.)  It's a relic of the bygone days of when secularism was unheard of and the Church ruled both spiritual and temporal affairs.

Even with the crowd and all the confusion, it's relatively easy to find each other in the Boac town center because it's so small.  Just walk around for a few minutes and you're bound to bump into somebody you know (that is, if you're in a group of 10 or so people.)  So we went to this canteen right across the plaza that was packed with tourists like us and, through sheer will power, managed to get ourselves seated and eating.  I imagine that this canteen's Holy Week profits are enough to keep it afloat until the next year's Holy Week.

As you can see, even the smallest town has a Jose Rizal statue

We as a group went back to the Boac Cathedral for the customary group pictures after we had our lunch.  I was disappointed that church authorities locked the stairway leading to the church balcony (which they probably did after our travel mate, Fung (Yu), earlier on ascended it without warning.)  It then started to drizzle a bit when we were there.  Since we would be hiking to the Kabugsakan Falls later in the afternoon, I was really worried whether we would be hiking in the rain since I didn't bring a jacket and I don't think the bags that contain my photography equipment is adequately weatherproofed.  The clouds above looked ominous enough.

detail on the old bell displayed outside the church

Thankfully, the expected rain did not arrive and we were able to reach the falls after a long drive and hike with only our own perspiration dampening our clothes.  Here's the thing, after the long arduous drive through very dusty and bumpy roads, as well as a tiring trek through very rough terrain in the mountains, the Kabugsakan Falls turned out to be very underwhelming,  See for yourself:

Kabugsakan Falls

And so, after once again taking customary pictures and after some others in our group taking a dip in the pool at the base of the falls, we then made the trek back towards our vehicle for the long drive back to A&A Beach Resort.  Along the way, we stopped by the town of Gasan to buy groceries and refreshments.  We didn't stay long though because we were to return there the day after as per our itinerary.

There was still daylight when we got back to the resort.  Others went straight to their rooms to rest even before dinner, while I joined others in our group take pictures of the sunset in the nearby beach.  I tried my hand at some pretty advanced photography techniques with the help of Boyet (Villamin)'s strobist equipment.  Epic fail!  I did however pick up tips on how to properly set my camera to take sunset shots.

Boyet, Julius and Poms

Before we knew it, it was dark and dinner was served.  Not having slept properly since the night before, I slept soundly on my first night in Marinduque - competing against roommate Albert (Henoguin) in a snorefest that we're both thankful we're too dead tired to hear.  I dunno if Fung heard us though.

Mt. Pinatubo trek

This is the second time I signed up for a trip with Travel Factor. I was able to pull Danna and her two friends Kris and Mark away from another tour provider. The three are fun to be with and definitely made the Pinatubo trek a much more memorable experience.

It was hard to take pictures because of the rapidly changing lighting conditions. However, Mt. Pinatubo's natural beauty thankfully didn't make it as difficult.

On the way back to Manila, we passed by the Capas Shrine for all those who died in the Death March.

Watching a Tausug @$$hole on the History Channel cheekily defend slave raiding as part of their culture. Somebody should capture his children and sell them to slavery and pedophiles. Let's hear him be cultural about that.

Marinduque Day 3: The Homestretch

1. Viewing Elephant Island/Bella Roca from a distance
2. Poctoy Beach Resort in Torrijos
3. Dinner at Curba Grill in Buenavista
4. Club Marinduque in Gasan - where I got so drunk I forgot to take more pictures of the place.

Marinduque Day 3: Tres Reyes

Pics mostly in Gaspar Island. I didn't dare bring out my camera while in the moving banca.

Marinduque Day 3: Bikini Shoot

Alternate Title: "...Dahil feeling fashion photographer ako..."
Place: Gaspar Island, Marinduque
Model: Sheryl Uy (a.k.a. Sandara)
Photography Coach (may ganun?): Boyet Villamin

I took many other shots, but a majority of them just came out wrong. These are the ones left.

Marinduque Day 2: Via Crucis

Boac's version of the Senakulo, with some focus given to the story of Roman Centurion Longinus' conversion to Christianity after his blind eye being healed by Jesus' blood.

04/01/10 - Marinduque Series 1.2

The Spanish-era Boac Cathedral with its red-brick facade.

04/02/11 - Marinduque Series 2

More Moriones, Gasan Church, a cult's Good Friday procession, an old ancestral house where Marcos once stayed, and a park.

(And a butterfly park too, where my batt went dead.)

04/01/10 - Marinduque Series 1.1

Pictures of the Moriones during Maundy Thursday in Boac, as well as other scenes.