Old records called the town Ibon. How it came to be known as Gapan is an interesting legend: When the place was still wilderness, Spanish soldiers came there on a mission when they saw natives crawling through the thick bushes. The soldier stopped them and, not knowing the local language, asked in Spanish for the name of the place. The natives knew nothing on the Spanish language and, thinking that the Spanish were asking what they were doing, answered in Tagalog, a local language “Gumagapang gapang kami“. The Spanish took it as a name and henceforth called The Pueblo Gapang. In time, the letter “g” was dropped and the name Gapan sticks to this day. Another legend stated the name came from the climbing and crawling plants that were so numerous in the locality.
My new MTB friend Manny invited us to ride to his hometown Gapan, Nueva Ecija. It’s his mom’s bday and there is a LITSON, a roasted pig, my favorite.
We took the NORZAGARAY, Bulacan shortcut from Marikina City. My Garmin tracked the route at 94 kilometers, 71 kms. if you take the very new San Leonardo route.
Well, we took the sissy 94 kilometer route. The ride was smooth and cool. We arrived at around 8AM.
We saw lots of ducks swimming at the irrigation canals. Gapan NE is a rice producing town. Lots of rice fields.
We chilled out for a while. At around lunch time, the giant LITSON arrived. It is big, huge.
We need to cut it to pieces. Luckily, rider Dodong on a Honda DASH works for a catering company [NITZ Catering] and is an expert in chopping dino-size pigs.
After putting on the apron, he immediately chopped the beast like a chicken.
More delicious food was served. Someone told me the cook is working for a luxury cruise liner and is just on vacation.
We are soooo full and munching on the roasted pig is not very healthy. Too much of it is somewhat….Dangerous.
[You don’t want this dude to have the last laugh, hihi.]
Before I ended up face down from too much food, I decided to ride back. I waved goodbye to Manny’s mom and friends.
Remember that San Leonardo route my GARMIN GPS is suggesting? We decided to give it a try. We left the National road and turned left as the GPS was suggesting. It took us to ordinary-looking streets. We just followed the noisy GPS. Left, right,left, right. We are too far to turn back now but at least our destination is getting nearer, according to GARMIN. No houses in sight but at least it is still day time. Finally, we emerged at Angat, Bulacan, a familiar place. The ride back totalled 71 kilometers in 2 hours compared to the morning ride of 94 kilometers in 3 hours.
Nice ride. Thanks for reading.
Pinoy Adventure Rider 