mystified by The Mystery Spot

-
November 13, 2011.

Hidden away in the forests of Santa Cruz, CA is a location frequented by tourists willing to be baffled for 45 minutes. This area is aptly called Mystery Spot and was one of the first destinations I had on my list of things to see during my vacation. It's literally off the beaten path (and is reached by taking a relatively rough road) but it's worth a visit for people who are interested in the quirky and the strange.

As we entered the park, we were welcomed by a gentle giant, the tourist spot's very own Mastiff. After a short wait, we began the walk around the mysterious spot, trying to decipher how we could possibly lose as quickly what we have gained. The path going up the slope was steeper than one would expect and only a few people could claim that they haven't taken an extra effort to climb it. Once up the path, visitors are given a treat: a tilted house where people could stand at an extreme angle and not fall off, jump off tables and land where we least expect it, and hang on handlebars at a weird angle. It's nothing short to being inside a 'walk-through'... or a traditional funhouse.

No wonder the guides kept asking if we were still thinking. To baffle us even further, they kept showing their bubble levels, throwing us off even more about our sense of balance.

What makes the Mystery Spot more fascinating to people who are willing to suspend logic for a few minutes, is that this is where laws established as scientific truths seem to be violated. People become taller or shorter at a blink of an eye; water flow upwards rather than downwards; and thumbs don't count as fingers... now that's weird.

I think, however, that the Mystery Spot's not as mysterious as the guides claim it to be. The "gravitational anomaly" that it seems to be may be nothing more than an optical illusion. The grade of the terrain as well as the tilt of the funhouse disorients people effectively; hence, the optical illusion. However, I will not destroy the child-like wonder of being in such a novel place by finding extensive scientific explanations to nature's mysteries.

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more