RAINY DAYS IN BACOLOD

October 15-18, 2010 - Heavy splash and roaring thunder welcomes our arrival in Silay Airport. After almost an hour trailing the sugarcane road, we are now in Bacolod City. On our first night, we are supposed to watch the Electric Maskara but since it was still raining that night, we missed it caused the festival started late.

An energized Saturday breakfast with fresh and live alimasag on the side, then just a couple of hours, we are now in Manukan Country. This alley is where all grill houses that specialized in Chicken Inasal are lined up. We toured around the malls in the area to check some dry goods before heading to Central Plaza to hopefully watch the Maskara school competition.

Unfortunately we missed it and we are back at the house again. The night was full of meaningful conversation and stories. Sunday morning was more on visiting the relatives in the area and after a bountiful lunch, we are now heading to the plaza.

EXEPERIENCE CAMARINES...

September 25-27, 2010 It was two years ago when I landed in Naga Airport, that trip was to go to Caramoan Islands and have time to wake-board in CWC. For now, it is a different one; our reason is join the CamSur Marathon. Because of schedule differences, half of the team boarded the bus going to Naga while others have different plane routes to Legaspi and Naga respectively. Anyway, the group was completed before night time of Saturday. We check out for Cochrane apartments  and luckily we found Villa Caceres which is nice hotel I can say. We had a terrific dinner in Dennis Grill just a few meters walk from the hotel. All I can say that too much Crispy Pata is not good for your health but no-no this time; we need those fats for tomorrow’s run… The intended lights-out is early since we need to be at the site before the dawn breaks. All are pumped up when we rode the bus going to different starting lines. From the group of eigtheen, two will not be running and will be there to take pictures. Sixteen of us will be running, two for 42Km, two for 21Km, nine for 10Km and 3 for 5Km. I am one of the participants in the 10km, and all can I think during that time is pure mental. Honestly, I did not train but insisted to make the cut for ninety-minute marker which I got when I reached the finish line. It was really a different experience since the last time I joined a fun run, that was two years ago and I walked the whole 3Km.

LEAVE NO TRACE

 

I am sure everyone who went into climbing mountains with their friends, joining a trekking community and listened on one of the basic mountaineering course of any group heard the initials LNT. LNT means “Leave No Trace” and there are principles behind it but the only thing in my mind is the word “Preservation”. 

This message is not entirely for mountaineering but for the overall outdoor activities you can imagine. Last weekend, we went to Mount Manabu in Batangas to have a clean-up drive. It was a success story not in terms of how much trash we brought back from the campsite and trails but the overall sight we discovered. A sight that is full of colors, vegetation and trees.

TREASURE HUNTING IN TALINIS

August 26-27, 2010

It was good that the our friend's uncle house is just beside Magsaysay Elementary School which is half-way the jump-off area. Magsaysay is sometimes called as Bediao. For this exploration, we will be taking the Bediao-Apolong traverse route. On the night, we talked to our local guides who will be monitoring us during the climb. The aura of some locals there is that we are treasure hunters who will be surveying the area for gold bars hidden underneath the mountain. The story of Japanese hidden treasures is still alive in their thoughts.

For the longest time, this is actually my first time to hike at dawn on the alpha day. We were greeted with early assault until we arrived on the first view deck where you can feel the ocean breeze and seeing the islands of Apo, Siquijor and parts of Cebu.

THE MODE OF RELAXATION

August 25-29, 2010

The main goal for this five-day trip is to appreciate the nature views of Mount Talinis. We had no solid plan or detailed itinerary of tourist spots in the whole Negros Oriental to visit nor we tried to do extensive research.

Upon touchdown, we decided to stroll around the city proper, starting from the sea side Rizal Boulevard then we saw Sans Rival cafe which is about to open. We had an early breakfast of pasta, Sans Rival, and other native products. By the way, the coffee was great and my favorite kutsinta.