the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

November 25, 2006. Fiesta time in Dumaguete! my third weekend here, and i'm into my third watersport--kayaking =D for this weekend, i had two visitors from cebu who were in town for the grand eating. kayaks courtesy of malax , whom i met on Multiply, and whom i met in person for the first time. additional beauty courtesy of jakathra , whom i met in Bohol almost exactly three years ago during my first time to kayak, and her paddler-outdoor-everything loverboy morris, whom she met on that same trip. the experience of sitting inside a single kayak floating towards the sunset, and then under the full moon at midnight was so enthralling, i became a convert for life after that. this was only my second time to kayak (and, turns out, kat's, too). malax, my paddling partner who paddles from MACTAN to BOHOL in her free time, was kind enough to give me a professional orientation on how to maneuver our tandem sit-on-top kayak with feathered paddles (whew all these outdoor sport terminolog...

December 29, 2005. Last November we rode the habal-habal up and down the hills of Samal Island to camp out at the cove in Canibad (photos to be uploaded soon). This Christmas, Papa, Josrique and I took on the rapids (Class 1 to 3) covering 13km of the Davao River in Calinan with my high school classmates Vannie, Christian and Mervin. Book your own adventure at the Crocodile Park! (082-3012020 -- although i didn't get a discount =P)

Start:      Oct 19, '05 End:      Oct 22, '05 Location:      Camotes Islands, Cebu All-in-One trip with trainings in Kayaking, SRT (i think this means rapelling/ rock climbing), Basic Mountaineering, Outdoor Photography and First Aid. Organized by Habagat, CAMP, USC Mountaineers, and MFPI. Instructors are: Buzy and Bernard Pena of Baruto Paddlers for kayaking, Eric Bontuyan of Speleo Phil. for SRT, Junks Muana for outdoor photography, MFPI for basic mountaineering, and Joel Carino for First Aid. P650 registartion covers shirt, socials, training courses, and transfer from Lake Danao to Esperanza Beach (i suppose for kayaking to Tulang Island, which is a dive spot. it's actually swimmable from the mainland). Sorry wasn't given any more details about other costs. Will post if i get more news.

unpublished (coming out THIS thursday -dec. 23- in Sun.Star Cebu), photos here The sky was heavy with ominous clouds, and it had been drizzling for most of the afternoon. It was getting late. I had been standing on the bridge in Antequera for about two hours now, staring at the clear blue river a hundred feet below. Finally, it was my turn to rappel. I hurriedly put on my harness, gloves and helmet before I could change my mind. By my calculations, it would be pitch dark by the time I’d reach the river, and the thought of hanging in midair in the darkness scared me. It was my first time to rappel, after all, and in an unfamiliar environment. Even our guides had never tried it there before. But about 10 people had already gone down before me. Still, that was earlier, when the sun was out. I stood at the railing, ready to climb over. Suddenly, the rain fell. “The river is rising,” our guide signaled from below, “No more rappelling.” There were about 40 of us on that trip to...

Nov. 27 to 29, 2004, Puntod Island and Antequera, Bohol. These are the pictures taken with my camera (not one of the many digital cameras and camera phones in the group i was with--still have to get copies of those pictures). It was Roland , an online buddy i met here at Multiply, who told me about it. Kayaked a couple of kilometers to Puntod Island from Panglao while the sun set, watched the full moon rise from the really great beach of Puntod Island, kayaked again past midnight under the moonlight, dropped by Dumaloan beach (another great beach) in PAnglao, walked in the rain from Antequera bridge to Mag-aso Falls, rapelled off Antequera bridge to a river 100ft below, didn't get to go spelunking =( cebuweek.com's 3-in-1 adventure. sa uulitin! PS will be writing a journal entry and an article on the experience. in the meantime, you can read this .

first published in Destination Cebu September 2004, click here for photos We might as well have been in an adventure movie. We had booked one of Planet Action Adventure’s Action Tours in Moalboal, a town about three hours southwest of Cebu City. But the skies warned of rain, and the waves at the beach were banging against the rocks. Still, we were all set for canyoning at Montañeza Falls in Malabuyoc—rapelling down a 30-m waterfall and then taking a dip at the hot spring afterwards. The five of us—a Filipino, a Filipino-Canadian, a Canadian, a Japanese, and our German guide—all climbed into the specially-designed action truck and braced ourselves for the trip. The rural scenery was relaxing: verdant rice fields, shady trees, huts with children waving from the windows. Matutinao River, where the famous Kawasan Falls drop, was an inviting blue. But our destination was still about an hour away, and in an Action Tour, anything can happen. And it did. When we got to Malabuyoc, the river w...