An excuse to do something stupid

For Immediate Hiring: Math Teacher - PSHS Diliman Campus

2008-07-21T18:08:00.000+08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE HIRING

Philippine Science High School
is looking for a MATH TEACHER for SY 2008-2009

Please look for Mrs. Herminigilda Salac
Contact Number 9240661 (CISD Office)

Submit resume, letter of application, and transcript of records.

Digital Electronics Camp

2008-05-08T16:53:00.002+08:00

While technically I'm still jobless this summer, I was able to get a couple of lecturing gigs this summer. This recently concluded one was for the joint SEI-PSHS project "Digital Electronics Design Summer Camp 2008". I took over the opening lectures for the second batch of schools attending the weeklong camp covering basic electric and electronic theory, combinational logic, and adders. They will be continuing on under the supervision of facilitators from the IRC laboratory of the EEE department of UP Diliman.

I was called in to take over the second week as the original lecturer (Jason) was unavailable on certain dates during the camp. I did have a good time as the participants were receptive and seemed to have enjoyed the challenges of the lab activities. Some participants (both teachers and students) were nice enough to tell me that they appreciated the topics, so it did have its (non-monetary) rewards.

I was hoping to attend the IRC-facilitated second phase of the activities, as I have had minimal experience with microcontrollers in college, but important banal things like having the car fixed and registered, and cleaning up the house took higher priorities for the next few days.

Here's the press release from the SEI website:

Continuing education despite the summer vacation, a total of 90 high school teachers and students from all over the Philippines will undergo a two-week training on electronics at the Philippine Science High School (PSHS)– Diliman Campus.

Dubbed “Digital Electronics Design Summer Camp” or “DED Camp 2008,” which started last April 24, the training aims to introduce students to real-life electronics applications leading to competencies in many fields including product design, programming and embedded systems.

DED Camp 2008 is a joint project of the PSHS System, the Science Education Institute (SEI) and the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI), both from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Dr. Ester B. Ogena, Director of DOST-SEI, said the training would also empower teachers in assisting students’ research projects and update school curricula.

“We also foresee that this training will be a great chance for our teachers and students to interact and share ideas for the projects,” she said.

The training would involve one teacher and two students who could either be incoming juniors or seniors for school year 2008-2009 per school.

Ogena said participants will be exposed to digital electronics and microcontrollers in a blended learning environment that focuses on project/problem-based situations.

She said the curriculum combines video lessons and demonstrations, on-line curricula, quizzes and exams, and real time environment in an e-learning environment.

Ogena noted that the DED Camp 2008 would also provide guided experiments for teachers to enable them to teach difficult concepts such as electronics to third and fourth year high school students.

“Since some of the concepts are very challenging, and usually taught at the University level, the introduction of these concepts in the curriculum needs innovative teaching-learning activities both for the teachers and for students,” she said.

Ogena pointed out that with the advances in the fields of information, communication and technology and their pervasive application in our daily lives, digital electronics is an area where continuous enhancement and enrichment should be done.

She said that the use of digital electronics has become diverse and its practical applications, like robotics and embedded systems, are growing areas of interest among students.

“An integration of digital electronics into the high school curriculum will provide a stimulating environment for the science-inclined students as well as to keep pace with the current developments in science and technology,” she stressed.

Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte

2008-05-01T11:54:00.001+08:00

Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte
April 26 to 28, 2008

What was supposedly an 8-person trip suddenly trimmed to just a 3-person jaunt to the extreme north of the Luzon mainland. Dawn, Pau, and I pushed on with the trip to the town of Pagudpud in Ilocos Norte. It was a great trip, especially with Pau around. Despite my heritage, I still can't speak the dialect, and fortunately Pau was there communicate with the locals in their native dialect, hopefully making for a few more charisma points from our group to the locals.

Getting There
Florida and RCJ Bus Transit has buses going to Pagudpud daily. We took the lone Florida bus to Pagudpud, which leaves Manila at 9:30 pm. The Florida and RCJ bus stations are located along Espana avenue in Sampaloc, Manila, just across the street from the Lacson (Gov Forbes) side of UST. The bus tickets have to be bought a day before, and are not sold earlier. Florida contact number is (02) 7314473.

Pagudpud Town
We arrived at Pagudpud at around 8:30 am. From the bus stop we took a tricycle to Polaris resort where we had reservations. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to check-in until 1pm, so we left our packs behind the counter and headed back to the town to look for someplace to eat and basically kill time. The only place recommended by the locals was Papa Nards' canteen, where we had a breakfast of papaitan, dinakdakan, and squid. The food was nothing special, and the waiting time was long.

We strolled over to the town hall next door, where we met a certain Mr. Morata who was friendly and helpful, although he was apologetic that their town had run out of flyers containing information on places to visit. We got a referral for a tricycle driver to tour us around the town, although he said that all the drivers there are DOT accredited to take tourists on tours.

From the town hall we crossed the street to watch schoolchildren practice their dances for the barangay festivities later that day. We arrived at the tail-end of their fiesta season, and the children had a competition preceding the coronation of the local Ms. Pagudpud. Pausing to buy a container of drinking water, we headed back to Polaris to check out the beach and have lunch, while waiting for our check-in time.

Polaris Resort

The waiting time for our lunch was an interminable 60 minutes, where we tried to ignore our hunger by playing cards and waiting for the food or the room to become available, whichever comes first. The food was good though, and we headed to our room to unload our stuff.

The room was simple, as promised by the person I contacted through text. The floor was bare concrete, and there were no cabinets, only a table and a small bench in addition to the two beds. The bathroom was pretty ok though. We napped for a couple of hours before heading to the beach for some soaking up before the sunset.

We got the room at a slightly more elevated rate because of the season. Rates probably peak during Holy Week where they get their most number of visitors.

Contact for Polaris: +639193078803

Saud Beach

This is a long stretch of white beach, and the Bangui windmills were easily visible to the southwest. I'd say the beach there is comparable to PG, although Boracay and Panglao still had the better beaches, Panglao especially. Polaris is right beside the public municipal beach, although surprisingly it is our side of the beach that is more quiet. Walking southwards along the stretch of the beach, we arrived at a more peopled and a more active part of Saud beach. The atmosphere here is almost comparable to PG, with small bars and active nightlife. As it started to get dark we headed back to our resort to wash up and prepare for dinner.

Manang Thelma Dalumay's Eatery

Before heading off to the beach that afternoon, we stopped by this nearby eatery which advertised lobsters for sale. We ordered a kilo (8 small lobsters), and had them prepare four of the lobsters for dinner as sinigang, and the other four steamed for lunch the next day. We also added an order of sweet and sour parrot fish, half of which we had for dinner, and the other half saved up for lunch the next day. As the meal was very good, we contracted had her prepare breakfast for us for the next two days.

Unfortunately they did not have a grill, and so were unable to prepare grilled fish or squid. Looking at other Pagudpud notes on the internet, one recommendation was buying fresh fish and having it grilled someplace. We were not able to enjoy having our fish grilled, but the food was still delicious so it was ok.

Tricycle Tour

We contacted a tricycle driver recommended by Mr. Morata at the townhall, and arranged to be toured around town. He was very punctual, and arrived even before we finished our breakfast. We started off on the tour around 7:30am, and hit the following places in the given order:

1. The Bangui Windmills - being here was the best experience of the whole trip. The white giants standing there by the beach were awe-inspiring, and the rotation of the blades, serene and relaxing at a distance, was loud and creaky and scary up close. The winds were really strong and the waves were breaking, and it didn't look like that part of the beach was good for swimming. The creaking sounds generated by the windmill unnerved me so that I had to force myself to stand beside one, and even then I couldn't look up. Then I scampered away after taking a picture. I'm such a wuss.

2. Kabigan Falls - eight kilometers back north and we arrived back at Pagupud town before heading towards the trailhead for the waterfalls. From there we had to take a guide (required) and pay entrance fees before taking the 30-minute trek towards the falls. The trek was easy, no uphill stretches, but will make a few crossings on the stream. The waterfall itself was pretty, but not very impressive. We took a dip at the waterfall basin before heading back. Lucky for us we were there early, as going back we encountered a group of around twenty on their way to the falls.

3. Agua Grande Resort - just past the Patapat viaduct on the highway to Cagayan. Nothing exciting or new here, just some okay photo opportunities near a beach of huge rocks. No entrance fees since we only went there for pics and not to swim at the pools, but we were asked to give a donation.

4. Patapat viaduct - We passed here on the way to Agua Grande, but we stopped here on our way back to take pictures. This is just part of the highway to Cagayan, but with one side next to a cliff wall and the other side looking down at the sea, it was a pretty cool place for pictures. Here we encountered some bikers who seemed to be on their way around Luzon and were headed to Kalinga and Cagayan.

5. Blue Lagoon beach - Entrance fees here again, and they were charging for the rental of the tables there. We had to rent one for lunch, and we ate our lobsters and parrot fish first before heading down to the beach. The waves here are very strong, and there were people surfing on one end of the beach. I don't know how to surf, so after resting a bit after lunch, we went down to the beach and waited for the waves to hit us. The waves there were as strong as the waves in PG when we were there after the typhoon. After ripping the pocket off my shorts on the strong waves, we headed back to wash before leaving the place. On the way out we stopped by a cove accessible from the road, and this was also a good place for pictures. Unfortunately my camera batteries gave out during this time, so I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures of the place.

After that we headed back to the resort, and arrived there at around 3pm. We arranged for dinner again with Manang Thelma, then headed back to the resort to rest before going back to Saud beach.

The Ilocos Towns

Laoag: We left Pagudpud early the next day and took a minibus to Laoag. It was still morning and the air was cool, so the ride was ok even without airconditioning. It was two hours to Laoag, and we visited the provincial capitol, the Museo Ilocos Norte, the Laoag cathedral and the nearby ancient bell tower, before looking for a place to eat for lunch. After having lunch at the Chicken Ati-atihan place, we headed off to Batac on a very hot minibus.

Batac: The home of great leaders, as declared in the Plaza. We disembarked right at the front of the Marcos ancestal home, where Marcos' corpse lies enclosed in a glass tomb inside an airconditioned room accompanied with freaky chanting music. He did look as if he was made of wax, but he's been dead for almost 20 years. It could be an inch of make-up directly on bone. It was freaky. No cameras were allowed there, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the dictator.

The house also contained several memorabilia of the former president's personal effects. Looking at the newspaper clippings, the edited speeches, the list of accomplishments, and impressive personal history, I realized that if I lived during that time as he was rising to power, I would probably be awestruck too, and wouldn't hesitate to vote for him as president. He was really good and one can't help but be impressed. (In all probability, I'm probably related to him. I mean, I'm related to Fabian Ver and Chavit Singson, and these guys were Marcos' cousins.)

Paoay: From there we crossed the street to check out Batac's church. From Batac church we took a tricycle ride to the nearby Paoay church. Paoay church is a UNESCO world heritage site, although you wouldn't know it from the way the church bells were vandalized, probably by the local youths.

From the outside, the church is quite impressive. It had a regal and ancient look to it, and huge buttresses jutted out to the sides, supposedly designed to keep the building impervious to earthquakes. True enough, it's still standing a hundred years after the end of the Spanish period. The rocks that made up the structure were interesting, as upon close inspection, they appeared to be rocks taken from the sea, as evidenced by coral markings on the surface.

Vigan
Our last stop, we arrived in Vigan at around 5:30pm. With no more time for a full tour of the city, we headed right over to Calle Crisologo so Pau can take pictures of the cobblestone street. After shopping for shirts and cornik, we sampled the Ilocos empanada being sold by the plaza. Supposedly a must-try while in Vigan, it's really just like eating a lumpiang toge from a UP vendor, and soaking the lumpia in vinegar. That's not enough for me, so we went to the nearby Chowking to complete my dinner.

From there, it was a tricycle ride to the Partas bus station. I was planning to sleep right away on the bus to Manila, but I sat up and watched the stupid movie "the hills have eyes".

We arrived in QC at around 4:00 am the next morning.

Notes

Pagudpud is a pretty place, and it was great that we visited it this summer. However, the stuff there (resort rooms, food) was a bit pricey, although not to the point that they are prohibitive. It was great also that we had Pau with us, as she knew how to speak Ilocano, and we were all flexible as regards to the schedule, so we weren't in any rush to get home.

Iron Man

2008-05-01T06:42:00.000+08:00

This has to belong to the top of a list Marvel-based movies, along with the Spider-Man movies and way above the X-Men movie series. Robert Downey Jr. is a great fit for the title role of the troubled and alcoholic Tony Stark, with the not-so-subtle link that Robert Downey Jr was also an alcoholic. This might be a great year for superhero movies, with the Edward Norton Hulk movie and the new Batman movie coming up.

Be sure to wait after the credits to see Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury recruiting Stark for the Avengers.

Candelaria, Quezon

2008-04-24T20:12:00.000+08:00

Quezon Trip
April 8, 2008

I got invited to join the PSHS CST department outing a couple of weeks ago in Candelaria, Quezon. I was initially apprehensive because I really didn't know anyone except for Ma'am A who was my CS teacher 12 years ago. But the CS folks were cool and I had a great time hanging out with them.

The first stop on our trip was Lucban, where we visited the church and walked around town a bit. Ever since Dawn and I started looking for churches for our wedding, I got hooked on visiting Spanish-era Catholic churces, even though I'm not a Catholic. We had lunch at a place called Danny's, where I had my first taste of Pancit Lucban. It was pretty good, similar to pancit canton but is seasoned by vinegar.

After Lucban we visited Majayjay falls, where I had my first experience at camping. The falls was still as beautiful as I remembered it, but I didn't like what happened to the place. They had the camping area developed now, and the locals were in the process of installing more toilet rooms that day. A viewing deck was also in progress in front of the falls. Doubtless a lot of people see these construction as improvements, but I just don't like the idea of messing with their natural state.

Swimming was the main agenda of the Majayjay trip, and the water was still as cold as I remember. It was unfortunate that I didn't have my camera with me, as Dawn brought it with her to Isabela for the annual BIOTA conference. The pool under the waterfall was full of rocks, and was generally shallow, but as I was wading towards the falls I fell into this narrow hole and was quickly submerged. It probably would have been a funny spectacle if anyone saw me, and I would probably have laughed if that happened to one of my friends.

We spent the night at Sir Jon's farm, and we went swimming again on a nearby spring the next day. The better part of the morning was spent soaking on the water. After we had a big lunch at Jon's place, we visited the famed pottery house slash restaurant of the pottery artist Ugu Bigyan in Quezon. The place was impressive. I so wanted to buy an autographed plate with pretty designs, but a single plate costs a thousand bucks. I mean, it was really pretty, it was unique, it was a work of art, but it's still just a plate. Maybe next time then. I also loved the uber-ergonomic wooden chairs, although the chairs were not made there. I mentally added that very nice chair to my mental list of material must-haves.

Overall, it was a good couple of days. I got to meet new people (people who are future co-workers, I hope), visited a couple of towns that I haven't been to, went swimming for the first time this summer, and had my first taste of a local pancit variety. Summer's just begun, so hopefully this is not the last outing I'll have before classes start.

The Akiki Trail

2008-03-03T21:23:00.002+08:00

Mt. Pulag via Akiki-Ambangeg
February 23-25, 2008

I meant to write about this after I posted a write-up about my wedding, but while I would want to think that one through, I can just hammer this out and not care if I make minor mistakes in the narration.

So I finally got to climb Mt. Pulag, but circumstances had it that I didn't get to summit, my second major climb that I wasn't able to do so. At least our group has some measure of pride of having passed through the gauntlet that is the Akiki trail, despite the ill-advised push to Camp 2 through the treacherous (given the weather) grassland trail.

In our group of 26, only one had actually climbed Pulag via Akiki, and that one person had to be left behind in Eddet because he got sick during the first night. When we actually started to climb, our group was composed entirely of Akiki first timers. It didn't pose any serious problems, but I do believe we made a bad judgment in deciding to set camp at Camp 2, instead of the saddle camp.

Akiki was as tough as expected, but when we reached the grassland trail, the weather was already very forbidding. The winds were very strong, the air was very cold, and water was condensing around us. The cold and wetness were barely tolerable, and any exposed skin was rapidly going numb. We reached the saddle camp around 5PM, and in retrospect we should have camped there instead of pushing towards Camp 2.

The decision to camp at Camp 2 was made earlier, because of a nearby water source, and its proximity to the Ambangeg trail, where we were going to make our descent. Unfortunately, we underestimated the distance from the saddle camp to Camp 2. As we were making our way to camp, night quickly fell, further reducing visibility. We were totally exposed to the wet winds, and my hands were already feeling like ice. I wanted to stop and get thicker clothes from my pack, but the group was so cold we couldn't stop for more than a few seconds, and putting down the backpack exposed our backs to the cold. We pushed on.

The trail was very muddy, probably as a result of an exodus of summiteers the day before, and the deep puddles had water seeping into our shoes. I slipped and fell an uncounted number of times, and each time I had to quickly stand up, no matter how painful, because the cold water on my legs was more intolerable. I almost twisted my knee, I suffered wind burns on my face, and my hands and feet felt like they came straight from the refrigerator when we reached camp, 3 hours later around 8 PM.

Pitching the tents were torture, and we were shivering mightily as we struggled against the wind to stake the tents to the ground. With all the tents up, we promptly collapsed and fell asleep hungry. Having been drained from the three-hour grassland plodding, we were left with no strength to prepare food. Given the conditions of our boots, the distance to the summit, and the ordeal we just undergone, we decided to forgo the summit until another climb.

The nasty weather continued until morning, and we were not able to break camp until 10 AM, when we had our first welcome glimpses of the sun. With the summit still three kilometers away in the opposite direction, we headed down via the Ambangeg trail, which was a muddy joke compared to the trail we took the previous day.

No summit this time, but I'll be sure to return to Pulag. But I'll probably be avoiding the Akiki trail on my second time. Akiki trail was tough as nails, but it did live up to its reputation of having the more stunning views compared to the Ambangeg trail.

Mt. Ugo

2007-12-05T21:06:00.000+08:00

Mt. Ugo
Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya to Itogon, Benguet
November 29 to December 2, 2007

This Mt. Ugo climb was definitely one of my toughest climbs so far. Perhaps this is because I've been so out of shape these days and the only physical preparation I made for the climb was two straight hours of playing badminton. I have wanted to climb one of the big mountains of the north for a long time now and this is my first opportunity to do so.

I climbed Ugo with two of my former officemates, Jay and Nanding. They were also part of our group who climbed Mt. Apo exactly one year ago. We joined the open climb sponsored by MMS, where one of my former officemates, Jojo, is also a member. There were supposed to be six of us from AOC who will be joining the climb, the other three backed out. I was also urged to back out by my mom, because there were recently a couple of typhoons that passed by, and the Manila Peninsula incident occurred on the afternoon before we left for Nueva Vizcaya, and a curfew was imposed on the city that night

Assembly was supposed to be at 8 pm at the Florida bus terminal in Sampaloc, Manila. I got there at around 9:30 pm, and Nanding was almost left behind when he arrived approximately five minutes before the bus left for Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya. As I had a busy day driving around the city to submit marriage requirements, I promptly fell asleep on the bus from exhaustion.

The first bus stop inside Nueva Vizcaya got me worried. It was around 3 am and the cold was unbearable. I couldn't stop shivering, and the cold was worming its way into my bones. It was even much warmer inside the air-conditioned bus. My main worry was that I didn't have enough warm clothes for the climb, and since I only brought one pair of long pants (the ones I was wearing), my legs would freeze right off during the night at camp. On impulse, I bought a bonnet with a wrap-around shawl as an additional precaution against the cold, but I knew I'm doomed in case it rained on the trail and I had no extra pants.

We arrived in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya at around 4:30 in the morning, where the jeepneys that the organizers rented were waiting to take us to Kayapa. We bought our packed lunches here in Bambang. In Kayapa we had our breakfast at one of the canteens there, and this was also our last stop for supplies before starting the trek. We had to resort to purchasing a couple of spoons from the canteen, because we didn't bring any with us and we needed the metal spoons for cooking.

Right from the start the climb was tough. There was almost no level ground, and the steepness of the trail varied from tiring to exhausting. From the start the trail was already passing through pine forests and the clouds were almost level with the ground. Along the way we encountered another group who were making their way up the mountain, but we didn't see them again after we had lunch at Indupit.

Fortunately the weather was great: it was cloudy and the ground was a bit wet, but there was no rain, and it didn't even drizzle. We had to walk through the clouds for the most part, and visibility was reduced for long distances. The trail was still extremely challenging, and when we reached Indupit for lunch, we were already a couple of hours behind our itinerary. Lunch was a cold affair, but there was a nearby water source where we were able to stock our trail water.

From Indupit we started on a long trek towards Domolpos, the last water source where we'll need to stock up on water for camp. We were covered in cloud for the most part in this stretch. The trail passed from pine forests to mountain ridges until we broke past the cloud cover which opened up to reveal a spectacular view of the surrounding Vizcaya mountains. We paused at a ridge for some pictures of the mountains with the clouds crowning their tops before heading down the trail for the last water source at Domolpos.

I have been carrying only a liter of water for the whole climb, and just when I was already exhausted and my legs were ready to quit, I had to load 3 additional liters of water on my back when we refilled at Domolpos. This last stretch from Domolpos to the summit was the most draining of the whole climb. We left Domolpos at around 5:00pm, and we weren't able to go at a faster pace because of the extra weight and because we were already drained.

The clouds started to surround us again, and it was quickly getting dark, with the trail still getting steeper. The last parts of the climb were the most discouraging: we've kept walking and walking and we still can't see the summit. After we've cleared one step there is still another mound of earth rising above us. The steepest assault to the summit rose up just as it got dark. And it got dark very quickly, and the dark was compounded by the clouds, reducing visibility to three feet with our headlamps on. Guided only by far off lights above us, we pushed forward and upward, and still the summit camp was beyond reach.

Exhausted, we finally reached the final step before the summit, and the group leads decided to make camp here instead of the summit, which was still half an hour away. The lead group was already descending to assist the climbers still lagging behind us. Without pausing to rest, we quickly pitched our tent and started making dinner. I prepared Myke's recipe for tuna Bicol express, which was a success that night. An hour after reaching the campsite, we quickly turned in to sleep, with the three of us crowding into a two-person tent to generate more warmth.

We woke up at 4:30 am to prepare our breakfast of longganisa and fried rice. After having our meal and cleaning up, the sun started to rise. It was my first sunrise at that altitude and from that vantage point, and I tried to drink it all in. The colors were great, and the shadows cast by the surrounding mountains were awesome. We weren't able to get a sea of clouds effect, and I hope it's there somewhere in my future.

After breaking camp, we finally summitted the mountain. Unfortunately there was no 360-degree view on Ugo's summit because of the surrounding trees. We did have our pictures taken by the summit marker, and Mt. Pulag was visible on the north. We only spent a few minutes here before starting our descent on the Benguet side of the mountain.

The descent offered spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. The structures of Baguio were visible on the western side, with SM Baguio being the only recognizable structure at that distance. The trail was steep, and the concentration I had to put on the descent had me put off my enjoyment of the view because I had to focus to keep from slipping.

The trail to Lusod was a long long long affair, passing through thick pine forests. We were following the lead group when we decided to stop for a bit. When we started to walk again, we 've already lost sight of the first group. Along the way we noticed a fallen log that been cut to look like a dick, and we got distracted while laughing at it that we lost sight of the trail and wandered off to one side. When we realized that the trail has disappeared, we decided to try waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. When we backtracked, we realized that the correct trail was right before the offending log, and we really missed it because we paid more attention to the log. We lamented the 15 minutes we lost on that stretch.

Upon reaching Lusod, we realized that getting lost earlier actually saved us more time and effort. The first group also got lost further down the trail, and got lost for a far longer period. If we followed them in the first place, we'd have joined them in their longer backtracking and it would have been more exhausting for us.

We cooked the rest of our longganisa at Lusod for a late lunch. We left Lusod at approximately 2:30 pm, and suffered through the rest of the winding downward trail. Pain was already shooting up my legs, my feet felt like several blisters were already erupting on my toes, and my toenails felt like hell. Still we pushed on, and reached the hanging bridge as it was starting to get dark.

From the hanging bridge, it was a short walk to where our rented jeeps were waiting to take us to the municipal hall, where the worst part of the trip is yet to come. We were supposed to regroup at the hall, wash up, and conduct our post-climb meeting before heading off to Baguio. Upon arriving at the hall, we were immediately welcomed by a bunch of english-speaking drunk locals, who insisted on shaking all our hands. They smelt strongly of liquor, and their presence there unnerved some of our female companions.

When we passed by a store for some soft drinks that we were craving for, we were approached by a drunk who tried to talk to us incomprehensibly. Upon returning to the barangay hall, we were approached by a couple of drunks who were trying to get free stuff off of us. Inside the barangay hall, the drunk locals still tried to talk to us and observe everything that we did while continuing with their handshaking. It was creepy for some, but in general really annoying.

After conducting our post climb meeting, the barangay captain took the floor and proceeded to explain in great detail to 61 tired, hungry, and unwashed climbers how his local barangay developed the place and welcomed mountaineers to their area. He kept at it for half an hour, and the looks of despair were apparent on the faces of the other climbers. The rest were keeping poker faces. Because of the state of his audience, his jokes fell flat, but he was gamely cheered on by his hangers-on of drunk locals. Finally, he got tired and let us go. We immediately left for Baguio, where we had dinner before heading on home.

The climb was great, and the mountain was really challenging. I had fun, although it would have been more fun if there were more of us in our little group. Also, I was disappointed that I didn't get to enjoy the view all that much, because even though the view was the best I've seen for a long time, I had to keep focused on my footwork during the descent. Finally, the worst part was the barangay hall with all the drunks, the worst way of being welcomed after a long and tiring trek. But even that wasn't enough to spoil the elation I felt from the climb.

Great climb! I won't mind climbing Ugo again, but only after I forget how terribly difficult that mountain is. Perhaps in a couple of years.

More pictures here.

Yahoo mail bug?

2007-11-23T13:13:00.001+08:00

I have read the mail from the future!

Levels of Twilight

2007-11-16T23:11:00.000+08:00

I freaked out again last night with a nightmare that I had before. I dreamt that I was awake in my bed but I was unable to move a muscle. I wasn't able to open my eyes, move my fingers, nor move my limbs without a terrible struggle. My mind, however, was convinced that I was awake. With a great effort I was able to get out of bed and I struggled to walk to my parents' room, but I can't see my way as I was unable to open my eyes. I was vaguely aware that I might be dreaming, having experienced this awfulness before, and I was able to keep myself calm.

Then I woke up from that dream. After struggling to find the light switch with my unyielding limbs, I found myself in my bed again, consciousness fully awake and struggling to comprehend what just transpired. I concluded that it was a dream, and decided to transfer to my parents' room. But I was still unable to move a muscle. I tried to assess if this was still a dream, but it all felt very real, and besides, didn't I already wake up from a dream? Still unable to open my eyelids, I was able to lumber over to our maid's room (which was on the way to my parents' room) and I tried to wake her up by shaking her. But I was still unable to move my arms, so I sat down on her bed and found myself sitting on her leg, successfully waking her up. I tried to issue instructions for her to prepare a mattress for my use on the other room, but I was unable to move my mouth, and even mumbling incoherently was a struggle. At some point I was able to jump and shake my wrists in an effort to stimulate circulation, but I still found myself unable to open my eyes.

Fully convinced that it was no longer a dream, I found myself again on my bed, apparently waking up from another dream. This time I was able to open my eyes and move around, and I became convinced that it was over, that I was really awake and in my bed. With no more urges to transfer rooms, I got back to sleep with no further freaky dreams.

This must be what an Other feels, as one moves through the different levels of the Twilight.

Sex Education with the Government

2007-11-16T22:32:00.000+08:00

City Hall conducts this huge waste of time called the Family Planning seminar as a requirement for couples who are about to be married. As with a lot of government initiatives, the seminar has a worthy goal but whose implementation was sorely lacking.

The four-hour seminar that we attended in Quezon City hall was divided roughly into a 3-hour discussion on the natural method of family planning (the Billings method, based on the woman's menstrual cycle and consistency of vaginal fluids), integrated with lectures on what the Bible says about contraception and the defenestration of certain male bodily fluids, and fallacious arguments on why the artificial methods of family planning are sinful and unhealthy. The seminar attendees, composed mostly of couples already living together on one roof (as indicated by the identical address entries on the attendance chart, and a couple of pregnant bellies), were forced to endure a heavy-handed presentation on the supposedly only correct method. An elderly, seedy looking man, who in fairness was very familiar with his subject matter, discoursed heroically about the grisly details of the sexual anatomy of males and females, liberally peppering his discussion with off-color jokes that surprisingly failed to amuse even the most jologs-looking members of his audience.

After being assured that he is our friend and we are free to call him should we have marital difficulties, a midwife from the city's health department took over to attempt to present the artificial methods of family planning. Any hope that this would be a more scientific presentation than the preceding morally-laden seminar was dashed after hearing the midwife speak. After a vague start on the difference in the hair of men and women, and complementing a member of her audience for being macho, she proceeded to demolish my expectations for her presentation systematically. The least thing I expected from a health worker is a clinical treatment of the subject matter, but she hesitated on the local term for penis (blushing as she pronounced it), and totally flubbed the local term for vagina (referred to it as "yun na yun" and blushed yet again). Not exactly confidence inspiring.

Emphasizing the need for outlines during public presentations by demonstrating what happens if you don't have one, she tried to cover a lot of ground on family planning methods, vaccinations, locations of lying-in clinics, and pleas for mothers to take baths before going to health centers. This was a mess, and more often than not, the audience had no idea what her point was. She wasn't able to discuss useful information (side effects of pills and injectables, how to use condoms properly, how to minimize the chances of pregnancy, provide handouts on prenatal care) but was able to spend a lot of time showcasing her knowledge of information that is of little use to her audience (vaccine measurements, what limb is used for what vaccine). Dawn tried to ask leading questions to try and help her get her back to her point, but she adamantly refused help and insisted on forging on into irrelevance.

What a waste. I heard nothing there that I haven't learned from more reliable sources. But the real tragedy is that this is reflective of the state of our city's (country's?) health system. The government is not even able to provide a proper information campaign on reproductive health and insists on fielding religious people instead of medical professionals to talk about family planning methods. Complete information about family planning alternatives are then restricted to the middle and upper class sectors (and who are actually practicing family planning), and fails to reach the poorer sectors who are actually the ones who need to know and have more access to contraception methods.

Busy busy

2007-11-11T18:42:00.000+08:00

It has been a very busy last two weeks for me, and sadly it wasn't much along the lines of work and school. Having suddenly been pushed into a cramming mode when November came around, wedding preps are now going into high gear with less than two months to go.

Happily, last week was our school's semestral break and we were able to get a lot of things done:

1. Monday - Preparing to get myself into a higher gear, I went out with friends to roam Binondo and have lunch at the hole in the wall restaurant Wai Ying. I also made the ill-advised move of purchasing the second season of Prison Break on DVD, something that took up all my time for the rest of the week,

2. Tuesday - My mom accompanied me to the bank to withdraw cash, and then again to the reception venue where I picked up the venue contract and paid the balance on our venue fees. Still considered not getting fireworks, but will probably go ahead and contract the fireworks supplier of the venue.

3. Wednesday - Dawn and I went to our church for the canonical interview. Since the priest was rather busy during that time we were simply asked to answer several questions and we will just be called up if the priest has questions. We also picked up the wedding banns and the request for dispensation for mixed marriages. We then went to a church in Cubao to pick up Dawn's baptismal certificate before heading off to Intramuros office of the Chancery, which issues the dispensations. I was actually worried that this would be a difficult procedure involving a lot of interviews, but it was actually quick and painless. My encounters with Catholic Church bureaucracy involving weddings so far has left a good impression on me.

4. Thursday/Friday - Prison Break DVD for two whole freaking days. I planned to finish a bunch of activity sheets for these two days and ended up with nothing.

5. Saturday - Purchased a camera as my birthday gift to myself, with no objections from Dawn for such a lavish expense this close to the wedding. Headed off to a friend's place (Phoebe) to celebrate her birthday with cake and pizza. Stayed for conversation and found out about this restaurant in Tiaong which could be a candidate for prenups.

6. Sunday - Prison Break! Aaargh!

Not being able to do anything school related, I gave up and went to school and had my students answer questions from the books instead of from my printed activity sheets. Anyway that's what the textbooks are for. The preps were still foremost on my mind this week.

7. Monday - I made the stupid mistake of calling up the parish office. Of course they are closed on Mondays. Gave out the first batch of invitations to school people. Met with Dawn later that day to drive around Marikina and meet with our caterer to discuss details and to submit the first payment.

8. Tuesday - We were able to schedule our pre-cana seminar for the last week of the month. Gave out the second batch of invitations.

9. Wednesday - Called up the hotel where we planned to stay to inquire about reservations, but I needed to have the discount coupon that our coordinator will give us. Played badminton later that night and had an advance celebration for my birthday with my dormmates and the business office peeps.

10. Thursday/Friday - work work work

11. Saturday - Dawn wasn't available during the morning because it was card giving at her school. I had to attend the food tasting without Dawn, so I brought my mom and sister along. The food was great, and after the tasting we headed off to the cake supplier for cake tasting this time. We had the details finalized there, including the cake flavor, design, and toppers. I discovered that my high school batchmate and erstwhile officemate Anthony was also a client of our cake maker, and was surprised to find out that they will get married earlier than I will. Dawn had to attend the final round of gown fittings with some of her bridesmaids, and afterwards we met up in Trinoma for my birthday dinner at Itallianni's, where we were able to take advantage of a P500-off coupon. We also bought several yards of blue ribbon from a surly saleslady in a ribbon and textile shop in SM North, which we'll use for the invitations.

12. Sunday - Had birthday lunch with my family, somewhere along C5 road. After arriving home I had myself measured for my barong in a shop in the mall, and attached name tags to the rest of the invitations that I had with me. I still have not done anything school related, even though the deadline for the first draft of the exams is on Wednesday, and I made a big show of taking my textbooks home. Now that I'm finished with the invites, I'm still procrastinating by making this blog entry.

Back to work now. And happy birthday to me. :)

Concerts and Exams

2007-10-07T11:37:00.000+08:00

No new climbs. )=

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Two weeks ago Dawn and I watched Fall Out Boy live at the Araneta Coliseum. Dawn really was the FOB fan, way back before they released their Infinity on High album. She was already a fan even before I heard of FOB. Knowing my ambivalent feelings towards the band, she had me listen to their songs over and over again so I can be familiar with their songs and enjoy myself on their concert, where Dawn already had tickets more than a month in advance.

Listening to their songs over and over again, I developed an appreciation for their songs and especially for their lyrics. The impression I developed over time is that these are actually well-read people (or at least their lyricist is) with a wide variety of references in their lyrics. By the time we watched the concert, I already had a few favorites among their songs, and I was able to shout the lyrics back at the band along with the rest of the crowd.

A week ago we watched another concert, Sugarfree along with the Manila Symphony Orchestra. Again, Dawn was able to procure tickets way ahead of time, and got us seats in the very front row of the Music Museum. I must say I enjoyed myself more here than the last week's concert. The orchestra accompaniment to Sugarfree's compositions were great, and made me recall with regret the Wolfgang Acoustica concert way back when I was still in college, which I missed. The band was incredible, and unlike other local bands (the pretentiously emo Chicosci that opened the FOB concert immediately came to mind), I felt that Sugarfree's music was the type that will endure and will not become dated. Their music is sincere, sensitive, and true, with none of the obvious imitation and abject neediness displayed by other, younger OPM bands (e.g. Chicosci again).

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It has been a rather stressful exam preparation week last week, as we prepared for the midterm exams. It was a three-day struggle for me to create the Geometry exam, because the exam necessitated the creation of a lot of diagrams that had to be labeled and marked and resized and formatted and whatnot. It was also difficult to put variations on the proving steps, since our class pretty much covered as much as variations as we can cover in the past two weeks to build up the proving skill. I carelessly assumed that I would be able to come up with the Calculus and Trigonometry exams in a shorter time because traditionally they were easier to make than Geometry. I had no problems with the Calculus exam, but the Trigonometry exam floored me. I guess I should have seen it earlier, since we hardly covered any new terminologies but instead focused on proving and simplification techniques. Unfortunately, I didn't. So when I sat down and tried to generate multiple choice and true or false questions, I encountered a lot of difficulties. So it was a good thing that I got very used to using my test specifications (something that I'm pretty sure no other teacher in our school is using properly) to help me generate my questions.

Here's what I actually observed the other teachers seem to be doing with their test specifications. They generate an exam first, then they analyze each question and identify which Bloom's classification the question falls under, and then make the appropriate entry on their specifications. What happens is that the specs become just another piece of paperwork that needs to be submitted for compliance.

What I do is I sit down, decide what sections I will put in my exam (I default to multiple choice, then modified true or false, then computations/solving, and finally word problems, graphing, or proving, whichever is more appropriate to the subject), and then plot each item into the test specifications, without making the exam first. Afterwards when I make the exam, I force myself to come up with a question on a particular topic on a particular test section on a particular Bloom's category; for example, for number 22 of an exam I need to make a Comprehension question for the Modified T/F section on the topic of Cofunction Identities. That way I can put a limit on what the questions that I'm considering for that number, while making sure that I keep my exam balanced according to my topics. So far, that has worked for me. It takes a little more time in preparation, but it cuts back significantly on revision time. Plus, I'm very confident in the validity of my exams.

In the past exams my main problem was having all the exams finished by the deadline, and I had to cajole and follow-up on some of my teachers to make sure that they finish their exams on time. It wasn't that big of a problem back then, since most of my teachers were very prompt in completing their exams and their revisions, and put up little resistance. This time, I got caught by surprise. I was expecting some problems and delays on the part of our new math teacher, and instead I got blindsided by insubordination on another, usually reliable, teacher's part. So for the first time, the school's math department was not able to submit complete exams before the deadline, just at the time when the school decided to be inflexible with regard to deadlines (which is actually a Good Thing). That got me so stressed in the past few days, but it will probably iron itself out by Monday. Actually, it should.

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I've been lending some of my books to a couple of my sophomore students, and actually this is one of the most rewarding interactions that I have with my students. They are voracious readers who actually take the time to reflect on the books that they read. They're much better readers than I was when I was their age, and I'm very proud of them.

Famy etc.

2007-09-11T11:42:00.000+08:00

I tagged along with my former officemates when they went to Famy last Saturday to send Mian off as she transfers to Singapore in October. I enjoyed this climb better than my first trek up Famy, because the weather was great, the trail was dry, I knew my companions better, and we had better alcohol for socials. This was also my first experience at rappelling, something I'm looking forward to repeating. I realized I had a lot of things on my mind when I first climbed Famy (I missed our school's sportsfest), and climbing it again with a clearer conscience, I was able to pay better attention to the trail and directions, and I should be able to return there unguided.

My great weekend was marred only when I returned back to the dorm after the climb and found out that my housemates were not able to retrieve my laundry. Coming back from a climb at nine in the evening with nothing to change into, and no uniform to wear the next day, I got pissed and commuted down from Antipolo to Dawn's place where I left my car and planned to crash the night there. However, she was entertaining her cousins who had to leave at five in the morning the next day. With the couches occupied, and anticipating the busy morning, I decided to not stay and drove home instead. Predictably, I was too bushed to report for work the next day.

2007-07-28T20:23:00.001+08:00

Dawn tagged me, so I'm writing seven things about myself. I won't be tagging anyone else, because I'm that kind of person.

1. The first thing people should know about me is that I am deaf on my right ear. I was too young to remember having the use of both ears, and I am not sure how my hearing got lost. I was either born with it, or it could have resulted from my aunt cleaning my ears too hard which caused it to bleed, or from the antibiotics I took when I developed a skin infection after swimming in a beach. I usually use the third explanation when people ask me why, but my aunt is still very guilty because she fears that she could have been the one who took away my hearing.

2. I love climbing mountains, but I’m not a hardcore mountaineer. I wish I could climb more, but I don’t have the free time or the budget to keep living the outdoor life. I first started climbing on 2005, and averaged a mountain a month. Now I have only had two climbs this year, and it’s already the middle of the year. The highest I’ve been to was Mt. Apo, which is the highest mountain in the country. My toughest climb was Mt. Guiting-guiting, and I haven’t been to Mt. Halcon yet. Climbing taught me to cook, and unfortunately this was also where I learned to become an accomplished alcohol drinker, and where I developed a preference for hard alcohol over beer.

3. I look at people today hooked on games like DOTA and Ragnarok, and I’m thankful that I didn’t get the gaming bug. I started on that dark road way back before gaming was popular, and misspent my high school life playing the granddaddies of today’s popular games: Deathtrack (who knows this?), Civilization, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Heretic, Command and Conquer (the first one), Dune, Lemmings, Commander Keen, Worms, Flashback, Heroes of Might and Magic 1 and 2, Altered Beast, Wing Commander 1 and 2, etc. Somehow I lost the bug when I got to college and had a girlfriend.

4. I wasted a lot of money on things that have never really made me happy. When I was in high school I got hooked on Magic: The Gathering cards, and that was where my stipends went. I dropped the habit when I got to college, and I got a job as an SA for the EEE department. The money I earned there went to computer frivolities: upgrades, a flatbed scanner, and more upgrades. The upgrades made my computer faster and more powerful, allowing me to waste my time in faster and more powerful methods. For the past two years I have been spending a lot of money on hiking equipment, but I that is an exception, because I was very happy with my experiences on that regard.

5. I have a fascination for WWII aircraft, specifically British and German propeller-driven fighter planes. I picked the weird fascination up when I read a Time picture book of the European air war during WWII. Some boring trivia: (1) Stuka dive bombers were used in the blitzkrieg invasion of Poland to add an element of terror during the attacks. The bombers were equipped with a device that produced a screaming sound during a dive bombing run to add that terrifying anticipation before the actual bombs hit. (2) The British Mosquito fighter plane was made entirely of wood (except for the guns of course) that made it invisible to radar. These planes usually served as the lead planes during night bombing runs because they can drop the incendiary bombs that will light the target for the big bomber planes. (3) I can identify a Messerschmitt 109 fighter by its silhouette.

6. I observed that my habits get worse as I grow older. When I first had a job I was able to keep more than 50% of my salary as savings. But as I grew older, and actually started to earn more, I also started spending more and it got to the point that I was able to save more money on my first job, when I was actually earning less. Also, three years ago, I was able to discipline myself into exercising and dieting, and was able to drop 20 pounds in 8 months. After gaining back 10, but knowing that I have the capacity and capability to lose that 10, I can't bring myself to regain the discipline I have already displayed three years ago. But I could do it again if I want to. I think.

7. I hate reading messages from people who misuse the ellipsis... I used to work as a network and server administrator, and part of my job was to receive trouble tickets describing various problems encountered by the users... One user (a generally nice person) only used one freaking punctuation mark, the dreaded ellipsis... Every sentence and paragraph ended in ellipses, and it was very tiring to read her description... I felt that I was always waiting for something to happen... This practice of replacing periods with ellipses are also prevalent in people's blogs, and I find it really annoying...

Itch

2007-07-02T12:19:00.000+08:00

After watching Lakbay TV on cable, I suddenly had this itch to go off on climbs again. It's been two months since my last climb, and lately I haven't been feeling the urge to climb. I'm horrendously out of shape and I figured I haven't got the time and the budget for another climbing trip.

I do miss the excitement of going of to a place I haven't been to before, without the benefit of a guide. Dawn and I did pretty well when we jaunted off to Sagada and Palawan on our own with only a guidebook to help us out with no advanced reservations at all. Hopefully we can still pull off something like that after we're married, and finally fulfill my wish of backpacking to Camiguin.

Choosing schools

2007-07-02T01:12:00.000+08:00

My uncle is planning to move his family back here from the states, and they have been shopping around for a school where my cousins (a 13 year old girl and a 9 year old boy) can attend next year. I heard they were considering Ateneo for the boy, which would not be so bad as far as schools go. Earlier today, however, they said that they will probably enroll the kids to some other school because in that school, the rooms are air-conditioned. Of course, this is one of the stupidest reasons for choosing a school for one's children. I don't know much about the school they are considering, but there really is something wrong with their decision to put the children's comfort over everything else a school has to offer.

It's pathetic how these my relatives take such an abnormal view of prioritizing education: shopping around for a school a year ahead, only to use such an unimportant criterion for selection.

Regarding Regards

2007-06-29T23:41:00.000+08:00

One of my pet language peeves is the misuse of the phrase "with regard to". A lot of people in our school, including language teachers, use the phrase "with regards to" indiscriminately. My problem is I always get ticked off every time I hear that phrase uttered.

A couple of days ago, I couldn't help myself and gathered several of my students and told them to avoid using "with regards to". I compared the misused word "regards", which means greetings, to the proper word "regard", which means attention, and the kids immediately picked up the difference.

I'm not really a grammar nazi, and I probably let slip several wrongly worded phrases myself, but it's just that this particular phrase is widely bandied around by people in our school, that I couldn't resist pointing attention to it.

Background change

2007-06-24T01:42:00.000+08:00

I changed the background from a view on Mt. Guiting-guiting's knife edge to Mt. Apo's boulders. Not something one sees everyday.

Identification Cards

2007-06-24T01:18:00.000+08:00

The school is in a haste to implement its “No ID-No Entry” policy that it directed its teachers-in-charge to urgently create temporary identification cards. These cards are just printed on paper, with a 1x1 photo of the student glued in front, laminated, and affixed with a ribbon to be placed around the neck. These cards are issued because the actual identification cards are not due to be released anytime soon.

The problem begins with the implementation. All TICs are required to create these cards for their respective classes, but there was no template handed down to the TICs where they will simply type in the names of their students. This approach led to several problems: (1) the identification cards are not exactly alike across batches, (2) the material used for the cards are not alike across batches: some batches used colored cardboard, others settled for scratch paper, (3) there was resentment from proactive TICs who felt ripped off when the late movers simply asked for the cards to be “saved as”, after these proactive TICs spent a lot of time designing the cards, (4) the waste of time and resources because this directive was issued when classes have already started and the teachers already had teaching loads on top of their administrative loads. Ink, paper, photos, and laminating plastic will also be consumed for this temporary measure.

There are several solutions that I see, each applicable to different levels of the problem:

1. Instead of verbally directing the TICs, a template could have been prepared ahead of time which will be disseminated to the TICs as a document file. The TIC will simply input the students’ names, grade levels, and the TIC’s name to the file. This could have saved the time of TICs who designed the cards from scratch, and their resentment of the freeloaders. This would also have made the appearance of the cards consistent.

2. The temporary cards could have been prepared as early as the summer break, when the teachers did not have any teaching loads. Considering that the class lists are not available during the summer break, they could have left the important fields blank, to be manually filled up later by the TIC.

3. Not apply the “No ID-No Entry” policy at all, until the official identification cards have been printed and issued to the students. The school is relatively small anyway, and outsiders are easily identified.

4. Issue ID cards that are used throughout particular grade levels and countersign them every year. For example, a Grade 1 student will be issued an ID card that will be used until the student reaches Grade 3, and the card will simply be countersigned for Grades 2 and 3. The same process will be applied for Grades 4 to 6, and high school. Instead of having to print new identification cards every year, identification cards will only be printed for new students and incoming Grade 1, Grade 4, and First Year students. This saves resources (ID cards), allows the “No ID-No Entry” policy to be implemented immediately with few exceptions, and limits the scope of the temporary IDs to three batches instead of ten.

I’m not looking to climb any mountains this year, with the wedding date fast approaching, so I’ll probably be talking about school stuff for the next few posts.

2007-06-13T20:45:00.000+08:00

Sometimes I feel that I want my life to be a Cameron Crowe movie. Sometimes I just want a Cameron Crowe soundtrack for it.

I caught Elizabethtown on HBO last week, and I was taken away by how personal and raw the scenes were. It was understandably unappealing to the general public, where a lot of time is spent focusing on the family relationships instead of the romance the movie was presumably marketed under. But it was the sincerity of his scenes that made me love his movies, and this movie didn't disappoint. I was reminded of how blown away I was when I first watched Almost Famous (my initiation to his movies) and Say Anything, another movie I just happened upon on cable.

Tarak again

2007-06-11T17:54:00.000+08:00

I climbed Tarak again last April, just to guide my co-teachers Henry, Annie, and Teacher Jo up a mountain they haven't been to before. I wasn't really all that up to it because we weren't really all that close, but I figured I might as well have fun. Henry's sister also tagged along, and she turned out to be a surprisingly strong climber.

I think this is the first time I guided a group up a mountain, and the first time that I was the only person who knew the trail. It was a good thing the weather was great, because my companions were relatively beginners and rain would have made the trail doubly tough. The landslides along the trail would have been that much more difficult to traverse if the soil was wet.

This is also the first time I saw a climber bring a stroller bag up a mountain. I was really worried when I saw what Teacher Jo brought, because I knew the climb was not going to be easy for them, even with the proper equipment, and here she is with a backpack that is uncomfortable and probably easily torn.

This time around I was ready with my swimwear so I was able to take a dip on the Papaya stream. The water was horrendously cold, and I figured this caused the mouth sores (singaw) that I suffered right after the trip. (My body cooled down very quickly and heat was released on the thin skin on my lips.)

The road trip here was nasty and long. It took us so long to get there that we had to rush our ascent, and the trip home was very tiring. Still haven't summitted this mountain, will probably do so when I climb here again, but not for anytime soon.

Panay Island: Boracay

2007-04-12T22:35:00.000+08:00

Boracay Beach
March 31 to April 3, 2007

After bringing Dawn to Ilocos to meet my family, she invited me to come with her on a vacation to meet her relatives in Capiz province, in the island of Panay. With no second thoughts, I said yes. It was a long, tough trip, as we went by sea instead of by air, and we had to cross the island of Mindoro by land as well.

March 31
We left Dawn's house at exactly 12 midnight and headed for Batangas pier to catch the 4:00 am RORO ship bound for the Calapan pier in Mindoro. We slept through the drive to Batangas and the sea trip, and arrived in Calapan at around 7:00 in the morning. We headed for the port of Roxas located in the southern part of the island to catch the 12:00 noon ship, dropping off a couple of Dawn's relatives in the town of Socorro. A lot of bridges were being constructed along the way, presumably as a source of election funding from kickbacks.

The second vessel from Roxas to Caticlan in the province of Aklan was a better ride, but we still slept through most of the trip. We reached Caticlan around 5 in the afternoon and joined up with Dawn's relatives from Capiz before catching the jetty trip to Boracay island, which we reached at around 7 pm. By then there were eight of us, and after settling in and having dinner at the resort (Nikko's in Station 3), I took my first stroll along the white sands of the Boracay beach. We walked all the way to Station 1, passed by the Station 2 shops, then headed back to our resort to rest.

April 1
We started the day off with a morning swim on the beach, and afterwards joined a bunch of tourists on a boat ride around the island. The tour included stopovers at two snorkel sites, buffet lunch, a stopover at Puka beach, another stopover at Crystal Cove, and a rough boat ride on the eastern side of the island. While overall the boat trip is ok, there is nothing spectacular or even special with the activities on the ride.

The snorkeling sites were so-so, but there were fishes enough to make it fun. However, they were nothing compared to Balicasag island in Panglao which was full of living coral in various colors, and more varieties of fish. We also spent a measly 30 minutes on each snorkeling site, which was not enough to enjoy the experience. During times like that I always regret leaving my old company and not being able to join the dive club and get certified. I'm sure Boracay has great dive sites, it's just I can't get to them.

The food was ok and was mostly grilled stuff. Puka beach was also a pretty sight. A helicopter passed overhead while we were on the beach, and spooked this whole community of bats, driving them out into the sun and covering the sky with a cloud of flying bats. The sight was awesome as there were hundreds of bats swirling around, but it must have been very stressful for the poor bats who were probably asleep before the helicopter passed by.

Crystal cove was almost a waste of time. Overly developed and kitschily decorated, I felt that the place was soulless. A couple of underground coves were the main attraction on this park. The second cove was reachable only after crawling through a 30-foot cave tunnel but was worth the effort. But with plaster sphinxes and centaurs, there was a general feel of fakeness on the place. I assumed that the overly priced entrance fee was for the maintenance of these sorry creatures.

We passed by the eastern side of the island, and the waves there were strong, and were already producing whitecaps. I knew logically that we should be safe, but the memory of the ferry sinking experience kept coming back. I was scared while we were passing the turbulent part, even though I would probably have responded better this time around should the boat sink again. I guess normally I wouldn't be scared, but the ferry sinking made the possibility a real one for me.

I took another stroll along the beach, and got back to the resort as the sun finished setting. We were still planning to go out and buy souvenirs after dinner, but I fell asleep early even before dinner, so the night was lost.

April 2
I woke up early and I bathed on the water the whole of that morning, with the occasional ice cream and slushies paid for with bills that have been soaked in sea water. After our lunch we joined our guide on a land tour across the island, another trip that wasn't anything special.

We visited a butterfly garden, several souvenir shops along Puka beach, and the highest point of the island. My problem is that I really not much on visiting tourist traps and I would prefer to visit places with natural points of interest and not have to pay for stupid entrance fees. I did not climb up to the view deck as there was an absurd P60 charge, and I did not enter the butterfly garden for the same reason.

After the tour we shopped for souvenir shirts, then had dinner back at the resort. After dinner, we decided to have a taste of the nightlife that eluded us for the past two nights, and ended up sipping fruit shakes in Jonah's, and listening to an acoustic band playing at Chillout bar. It was very late when we arrived back at the resort, and we departed for Capiz early the next day.

What I liked about Boracay is that I did not find it to be overrated. I was expecting to be disappointed since I thought that it was overly hyped, and I have already seen really beautiful beaches in Palawan and Bohol to be impressed by another white beach. I wasn't disappointed. Boracay was very pretty, perhaps not as pretty as Panglao, but it lived up to its hype.

Also, it was a pleasant surprise that the beach wasn't as crowded as I expected it to be, being the Holy week and all. It was probably because the main Holy Week crowd has not arrived yet, and most dining places along the beach were empty at eight in the evening. I don't like large crowds at all, and the relatively small number of people there was a comfort.

What irked me about the place was having to pay for every little thing, including snorkeling at a site (the fee was on top of what we paid for for the tour), entrance to parks, taking pictures beside the huge sand castles, climbing up to view decks, and whatnot. These are simple, irrelevant activities that could add to the enjoyment, but the fees or donations being charged quickly turned whatever enjoyment I felt to annoyance. Of course paying for food and drinks is not a problem as this is already a given. I did notice that the soft ice cream being sold for P10 when we arrived Friday night was jacked up to P11 the next day, perhaps signaling the start of the peak season.

Kurt Vonnegut, 84

2007-04-12T15:40:00.000+08:00

I was shocked to read that my favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., has died. I have long feared this day, as he was already old and was a heavy smoker of Pall Mall cigarettes, "a classy way to commit suicide" as he himself said.

He was the author of several satirical books filled with dark humor, which I found amusing but left me depressed after. The first book of his that I read was Breakfast of Champions, and got me hooked until I have collected all his books that are sold on local bookstores. I have shared his books with my friends, who I'm sure would also mourn his passing.

He was a survivor of the firebombing of Dresden, being a prisoner of war when the Allied command decided to turn Germany's cities to ash one by one by having the Americans bomb the cities by day and having the British continue the job by night. He was the son of a suicide, and had his only sister die from a painful sickness, events that permeate his essays and novels.

He has finally died, living the life of an humanist agnostic. He planned to stand in front of God and declare that while he is not a Christian, he has lived his life in the service of humanity. He probably stands there now making his case. God rest his soul.

Ubuntu on HP500 Notebook

2007-04-12T15:11:00.000+08:00

Having decided to finally purchase a laptop, I canvassed the shops for laptops under 40k with basic features where I can get most of my work done. We have a shortage of desktop PCs for school teachers, and having my own laptop ensures that I will always have something to use.

I purchased an HP500 Notebook PC, mostly because it is on my price range, the laptop itself looked nice, and compared to other laptop brands on the price range, it has a local service center where I can have it serviced in case it encounters problems past the warranty date.

I decided from the start that I will be using the Ubuntu distribution for my laptop. I have always wanted to have a Linux machine, but I never had a fast internet connection at home until now. Also, I had to consider the other users at home who will not welcome a change in the PC's operating system.

Installing Ubuntu was painless. There were a couple of little things problems that I encountered, but I dismissed them as minor issues that can easily be fixed: the touchpad was not working, and the display was blurry. After the installation, I was able to configure the DSL connection that we used at home and hook up the laptop immediately to the internet for updates. I had to use the command line for this task, because there was no shortcut on the menu system that will configure it for me. Good thing I had the PC on standby as I was able to quickly get information online on how to do this.

While looking for information on how to enable the touchpad, I discovered that the fix for that problem will require a modification of the source code and an installation of a new kernel. I was able to find detailed instructions on solving the problem online from a guy who also had an HP500. His website also contained the procedure on fixing the screen resolution of the Ubuntu screen on the laptop. However, the fix for the touchpad disables the wifi, and happily I found another guy who had the same problem on the same system, and was able to fix it just by adding a soft link.

That was the toughest part. After compiling and installing a new kernel and getting the touchpad to work, I had to work on getting the laptop to play mp3s, dvds and other media. Support for these proprietary formats are not natively supported by Ubuntu, and had to be installed separately.

Installation on Ubuntu is very simple. A list of several sources of applications and libraries is located in a file, and most applications that run in Ubuntu are available in these sources for free. The default list just needs to be updated to include other sources, so the system can have access to a wider bunch of applications and libraries.

These are the applications that I installed on my laptop:
codecs and libraries for dvd playback via totem-xine
j2se v6.0
flash player
google earth
eqonomize – an accounting application
gltron – a tron game
replaced the bundled openoffice 2.0 with openoffice 2.2 so I can have the visio replacement
gnomebaker dvd burning program
bittornado torrent client

Firefox is already bundled with Ubuntu. Gaim, a replacement for YM and AIM messengers is also bundled. Gimp, an open source alternative to Photoshop, is also installed. After two days of installations and configurations, my laptop is already more or less complete with the things I need for school.

The existence of an active Ubuntu online community also helped immensely. I was able to find install guides and issue resolutions from Google, and not from a highly specific proprietary knowledgebase. I also did not have trouble finding solutions to issues that are specific to my laptop, which was something I was worried about before.

Here are several issues I encountered with installing Ubuntu:
1. The touchpad and wifi problem (required a new kernel)
2. The screen resolution was stuck at 1024x768 and the 1200x800 resolution was not available. (resolved)
3. My PenDrive USB drive is not recognized when hot-plugged, but is recognized if the laptop is rebooted with the drive inserted. However, other USB drives don't have this problem.
4. DHCP is not auto-refreshed. The “dhclient” command needed to be executed every time I'm connecting to the school network.
5. DVD playback is not as good as with Windows DVD players.
6. Inability to modify menu items (resolved by changing user permissions on my home directories)
7. I read that there are still problems in switching displays in laptops, but I haven't tried switching displays yet.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with my choice of operating system. But I still find it hard to recommend Ubuntu to other people as a replacement for Windows on their PCs.

1. Windows users may not have enough confidence configuring their computers from the command line. Ubuntu has a lot of command line interaction that may be daunting for the average user.
2. It requires commitment. I spent a lot of time getting my installation to the way I want it to be.
3. Legal issues are currently non-issues in this country. With so many pirated Windows software readily available, it is useless to compare the price of a Windows license with a free installation like Ubuntu. Likewise for programs like Photoshop and Macromedia Flash, which can be bought from the friendly neighborhood pirate for a few bucks.
4. Compatibility issues from peripherals (iPods, printers, and other gadgets “made for Windows”)
5. Compatibility with Windows games.
6. Windows users will probably find it harder to diagnose problems on Linux because of the vastly different interface.
7. Windows users already familiar with their programs (MS Office, Photoshop, etc.) may find that the features they use on Windows applications are not present on the Linux equivalents.

On the other hand, installing Windows on an empty machine will have you prepare the following: the Windows CD, Office CD, Antivirus installers, Photoshop CD, Nero Installer, and an internet connection, as opposed to Ubuntu where you only need the bootable installer CD and an internet connection. So with a medium level of effort, an open mind, and persistence in Googling, a novice Ubuntu user should be able to install Ubuntu on a level similar to Windows.

Links to helpful websites:
Ubuntu Starter Guide: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Edgy (very useful!)
Ubuntu Forums: http://ubuntuforums.org/ (search this site for resolutions to problems)
Ubuntu problems on HP500: http://hp500.xf.cz/us/Main.html

Graduation

2007-03-26T02:15:00.000+08:00

The kids have graduated. I'm very proud of you guys and I wish you the best of luck in college. Squeeze college out for all its worth, and learn everything you can about your subjects, about people, about your world, and about yourselves.

Field Trip

2007-03-26T01:42:00.000+08:00

I tagged along on the school field trip to Subic Bay to see the tigers in Zoobic Safari. The trip was worth it probably because it was free for us teachers, but otherwise it did not feel that it was worth it, if only for all the time spent on the road, and because of the wretched afternoon heat.

I like animals as much as the next guy, but I can’t appreciate them in the way they are presented there. Large tigers are kept in small cages. Crocs are being crowded in a small pool. Things like that. They were selling (dead) chickens for P200 each, for the kids to feed the crocs and tigers. That’s just exploitation, and it is particularly sickening because their primary clientele are kids. It may be exciting for kids to feed the animals, but the way I see it, they are paying not for the chicken, but for the privilege of feeding these animals. They probably feed the leftovers to the animals anyway. I guess I wouldn’t mind so much if adults were the ones paying, but these are kids, grade school kids at that.

The same goes for those kitschy souvenir shops that sell generic souvenirs to tourists and students. These are the same things you can find in tourist traps all over the country, and are grossly overpriced. Yet some students would quickly fork over money for these nonsensical things, because of the novelty. The vendors take advantage of the kids’ naiveté, and mark up the prices horrendously. One kid there got a scolding from another teacher for purchasing a poorly crafted box without consulting his teacher to help him haggle at least, if he cannot be dissuaded from buying the souvenir.

I also can’t appreciate the supposed performances of tribal customs done by the local tribesmen. There’s something very fake and very sad about the whole thing, like they are just museum pieces on display to an unappreciative crowd. The term “museum fremen” comes to mind.

What I did love about the trip was the chance to interact with some grade school kids. As a high school teacher I do not get to interact with the smaller kids at all, and while they are really makulit and all, there’s that spark of innocence that I found refreshing. I still wouldn’t want to be a grade school teacher, but I won’t mind interacting with the smaller kids again in future school activities.

Vigan, Ilocos Sur

2007-03-12T00:09:00.000+08:00

My paternal grandparents celebrated their golden wedding anniversary by flying back here from California and getting married again in Candon, Ilocos Sur, the town where my grandmother grew up in. As this was a big event for my clannish family, I invited Dawn along so she can meet my family as they assemble in full force.

We embarked on a six-hour night trip by bus from Cubao to Candon, and we were met by my parents by the town plaza at around four-thirty in the morning before proceeding to the barangay where the ancestral home is located. With only a short period of time to rest, eat, and wash up, we dressed up for the wedding that was to take place in the nearby Methodist church. As the wedding was conducted mostly in Ilocano, I wasn’t able to follow much of the service, being the ignorant city boy that I am.

After having a lunch of various incarnations of greasy pork preparations, Dawn and I went back to Candon town to get a ride to Vigan, which we planned to explore as there was really nothing to do in Candon or in the barangay where we stayed.

We almost took a non-air conditioned minibus as the big provincial buses were scarce around the time we were there. This turned out to be a good decision as the trip from Candon to Vigan was a very hot trip on open road that lasted for almost two hours. I fell asleep for most of the trip, but I woke up to this great view of the sea to the left, and mountain cliffs to the right. At this point I had no idea where we were already, and I got worried because we could have missed our stop, since we were not familiar with the sequence of towns.

As we neared Vigan, we passed through the magnificent Quirino bridge, and I remember being awestruck by it. Granted it isn’t really big as far as bridges go, but I rarely see long bridges, and I have always been excited by bridges, even if it is only as common as passing through Quezon bridge in Quiapo. The bridge spanned across the part of the land where the river meets the sea (the proper term is an estuary, but I’m not sure if that’s really an estuary). I thought that the bridge was so cool, and having recognized this fetish for bridges, I’ve added the San Juanico bridge in Leyte to my list of must-see places.

Vigan was clean and well laid-out city that caters to tourists. There were a bunch of tourists, both local and foreign, moving about the city plaza and riding the horse-drawn carriages. Dawn and I were planning on moving about on foot, but as we forgot to bring the guidebook along with us, we decided to consult with the tourism office for a list of places to visit. The people there, probably because it was almost quitting time, tried their best to shoo us away by summarizing all his answers to “just get a calesa ride!” which we wanted to avoid as it costs money and was downright tacky. Having run out of options, we took a calesa ride on with who is probably the most unlively driver there.

First stop was a tour of Burgos museum handled by enthusiastic freshmen tourism students who were taking their OJTs there, and the inexperience clearly showed. Next on the list was another museum dedicated to my family name, and the political family that wielded enormous power in Ilocos Sur during the Marcos years. From there we went to the place where the locals baked enormous pots and witnessed a demonstration on pottery making. Interesting stuff, but not really what we came to Vigan for.

It was getting dark, and I was getting worried that we won’t be able to see what we came all the way to Vigan for: the cobblestone street with the old houses that identified Vigan in picture postcards. Without completing the tour, I had the driver drive us back to town where we alighted at one end of the street. Here we dismissed the driver as we decided to walk the rest of the way back through the old street. That was when Dawn and I started to enjoy ourselves, as we strolled through by the old houses lining the old street. We paused for pictures by the intersections as we tried to get a photo that we can use on our save-the-date cards for the wedding. It was a great idea, as the street carried my family name. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get that one perfect shot, but it was okay since we were able to make this really cool beach-themed save-the-date card that we eventually used.

We also checked out the cathedral, and since we’ve done church hunting for our wedding, I have developed a newfound appreciation for old Catholic churches. The cathedral was big, but as there was a service going-on we contented ourselves with looking in from the outside. From the cathedral we went off in search of the empanadas that my mom recommended we try. I was really expecting soft bread with meat filling, but the Vigan version of the empanada turned out to be this fried bread batter rolls with meat and vegetables rolled inside. It was good and filling enough that it was enough for our dinner, even though we were only planning to have it as a snack. A brief stop at the fastfood for ice cream, and we rode back to the highway to catch a bus back to Candon.

The whole Ilocos trip was a hectic and tiring affair, but it was fun and I had a really great time with Dawn. Next time, we’re going to her province, as it is my turn to meet her family, and of course, to eat fresh oysters.

2007-03-04T16:06:00.000+08:00

I spent the whole Saturday in Calapan, Mindoro with Sir H. to check out the place where our kids will have their exposure trip among the Mangyans. It was right at the foot of Mt. Halcon, and the mountain was a really imposing. Too bad climbing is not permitted now. Hopefully I get to climb that mountain before I quit climbing for good.

Mt. Mariveles - Tarak Ridge

2007-02-19T00:22:00.000+08:00

Tarak Ridge

February 3 and 4, 2007

What was supposed to be a tune-up a February Pulag climb turned out to be the only climb that I’ll be making this month. I signed up for a climb up Pulag with the remaining members of my old office club I still have contact with, and they have chosen Mt. Mariveles’ Tarak Ridge as the climb to prepare the climbers for a the tougher Pulag climb through Akiki.

Assembly time was set at an unholy hour at the bus terminal by the intersection of Edsa and Taft Avenue. There I met up with my former officemates and climb buddies, but the guys from our Apo group were not there, as they were either occupied by work or out of the country. An hour after I arrived, we boarded a bus bound for Mariveles, Bataan.

On the bus I was able to catch up on my sleep, and when I woke up we were already in Bataan. I was able to catch a glimpse of the large cross of the Death March monument as we passed by Mt. Samat. A few minutes later we arrived at the Barangay of Alas-asin, the jump-off point for Tarak Ridge.

Registration, repacking, resupplying, and regrouping was done near the barangay hall. When everyone was ready, we crossed the highway and set off for the seemingly distant and imposing mountains of Mariveles, passing through a residential area until we reached the DENR outpost on the edge of the forest line. The trail was wide enough for five people to walk side by side, but quickly became narrow as we entered shrubland. Fallen branches hampered our way, and the trail slowly became steep. We broke through to level ground of loose soil and grassland, where we stopped for lunch. We had a cool and windy lunch spot, although as we were supposed to take our lunch by the Papaya River, we were already two hours behind our itinerary.

From the lunch spot the trail became a comfortable downhill walk through the forest, but we were conscious of the repercussions of such a trail: an inevitable steep climb afterward, and an uphill climb on the last leg of the next day’s descent. We were also expecting to negotiate a part of the trail that was made steep by a recent landslide, and we carried ropes to help us negotiate that portion. We encountered several false alarms until we finally reached the ruined portion of the trail. It took us some time to negotiate this portion as we paused to assess the trail and planned our way through the steep part. A flat webbing rope was already in place, presumably by the locals, which we used as a guide rope to get us through the break along the mountain side. Our group spent half an hour on this place until we were sure that the ones following us are already ok, and then we moved forward.

We continued going down until we finally reached the Papaya River at 3:00 pm, three hours behind our planned itinerary. According to our lead Gea, we should still be able to make it to the ridge before nighttime if we kept up our pace. We stayed by the river until 4:00 pm and set off after refilling our water bottles with river water. Still suspicious of river water (because there is always someplace upriver that you don’t see), I gathered a Coke bottle full for camp water, but I still had my hydration bladder full of drinking water.

A full assault marked the trail after the river. No flat areas for rests, we rested on jutting rocks and tree roots that lined the trail. With the tireless Gea on the lead, the lead group was reduced to Gea, Peps, and me. The rest were beyond earshot and were not responding to calls, and were more than fifteen minutes behind, since even as we rested they were not able to reach our positions. It was an endless four-wheel drive assault as we pulled ourselves up by tree roots and tree branches through the thick forest. The vegetation was thick compared to the easier Batangas mountains, possibly meaning that the mountain receives less visitors compared to those mountains.

After more than an hour of the continuous uphill climb, we reached the end of the forest line and the grassland marking the ridge. We clambered up loose soil by grasping at the grass growing on the trail’s side, and the view opened up to a breathtaking sight of the Bataan side of Manila bay, as well as the island fortress of Corregidor. Here we encountered other climbers who were already at the ridge, and we made our way to our planned campsite at the windiest and rockiest part of the ridge. The other climbers tried to dissuade us from taking the high camp due to the strong winds, but it was the only place that can accommodate our group. With everyone packing tadpole tents, we were pretty confident of our chances on the ridge.

Peps was already on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion when we reached the campsite. After securing a good spot for the tent, I took the time to look around and enjoy the view. We were on a narrow ridge with steep drops on both sides, a view of the town of Mariveles and Corregidor on the east, and the mountain peak towering above us on the west, hiding the setting sun. I missed my lost camera here terribly, as the camera I borrowed from Dawn was already out of battery power. The wind was beginning to pick up and we started to pitch our tent. The other groups started to arrive, and already it was getting dark. The rest of our group started to arrive with their headlamps turned on

Dinner preparations were made difficult by the strong winds that buffeted our campsite. The food was special that night, with packed adobo and fragrant jasmine rice as the main course. This underscored how much better the food is on climbs when the girls are there to take charge, compared to what we had when there were all guys in the group like we were when we climbed Apo. The cold and the strong winds were making for a very chilly night, with the cold biting our exposed fingers and faces. The zippers failed on my thick but cheap “Nike ACG” jacket (P300 from 168 mall), so I had to keep it closed with my arms and hands. Around 8pm the last man of our group arrived, more than two hours since we first arrived at camp.

After a brief socials session with currant vodka, we retired to our tents, some to continue the sessions, most to get some sleep. Inside the tent it was warm, but the winds were hitting the tent in a way that I found scary, as I was not sure that the tent poles can hold up to the punishment it was getting from the winds. The wind was getting under the flysheet and kept tearing the tent doors open because of the loose zippers, and there started my sleepless night on Tarak Ridge.

The zippers were loose, and left gaps along its teeth when I tried to close them. These little gaps were quickly torn open by the wind, leaving me with a flapping tent door. I cannot leave them open because it let the cold in, but I was unable to close them completely. The longest I had them closed was around an hour before they opened up again. From ten in the evening to one in the morning, I woke up from snatches of sleep, and spent fifteen minutes trying to close the zippers properly. I tried locking the gaps with carabiners and rubber bands, but the tremendously strong winds made short work of my efforts. When the carabs held and the door remained shut for long periods of time I got paranoid by the buffeting the tent was receiving that I couldn’t relax and fall asleep.

Around three in the morning I woke up to strong winds and noticed that the door was flapping again, and through the door I saw the stars. I almost panicked, because that meant my flysheet got torn off the tent. Rushing outside, I saw my flysheet holding on to only two pegs on the ground, from the previous nine. The sky was clear and the full moon provided enough light for me to work on putting it back again, but the wind was obscenely strong, strong enough to push a person down. I saw Alex was also awake and was trying to tie his tent down to the ground, as it was on the verge of collapsing from the wind. It was facing the wrong way, with the broad side facing the wind instead of the narrower ends. I asked for his help in getting the flysheet back up, and I was able to attach an additional guy line to a rock to help keep the flysheet on. I couldn’t have put the sheet back up without his help, but unfortunately I couldn’t help him with his problem on his own tent. Their tent was already tied down with several pieces of rope, and was still teetering on the verge of collapse. I went back inside my tent as the winds were intolerably strong and cold. I still struggled with the zippers until five in the morning, when Peps woke up from his undisturbed sleep and worked on the zippers. I fell asleep at five in the morning and woke up at several minutes past seven, getting two hours of sleep, plus probably another hour worth of snatches of sleep throughout the night.

I missed the sunrise, but it was still a great morning. The winds were still strong, but no longer as strong as it was during the night. The tent poles held up, and not one of our group’s tents collapsed. There was damage though: one of the borrowed tents had a snapped pole, one tent had its poles bent out of shape, another tent had some tearing, while my tent lost some the rubber loops where the tent pegs go in. In addition, most of my pegs were bent out of shape. No significant damage on my tent’s part though.

It was another hour before the rest of the group stirred from their sleep. It turned out that most of us remained awake during the night, with the occasional going out of the tent to fix the flysheets. Behind again on the itinerary so early in the day, breakfast was prepared two hours later than scheduled. We started to descend at around 10 in the morning, a full three hours behind the itinerary.

Peps and I pushed forward, and reached the river way ahead of everyone else. The river was the designated waypoint, and we met up with one of our groupmates who followed us. We had the opportunity for an extended rest here, but I was still unable to get some sleep. When the rest of our group arrived, we prepared lunch and had tuna pasta with soup. We had another extended stay here, before finally pushing forward on our descent. With our late schedule, we already made plans to go home as soon as we arrived and skip washing up. We spent another half an hour crossing the portion where the landslide occurred, and reached the DENR station a couple of hours later.

We reached the Alas-asin barangay hall at around five in the afternoon, and as the first guys to arrive, we went ahead and took baths. With the last buses passing through at around six in the evening, our group rode home without washing up, with the some of the guys remaining to wait for those still at the mountain trail. The last man was able to reach the jump-off point at around 8:30 in the evening, and we were already halfway home by that time.

Despite all the difficulties we encountered on this climb, I would still classify it as a good and fun climb. There were lots of bonding and little stress, and we even had uncomplaining first timers whose looks belie the fact that they were very strong. We all climbed and descended without injuries, and everyone had fun. The Pulag climb was cancelled because most of the participants wanted to rest after Tarak, and I lost interest as well. Instead I attended our school fair, and avoided getting a deduction for being absent again on a school activity.

03172007: Pictures posted! (courtesy of Peps, Earl, and Pat)

Other pics:

Bantay Pawikan

2007-02-07T17:24:00.000+08:00

Bantay Pawikan Field Trip
January 19-21, 2007

Our first and second year students went on a field trip to the Bantay Pawikan conservation facility in Morong, Bataan, and were accompanied by myself, Dawn, and teachers Henry and Mitch.

The first stop is in Subic, where the kids had a short walk up an asphalted forest trail for a brief lecture, a detour to the Haribon GuBat facility in Cubi point, and lunch. From Subic we headed off to the Morong beach line where the facility was located.

The beach was one of the places where pawikans or sea turtles come up to shore and lay their eggs. Locals here used to hunt the turtles and collect the eggs for consumption, but government intervention and education reversed these activities and organized the locals to act as protectors of the turtles instead.

We set up camp on the grounds of the facility, which was just by the beach. After settling down and sitting in for a couple of short lectures from the staff, the kids had their free time as we prepared for our night patrols activities.

Night patrol made up the bulk of our activities. We divided up into four groups, with each group being supervised by a teacher, and headed off to separate stations along the long beach line. My group’s station was on one end of the beach and we had to cross a river on the part where it feeds out to the sea. It was almost an hour’s trek on sand, not the easiest terrain to walk on for a long time. By the time we reached our station, most of the kids were exhausted. Our guide explained that they usually just go to sleep and look for pawikan signs on the way back and gather pawikan eggs found for hatching in the facility’s hatchery. With that we tried to settle in on the sand.

During the lecture earlier, it was explained that pawikans will lay their eggs on the darkest and quietest portions of the beach as they do not like to be disturbed as they are laying their eggs. Our area of the beach fails in these criteria, as it was lined by various resorts with bright night lights and occasional music. So it was no surprise that we did not encounter any pawikan events on our side of the beach.

We trudged back to the facility at around five in the morning and promptly went to sleep. I woke up early the next day to join some kids for morning market. The second day had the kids cleaning the pool where captive pawikans are housed. The pool was refilled by the kids forming a bucket line, and then collecting water from the beach and passing it on until it reached the small pool. Afterwards we had free time for swimming. The beach was a great place for swimming as it had a long shoreline and a long stretch of shallow water. That afternoon the kids cleaned up the coast by picking up pieces of garbage scattered along the beach. After the work activities, we played pathetic rounds of beach volleyball, pathetic as we couldn’t get a decent rally going. The others had a last swim on the beach, while some of the boys played football. The evening was capped with a post-dinner bonfire, followed by another night patrol.

That night’s patrol was even less active than the previous one, as the kids immediately dropped off to sleep upon reaching the station. I was not optimistic about our chances as there were more people camping on the beach, and the long walk gave us nothing to look forward to. The cloudless night gave us more stars, but also much colder temperatures. The only good thing about that patrol was we had to go back earlier and spend less time on the station. Once we were back on the facility, the kids immediately disappeared into their tents and slept.

We had an early wake up call the next day for the scheduled release of pawikan hatchlings. This was the most fun activity as we got to handle baby turtles and watch them answer an unseen call as they make their way to the sea. There were a lot of hatchlings available for that day, and the kids were able to release three to four hatchlings each. Chances for survival are low for the individual hatchlings, and hopefully there will be more survivors on that batch than what is predicted by statistics.

Pawikan conservation is a time consuming and a mostly thankless activity being engaged on by the Morong fishermen. Their need to have a sustainable livelihood may conflict with their task to conserve the turtles, and if support from the government and private organizations dwindle, we might lose this haven for the sea turtles.

(photos uploaded 03102007, courtesy of the kids)

MB Brian 3

2006-12-21T20:56:00.000+08:00

A week after my Apo climb, I went to Puerto Galera with my Pisay barkada: Dawn, Lauren, Lexi, Phoebe, Pauline, Carlo, Au, and Jovic. Hardheaded asses that we are, we still headed off despite a typhoon scheduled to arrive a day after we were supposed to be in Galera.

Coming from the first communion ceremonies of our third-grade students, we arrived at the Mindoro beach Saturday night. Sunday morning found us with a typhoon canceling all the activities we had planned for that day. Still, we found the time to swim on the beach amidst the high waves, and took turns riding the breaking 6-foot waves with our bodies at they crashed on the beach. No ferry service that day, so we were stranded for one day on the beach resort.

Monday morning, we purchased tickets for the MB Brian trip back to Batangas. Since the waves were still high, the three trips that day were compressed on a single trip on the small boat.

1:45 pm: Cracking sounds and suddenly water was entering the boat. The people on the back started coming towards the front as water entered through a hole somewhere in the back of the boat. Everybody started grabbing for life vests and calling relatives.

I cut off the strap of my neck wallet as it tangled with my life vest and stuffed everything in my bag, then I slowly lowered myself in the water where I joined Dawn and my friends Phoebe, Lexi, and Pauline who already jumped in earlier. Before jumping in, I have already assessed the situation as follows:

The boat is made of wood, and would not sink totally.
There is land on the left and a ship on the far right.
We were on a sea route with heavy ferry traffic

I concluded that we weren’t in a lot of danger and that we’ll be rescued soon. Good thing I didn’t know that the waters were shark-infested, or else I probably would have gotten paranoid instead of just remaining calm like I did.

There were a lot of floating toiletries in the water, and I figured I’d give them a last use. In the hour and a half that we were soaking in water and diesel fuel, I have tried putting on mascara, powder, shampoo, lotion, and skin scrub. Mostly I did it to amuse my friends, who were near panicking at what was happening around us. I probably pissed some old people there for not taking the situation as seriously as they did, but it was a (hopefully) once in a lifetime accident and I’d be damned if I spent that hour quaking in fear just like them.

I lost my cellphone, my digital camera, my waterproof jacket, and my trusty sandals on that sinking. I got everything else back, and more. I learned that I can be level-headed on emergencies (my sys-ad training perhaps?) and also that Dawn is also calm and level-headed in emergencies. Also, after being rescued, we decided to get married eight months earlier than originally planned. :)

For some people, what happened was a near-death experience for them. I disagree, because considering our situation, we were still relatively safe. The outriggers didn’t break and the boat didn’t turn over. We were within sight of land, and despite the strong waves, the weather was good and the sun was still high up. Dawn and I were even able to go back to work the next day.

Two adventures in two weeks. I guess that’s enough adventure for 2006. Here’s hoping for more mountains and no capsizing boats for the next year.

2954 meters above sea level

2006-12-21T19:29:00.000+08:00

Mt. Apo via Kapatagan–Kidapawan trail

November 29 – December 3, 2006

When my former officemate Ric invited me to an Apo climb, I decided right away that the Apo climb will be my 26^th birthday present to myself. It was a no-turning back deal as I had to make flight bookings right away, and non-refundable bookings at that.

With supposedly a training climb every week for four weeks until the big event, I was only able to hack off one fun climb on Famy in lieu of what was originally planned: a Pico de Loro climb, a two-hit climb up Talamitam and Batulao, a two-hit climb up Manabu and Maculot, and a Sembrano climb. I was worried that I may not be ready for a major climb as I am extremely out of shape.

I was fortunate that one of my former officemates Nanding was able to buy me a thick jacket from 168, without which I would probably have frozen to death in the cold cold Apo night. I only had my thin waterproof jacket with me, and as I brought my sleeping bag along, I figured wrongly that that would be enough protection from the cold. With the jacket completing my equipment, our group, composed of members from our host Ugat-MCI and my former officemates from AOC, flew off to Davao in two separate flights.

Our group arrived in Davao around 10:30 in the morning, where we met up with the first group who arrived four hours earlier and loitered around the airport while waiting for us. We also met our local guide O’Neal who had a jeepney waiting for our group.

We had our lunch at the SM Davao foodcourt where we also purchased supplies and food for the planned four-day trek. Having completed our meal plan only over lunch, we decided on adobo for the first day, tapa for the second day, and dried fish and squid for the last two days. Trail food and fuel was also purchased here. Departing from SM Davao, we headed off to the capital city Digos to register for the climb (P500) and from there headed off to Marawer to spend the night in Barangay Kapatagan, where the trail to the summit of the country’s tallest mountain starts.

After preparing dinner and the meals for the next day’s hike, we spent a freakishly cold night on our guide’s house. An early wake up call the next day had us eating cold rice for breakfast and heading off for the trailhead on a multicab, before the sun has even risen.

Mt. Apo dominates the landscape as we made our way riding on the back of the multicab through extremely rough roads, which had us jumping down at times for fear that the vehicle might fall down on its side. On this multicab was where my backpack suffered its first casualty: the mesh along the back snagged on a piece of broken metal and tore a two inch hole on the mesh. The bag still held up, but I was pissed because the bag was still relatively new (only two climbs prior to Apo) and was relatively expensive.

Facing the mountain, we started on our first steps toward the summit. The trail was a rough and rocky affair that is reminiscent of the start of the Sembrano trail. The trail is probably a horse trail, as there were deep ruts on the soil which made it uncomfortable to walk on. We walked this trail until we arrived at Paradise, a clearing with a basketball court under the shadow of the mountain, and which served as the jump-off point to Mt. Apo from Kapatagan. On this trail I realized that the name of the trail, which means “flat area”, refers to the barangay and not the state of the trail itself.

After a brief rest in Paradise we were off again. The trail was still rough and exposed, with ferns lining up the sides of the trail. There were lots of pretty orange flowers growing on bushes, and they looked like orchids but were not. I’m not sure what those flowers were but that was the first time I saw anything like them.

As we entered the forest line it seemed that it already had the appearance of mossy forest, indicating that we were already on a high altitude, despite hiking for only a few hours. I figured from this that the Kapatagan jump off was already located at a high altitude hence the extremely cold night we spent at the guide’s house.

Several fallen tree trunks, rough trails, and rests later, we arrived at a stream, where we stopped for lunch. The water here was very cold, and was supposedly potable. As I was being very frugal with my water I didn’t have to fill up here. After an hour of rest we made our way back up through the rough trail.

We reached the camp site at around 4:30 in the afternoon. We had been trekking since 7 in the morning with probably two hours of rest scattered in between. The camp was called “Goody-goody camp”, and with good reason. It was a great campsite. It had a large capacity for tents, the ground was not rocky, the mountain peak was visible through the trees, there were tall trees keeping strong winds from reaching the tents, and there was no moisture condensation on my tent on the morning. Apparently there is a water source nearby where the guide and porters got water from, but the water was yellowish due to sulfur. The water is still safe to drink, but has a weird smell and color that we decided we will only drink it as a last resort.

As we were preparing dinner another group arrived at the campsite. We wanted to get ahead of this group for two reasons: to get better spots at the campsite, which we had already accomplished, and so we can have the dangerous climb up the boulders on our own, without getting caught in traffic with the other group. Their arrival required us to have an early wake up call, and so we planned to turn in early.

It turned out that one of our stoves was leaking and that the guy who brought the lamp didn’t know how to replace the wick. The stove was the big loss as we were unable to prepare our meals quickly and it was causing us delays. We were able to borrow another stove from our companions so we were able to finish up cooking that night. The wick was easily replaced by one of our companions, but that incident underscored how unprepared some of our guys were. A climber should know how to use his own equipment and at least take the time to inspect if his equipment is working prior to a climb.

It was a cold night, and I can still feel the cold despite being covered up with a thick jacket, a sleeping bag, and cotton clothes. It must have been a lot tougher if I only had my thin jacket as the sleeping bag wasn’t 100% effective in insulating me from the cold. It was tough waking up the next morning, but I was surprised to find my tent dry despite the cold. There was no condensation on my flysheet, making it easier to pack when we broke camp.

After breakfast and breaking camp, we left for the summit at around seven in the morning. We passed by the campsites of the larger group that arrived at varying times through the night, and we figured they will probably leave around 9 am as their larger number and later arrival in camp meant that more of their climbers would need a longer time for resting.

We reached the foot of the boulders at around 9 am and rested as we prepared for the three-hour assault to the summit. There were no longer any trees, only blindingly white rocks and smoking sulfur vents. The sky was clear and the air was dry, which was a good sign that meant our climb up the boulders won’t be wet and will have good visibility.

The scramble up the boulders was easier than it looked from the base, but it was still tough as nails. The main enemy was fatigue, aided by the heat and thirst. From the base of the boulders the peak of Mt. Matutum is visible in the south, marking the location of General Santos City in South Cotabato. As we were halfway up the boulders the smoke from the sulfur vents reached us, and the smell was terrible. I was caught by the smoke as I was inhaling and I had a coughing fit due to the smell.

The steep boulders stretch ended abruptly and we found ourselves in a clearing with towering rocks on all sides. Here we decided to wait for the rest of our group as we rested. The next stretch of our climb loomed ahead, a steep rock face that is almost 90 degrees in its steepness. The sun was scorching down on us and we had to look for shade under the big rocks. When the rest of our companions arrived, clouds started to roll in and temperature dropped abruptly. One minute we were hiding ourselves from the sun and the next we were shivering and looking for warmth. As the temperature dropped we prepared to continue the assault and struck out for the steep rock.

When we reached the top of the steep rock face, we found ourselves facing the small crater lake. The summit was already in sight but we stopped for some photos on this place. Sadly, the small lake was filled with small rocks spelling out the names of stupid climbers and spoiling the natural scene for everyone else. Waiting only a few minutes until we can see our companions behind us, we set out for the summit, fifteen minutes away.

At 12:30pm, we were the highest people on Philippine soil.

I tried to make phone calls but the erratic phone signals prevented me from doing so. A can of beer was opened to celebrate our success, and photos were taken all around. Unfortunately clouds were obscuring the surrounding landscape, and we were unable to see very far down. It was also not the right time for a “sea of clouds” effect, something which I really want to be photographed with. Perhaps when I climb Pulag, but I don’t know when that will be.

After the jubilation, pictures, text messages, and videos, we headed back down to have lunch at the nearby campsite. As clouds were already surrounding us it began to get really cold. At this point the climbers from the other group caught up with us, but we didn’t mind anymore since we can already take it easy, having already hurdled the boulders without any incident. We have also decided to cut the four day hike into three days, and start our descent to Lake Venado that day, instead of spending the night at the summit camp. After lunch we started on the Kidapawan trail and went down a slippery grassland. No more rocks here, but tall grass leaves made for a smooth trail, where we can see all the way down to the trees surrounding Lake Venado, which is probably the country’s highest body of water (not sure here, just guessing). Two thirds of the way down we entered the forest line, where we met a group of rescuers-in-training from Kidapawan making their way up the mountain.

Water levels in the lake were high, so we made camp on an empty hut along the trail. We decided to sleep here so as to save us the trouble of pitching our tents and having to pack them up again the next day. It was here where I spent the coldest night on the mountain. We slept on the “terrace” of the hut, and were the most exposed to the outside air. I kept trying to curl up in weird positions to keep warm, and I was able to get my head inside my sleeping bag through all my efforts to curl up. When I woke up the next day, I noticed that guy sleeping beside me, Ryan, didn’t have a sleeping bag of his own. Thinking that he must have spent a freezing night, I put my sleeping bag over him and instructed Christian, the guy sleeping on my other side to put his sleeping bag over Ryan as well. It turns out Ryan has a thermal blanket on, and was probably warmer than the rest of us, so he was surprised to find all those sleeping bags on top of him when he woke up.

The guys inside the hut had a ghost story on what happened to them that night, so I guess I was lucky that I was too tired to feel anything that night. Again we left the camp at around 7 in the morning, and trudged through the much that is the edge of Lake Venado. The water stank of rotting grass, with films of scum covering mounds of fallen grass. On some areas the sum dried under the sun, and looked like a smooth paper covering of the grass mounds. Having kept my feet dry throughout the climb, I started to get uncomfortable as the smelly water seeped their way inside my boots. Looking down I discovered that my one of the loops where the laces went have snapped, leaving a small hole for the water to get in. Wearing only shorts and walking through the tall grass gave my legs hell, and by the time we cleared the grass my skin was sore with all the scratches from two days of trekking, but made worse by the sharp grass leaves. Good thing I was able to borrow leg warmers from Ian, and I made a mental note to finally get some of my own.

Getting past the trail on the edge of the lake was a relief, as I didn’t fall on any mudholes. I was worried that I might fall into one, and risk infecting all the scratches on my legs with the smelly mud. Getting past Venado, we started on the steep trail down to Kidapawan. The forest here was thick, and the trail narrow. At several points the trail was really slippery. It was a tough trail, but it was what we expected from the tallest mountain.

We had a late lunch along a stream, and here we celebrated our last meal on the mountain. No more dirty dishes to wash, and no more shared glasses, plates, and utensils after that meal. After that meal we no longer washed our cooksets, and we pushed on forward until we reached the Marbel river.

According to guidebooks, there is a total of thirteen crossings that a climber must make across the Marbel river. I didn’t bother to count, but instead I changed into my sandals, as I had no intention of getting my feet wet inside my shoes. Most of my companions didn’t bother, but I didn’t want my feet to marinate inside my muddy boots, so I took the time to change and lugged my boots behind me. I was confident that I could make the river trek in sandals, having experienced that in Mt. Pinatubo a year before. It was at this point that we were overtaken by some members of the other group who were descending down the mountain the same day as we are.

It was unfortunate that some members of this group displayed inappropriate behavior as they caught up with us. Tradition would have mountaineers seeking permission (which is of course given) prior to overtaking. Here the other climbers passed through us and disrupted our trekking order without so much as a by-your-leave, and appeared to be racing with us. While admittedly we adjusted our itinerary to get ahead of their group, racing on the trail should be avoided as this introduces unnecessary danger to hikers. With their display of rudeness we let them get on ahead, and waited for the rest of their group to catch up with us as well. Eventually we figured that it was just that three or four climbers who were ahead while the rest of their group was still behind.

That alarmed us further. The other group’s climb was an invitational climb, which meant that they took in climbers from other groups on this climb, and then left them behind on the confusing part of the trail. There were several forks on the river trail, and with their guide, porters, and more experienced members way ahead, we figured that someone on their large group will eventually get lost. True enough, we learned that a group got lost on their descent, and the porters had to go back and look for them.

Contrasting that with our group, we stuck together until we reached the end of the trail. When we reached the jump off point of Kidapawan trail, the time difference between the lead man and the last man was only around 30 minutes. We still crossed a several logs across the river before reached the jump off point, and several steam vents marked the end of our trail and of our climb. After celebrating our climb with photographs, chats, and rest, we started on our way to the Lake Agko resort, where we promptly ordered cold softdrinks and washed up four days worth of dirt and sweat. Dinner was quickly followed by socials, and we spent another cold night sleeping on the huts beside the big swimming pool.

We started off from Kapatagan in Davao and arrived at Kidapawan, the capital city of Cotabato on the other side of Mt. Apo. We set off early the next day for Davao, and passed by the Philippine Eagle Conservation Center and the Crocodile Farm zoo. At the conservation center I was able to get my first look at the magnificent raptor that is the Philippine Eagle. It was huge and imposing. I was glad that we cut the climb to three days because we had the opportunity to visit these places while we were in Davao. Crocodile farm was less spectacular, and I was already starting to get dizzy and lightheaded from exhaustion from the long trip from Kidapawan to Davao when we got there.

Concluding our trip was a last dinner at SM Davao, where we separated from the guys who were planning to spend a couple more days in the city. One last adventure awaited us as the jeep we hired to bring us to the airport brought us to the fishport, 30 minutes before we were supposed to be inside the airport terminal. The fear and apprehension was visible on our faces as we contemplated having to deal with missing the flight back home, and we were lost on a city that none of us were familiar with at that. When we finally reached the airport we were like Amazing Race contestants who were running for the terminal. Even after we were processed at the Cebu Pacific booth our adrenaline levels were still high and we had to calm ourselves down.

A quick flight back had us touching down the Manila Domestic Airport at around 11:30pm, where I was picked up by Dawn. Exhausted and lacking sleep, I managed only four hours of sleep that night and still went to school the next day. I learned that classes were suspended that Friday due to a typhoon, so I actually only missed one day of class instead of two.

I lost my eyeglasses in Davao, probably at the place where we ate lunch on our last day. At first Dawn scolded me for being so careless, but when she remembered that she hated those glasses, she took at as a stroke of good luck. I guess it was, as I can now get non-glare lenses.

Up to now I still can’t believe we climbed the tallest mountain in the country. Sitting here in my room, it seems inconceivable that I have gone as far as Mindanao on what essentially is a leisure trip, but I did. I had a couple of my friends complain that I didn’t invite them along on this climb, but that’s ok as I had no hand in planning this climb. The guys from Ugat-MCI were great, and took very good care of us AOC guys, and I learned a lot of things on this climb, especially on camaraderie and team spirit.

I have conquered myself on Mt. Apo. Coolness!

More pictures:

First leg of the boulders

People overhead: Assault on the boulders

Below us only sky

Jad's eyeball takes on the rocks

Crater lake

The end of the road: Kidapawan jump-off point

Math Week

2006-11-18T18:26:00.000+08:00

Yesterday marked the end of the school’s Math Week celebrations. Yesterday was also especially tough for me as we held the high school math quiz bee along the school-wide math race. As the math teacher for three out of four high school levels, I facilitated the morning quiz bee, and fix up the high-school stations for the math race. It was a terrific but tiring day.

My main concern was that the students won’t have fun with the activities we prepared for them, as we put in a lot of time in planning and preparing for the events. In that part I believe we were successful since the students appeared to have enjoyed the events.

In planning for the math week events, we decided to do something different from the Science Week activities. This meant less class disruptions, less expensive for the kids, and less additional work for the students. We limited our activities to three: student teachers, quiz bees, and the math race.

The best student teacher I had was CJ. I was afraid he’ll make a mess since he didn’t consult with me prior to his schedule. It turned out that he really prepared for that and even had outside help. He took to the board with confidence, provided visual aids, and added humor to his discussion. His discussion on the Exterior Angle Theorem was complete enough that his classmates were able to understand his lesson.

The math quiz bees were held everyday, and as much as I wanted to participate on the grade school quiz bees, I always had classes on the afternoons. It rained on the day that we were supposed to hold the high school quiz bees, so we had to squeeze that on the same day as the math race. I might have ticked off Sir H as well when I asked for his Geo period so his students can join the quiz bee, so I hope he wasn’t too pissed.

The rules for the quiz bee were different from the regular quiz bees, with more elements of randomness than your usual quiz bee. It really wasn’t a straight out who’s the best contest, as we wanted the students who weren’t the math topnotchers to have a chance in winning as well. The first round had the students running to a posted letter marking the answer to multiple choice questions that they may or may not know the answer to. The second round randomly set the order of answering questions, and the third round was a race to three answers, regardless of the total number of questions answered. The whole quiz bee was made more with fun in mind than determining who really are the best among the students.

The math race had the students run to different stations to perform certain math-related challenges, after which they will proceed to different stations depending on whether they complete the challenges or not. The win-loss paths were patterned after Wing Commander 1’s mission paths, which was conveniently posted in wikipedia. There were 10 challenges, with most challenges remaining the same from grade school to high school. The stations consisted of the following challenges: an easy level sudoku, determining the heavier item by successive uses of a weighing scale, moving sticks to form a specified figure, measuring posts to determine their radii, counting the number of chickens running around, moving water cups to form a specific pattern, moving chess pieces to form a specific pattern, removing knots from ropes, forming tangram pieces into specific shapes, measuring specific volumes of water, and an electrified wire challenge.

At least it’s all over. The original plan B for the high school quiz bee was that it was going to be moved to Monday. Pushing the quiz bee through on Friday morning allowed us to conclude the week satisfactorily yesterday, without any more carryovers next week.

Sembreak

2006-11-02T18:16:00.000+08:00

I was supposed to do the following things this sembreak:

1. Finish all my lessons plans for the second trimester.
2. Collect a bunch of questions for the Math week activities.
3. Finish my version of the Apprenticeship project I’ve assigned to my kids.
4. Run financial errands in Makati and Camp Aguinaldo.
5. Clean up my stuff in Antipolo.
6. Go jogging.
7. Buy stuff I need for the Apo climb.
8. Remove old pictures and mp3 files to save space.

What I actually did so far:
1. Sleep.
2. Eat.
3. Watch DVDs non-stop.

Dawn and I went to Metrowalk in Pasig last Tuesday, and grabbed a bunch of DVDs. From that bunch I have watched 14 of the 24 episodes of the first season of Scrubs, the whole season of the science fiction series Firefly, the movie adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel A Scanner Darkly, and the mob movie Infernal Affairs, where the Hollywood movie The Departed was based.

Scrubs is one of only two medical TV shows that I watch, the other being House MD. No surprise that both shows are comedies, I guess the serious side of medicine does not really appeal to me as a television audience. Given the bunch of shows dedicated to the practice of medicine, I feel a sort of professional jealousy as to why there are no TV shows about the lives of electrical engineers and their work. I’m sure there must be drama, comedy, action, and romance in the lives of our engineers as they go about their work, influencing people and affecting their lives in a profound manner. As they plot power grids, as they test assembly code, as they attenuate and amplify signals, I’m sure there’s that little bit of spark that provides the human interest that can sustain a TV series on the profession. Haha.

Firefly is a short-lived science-fiction series by the creator of Buffy and Angel. Not that I have watched Buffy and Angel, but I have heard great things about the Firefly series from various geeky sites on the internet. I figured it was a space adventure type of show, but it was more of a western, with horses and barfights and lasers and space ships. On the surface it sounds really corny, but is actually very interesting, due mostly to its character-driven approach of storytelling. Having been shown for only one season, there were still a lot of plot nuances that were not properly fleshed out. The characters’ lives still have a lot of stories behind them, and it’s a shame that the series ended in that one season, with their stories never to be told, at least not in a TV series.

Infernal Affairs is an amazing movie about an undercover police agent infiltrating the Triad, and a Triad mole who worked his way up the police force. Both moles were tasked with discovering the identity of the other, with both of them yearning to get out of the deception and lead a normal life. It is a very complex and engaging movie, with a strong and uncompromising ending. I have not seen The Departed so I have no idea how it compares.

A Scanner Darkly is an animated film based on Philip K. Dick’s novel of the same name. Several of his books and stories have already been turned into movies, such as Total Recall, Minority Report, Screamers, Paycheck, and most notably, Blade Runner. The movie deals with drug abuse and stars Keanu Reeves as Fred, a narcotics agent tasked to infiltrate the drug operations of Bob Arctor, a notorious dealer. Complicating things is the fact that Fred is Bob Arctor, and is heavily addicted to Substance D, a drug that breaks down the communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The movie was animated by rotoscope, an animation technique made by tracing over live action movement frame by frame.

That’s my sembreak, and I still have three days to go. I may have a climb on Saturday, but I still have not received word if it is a go. Either way, I’m running out of time to finish the things I’m supposed to do, as I’m still 0/8 of the things I need to do on the list above.

Famy and the sportsfest

2006-10-31T00:53:00.000+08:00

Our climb up Mt. Romelo in Famy last Saturday was not a climb that I fully enjoyed, mostly because I was feeling guilty for missing the school sportsfest that day. The climb was part of a series of climbs to prepare our group for our Apo climb at the end of November, and having had little exercise (short morning jogs with Manong H), I needed that climb to prime myself. Also, as the plane tickets for Davao are non-refundable, there is already no turning back for me on this major climb.

The training was supposed to be a two-hit climb up Mts. Talamitam and Batulao, but in the early hours of that Saturday, the venue was somehow changed to Famy. I could have had it so much easier if the change had been decided earlier, as I was already in Antipolo and could have met up with the group as they passed through near the school instead of my having to go down to Quezon City, spend the night in Dawn’s place, and commute to Pasay at 3:30 in the morning. Dawn spent the night at the dorm so I had to inconvenience the members of her household as I spent the night there.

The Famy campsite does not have a high point that overlooks the surrounding area, so there are no scenes visible from a mountaintop. What it does have is an abundance of waterfalls, and rappelling points. The campsite was right over the first waterfall (Buruwisan), and I was only able to visit one other waterfall apart from that (Lanzones). I was looking forward to rappelling, as I have not experienced that activity before, however as the trip was a spur of the moment decision, nobody was able to bring the required gear.

The climb was a short two-hour climb over relatively steep and muddy terrain. The stress from the ascent was due mostly to the effort in keeping from slipping and stepping on mud, as the trail looked like an easy trek if the soil is dry. I didn’t even make a significant reduction on my trail water but I did finish off two coconuts from a couple of stores along the trail.

The campsite is situated beside the river, and there was already a large concentration of campers situated there. It reminded me of Majayjay and made me realize that this really is not my preferred camping destination. I would much prefer a campsite with a view and a more natural environment, with no stores, huts, or benches around. The campsite was like a picnic ground, except that it was more inaccessible than your average picnic park.

The folks I was with made for great company, and I learned a lot on that trip. Even if I didn’t really care all that much for our campsite, I still would have enjoyed myself a lot had I not felt guilty about that sportsfest thing. There was a lot of exciting stuff that happened that trip: I learned to roll lumpia wrappers for our lumpiang shanghai (spring rolls), learned about a couple of ingredients that should improve my sinigang recipe, almost had a lighter explode on my face (it exploded ten seconds after I moved my head from its vicinity), cleaned up my tentmate’s mess after he puked inside my tent and all over himself, had a lot of fun talking chatting during the socials, and laughing on the morning after talking about what happened during the socials. The descent was the messiest descent I have made: sliding down on our butts on the muddy trail and walking on ankle deep mud. The mud slides were the most fun moments of our descent, as the trail was already shaped like playground or pool slides, even curving around some points, and having high walls on the curves making for safe but fast turns. The two slides and the absolutely messy and muddy trail reduced our group to mud monsters by the time we reached the jump off point, arms and legs covered with brown and red soil.

A river wash up washed off most of the mud on my clothes, but thinking about how dirty that water must have been still sends shivers. Still, it was a refreshing wash and had me bringing home wet clothes with mud stains, rather than damp clothes with mud; a subtle difference, but a significant one in terms of weight and general yuckiness.

Overall it was an okay climb. The place is not my cup of tea, although I’ll probably go back to try and rappel if there is an opportunity. The descent was tough, which made up for the relatively easy climb. I also was not completely prepared, as I brought along house slippers instead of sandals, causing me to have a slippery time on the descent to the waterfalls. I also didn’t bother taking pictures, so hopefully my companions send their pictures to me. My companions were great, a mix of AOC people and of Ugat mountaineers, who are role models in their care of their companions at all times during the climb.

I hope my next climbs don’t have me giving up any school activities anymore, as the guilt really takes from the enjoyment of the experience. I guess after Apo I could shift my priorities back again to a more responsible direction. Too bad I can’t start doing that right away: the next climb is this weekend and I’ll have to be absent from school again as we have Saturday work.

2006-10-21T23:40:00.000+08:00

I had a rather frustrating week this week. The last long tests were completed and checked by Tuesday, and although I had a considerably improved passing rate (no more than two students on any subject), I can’t help being disappointed that I still had students failing my tests. I have made considerable changes to my approach in teaching since I started out, and I’m pretty sure that I covered the last math topics thoroughly. Other teachers were telling me that that is already a good percentage, and it is indeed a big improvement over last trimester, where I had to give failing marks to half the class on a single exam.

The challenge really is to get a higher passing rate without compromising the exam by making it so easy that it does not challenge what the student learned in my classes. What my students are observing to be my “easier” tests are actually tests with a better distribution of difficult questions and better discussion of the topics during class. I do wish I could include learning activities that would take us out of the classroom, but creativity is not really a strength for me, and ideas for such activities come few and far in between.

I'm also very frustrated with the way my physics class is going. I should have realized earlier that although the topics are similar to what I studied in college, the actual coverage is actually more difficult for me to tackle in a high school class. I don’t have the proper equipment to conduct experiments, the mathematics needed to fully explain the concepts and derive the formulas is not yet known by the students, and the items discussed in class are intangibles that occur at the molecular level. I’m already looking forward to a different handling of the physics class next year, something that deals more with circuits and applications, rather than the muck that we traversed during these first two semesters. I’m still trying to salvage it by moving on directly to geometric optics, but I’m still struggling because this is not a topic that I have mastered as much as electricity.

For next year, I’ll probably move out of the long electric charge and how-a-capacitor works topics and proceed directly to currents, circuits, and semiconductors. I’ll forgo the traditional boring physics lectures to a more involved albeit a more engineering than science approach. I just hope I don’t muck the rest of physics this year. Often during physics class I just want to shift to math and continue either our calculus or trig, just to get away from the difficult physics lectures.

Aside from the curriculum concerns I still have a bunch of quizzes to check. I’m very quick in checking long tests but lately I’ve been very lazy in checking quizzes and homework, and I’ve accumulated a backlog that was unheard of last trimester. I need to work on it so I can go back to claiming that it’s all time management.

Despite the frustrations I do have a lot of bright moments in my classes. One student who was usually disruptive in class last trimester but kept losing the lessons started paying attention and started catching up. I wince when I see some of the mistakes she’s been making in quizzes, as these were topics covered last trimester, but I’m very pleased with how she’s grasping the new lessons. There’s another student who’s been failing all his exams consistently but got was able to pass two long tests this trimester. He still needs to develop his confidence though, but he’s obviously working harder this time. Most of the kids are actually doing better this trimester, perhaps because we have finally adjusted to each other, although there will always be those kids I’m finding difficult to connect with.

Still got to work on getting less abrasive. Having worked for a long time in an environment where verbal teasing and banter added spice and comedy, I keep forgetting that I’m not among my peers but rather with sensitive children. I still have a long way to go, and I haven’t even decided if I really want to get there. Still, I have to do the best I can while I’m here.

On a side note, this comic reminds me of the days when I was the lead project sysadmin:

Paul is Dead

2006-10-21T22:40:00.000+08:00

Downloading all Beatles songs for Dawn’s birthday gave me the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the fab four. Being one of those kids who watched video clips from the Beatles on Channel 5 back in the early 90’s, I acquired an interest in Beatles songs from the exposure that likely influenced my tastes in music today. I figured I knew most of their songs already, but it turns out that I haven’t even heard half of their songs until I have finally downloaded most of them. This is the first time though, that I got acquainted with the Paul is Dead controversy (wikipedia has everything!)

It was quite an experience listening to their music from Please Please me all the way to Let it Be, listening as their music developed and changed and matured. Coupled with a historical background provided again by wikipedia, it was a musical history lesson of the band from their beginning to their eventual disbandment.

Limits and Derivatives

2006-10-03T15:38:00.000+08:00

I’ve started teaching calculus to my high school students, and it has been a tough experience. For one thing, I barely understood these topics when it was taught to me back in high school, being more preoccupied with Magic: The Gathering cards and teenage romances to bother with such incomprehensible terms such as limits and derivatives. Also, I slogged through limits and derivatives in college (Math 53) before calculus finally made sense to me when we arrived at integrals (Math 54). Now of course, after having gone through all my engineering subjects, limits and derivatives make sense, but I never did have that good foundation on those topics to begin with.

Now I’m tasked with teaching these things to my students, who, like the majority of high school kids, are naturally more interested in sports, music, and computer games (and girls?) than mathematics that deal with numbers so small they can only be imagined and not written down.

I made it a point to make them understand the things I didn’t, the basics that should make the advanced topics easier to swallow. For instance, I never did get what the point of discussing limits were, or taking the limit of a rational function whose denominator will become zero as the independent variable approaches some number. I also never understood the whole lim dx->0 of (f(x + dx) – f(x))/dx until I was reviewing the material in preparation for teaching, and realized how simple the whole thing is. So I’m making it a point to go through all the things I never understood and make sure that my students understand them before moving on the more difficult topics.

A short quiz yesterday on getting the equation of the tangent line on a curve yesterday showed that my students have gone further than I did back when I was their age. Makes me proud and all that. I haven’t discussed the shortcuts for taking the derivatives yet, so they had to do it the long way by expanding the difference quotient and taking the limit as dx approaches zero, something I never figured out how to do back in high school and college.

Since calculus is already an advanced topic for high school students (usually an elective in other schools rather than a requirement like in our school and science high schools), I’m taking it easy and I’m going for appreciation and familiarization. I could go into mastery and really dig deep for challenging problems, but I would rather they appreciate the concepts and learn how and where to apply them, than perform complex mathematical operations without figuring out why the hell they are doing the things that they are doing. Good thing my students are bright kids, and as early as now I figure they will have an easier time in college math compared to other students, and hopefully get a higher grade than I did when we discussed limits and derivatives.

* photo linked from http://darwin.nap.edu/books/NI000405/html/47.html

2006-09-29T21:32:00.000+08:00

I've been surfing YouTube for some time now, and I'm hitting myself on the head for not having looked for Monty Python sketches there. I have been a fan since I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail on VHS several years ago, and so far I've only watched that and Life of Brian. After unsuccessfully looking for their sketches on Limewire, I suddenly realized that I haven't tried out YouTube yet. And there it was, John Cleese and the rest of the Pythons. Brit humor rocks!

Search for these in YouTube:
Ministry of Silly Walks
Mr. Creosote

2006-09-24T02:05:00.000+08:00

I have been teaching for 3 months now, and much has happened since I quit my job as a system admin four months ago. My level of inactivity has gotten such that I gained five pounds since I started teaching. I really need to lose these extra pounds before I tackle Mt. Apo in November. Also, I should start slimming down for my wedding in a year and a half. Still a lot of time, but it’s best if I start soon.

I feel like I’ve come a long way since the first day of school, where I started classes nervously and I still didn’t have that confidence that I now have. I used to prepare for hours every night before a class, as I still didn’t have the correct feel for the time, and now I can make do with minimal short term preparation. Of course I still have a long way to go and I still have a lot of things to learn before I become the teacher I aspire to be.

Being able to review all my high school and college mathematics again is surprisingly fun, and once again I’m rediscovering the joy of being able to solve math problems. Topping that is that moment of clarity where my students finally comprehend the topic and nod in understanding and relief. I am also able to help my sister with her homework in physics, which I doubt I’d be able to do if I’m not doing what I’m doing right now.

Earlier today the school had our first Parent-Child-Teacher conference for the academic year, and my first ever. Not being a class adviser, I didn’t have to sit and talk with all the parents, only with the parents of my students who are having difficulties with my subjects. Having given a couple of students failing marks on their first trimester grades, I was a bit apprehensive about talking to the parents. Also, after taking a look on the final grades of my students, I noticed that most of my students had their lowest grades on my subjects. I mentioned this to one of my students, who said that it’s ok since my subjects are really hard. I guess my subjects really are hard, and I’m still trying to figure out ways to make the topics easier for the students without sacrificing content. In fairness to my students, I have observed that they really work hard, and not just on my classes. Of course there is that occasional slacker, but overall I’d say that the students in our school have a better attitude than the students of other schools. At least my students are showing better study habits than what I had when I was back in high school.

While this job has not impoverished me, it did have a drastic effect on my spending and saving habits. For four months now I haven’t been able to save anything, but that’s also my fault. I’m still in debt to my credit card company for my new backpack, and for booking tickets to Davao. Back then I could do that and still have money left over for savings, but now I’m totally drained. This should be the last of my expensive habits as I really have to seriously start saving up money for the wedding.

Sometimes I feel that I’m missing out on a lot of stuff that I used to do back when I was corporate scum. The drinking sessions, fancy lunches, company and team outings, sponsored sports activities, promotions, being able to afford stuff, and all that crap that we did to live up to a motto of “work hard, play hard”. But when I really think about it, I don’t miss one bit of the work that I used to do back then. Well, I miss the interaction with people, but not the actual gritty stuff. I hated having to be available for support on weekends. I hated having to attend to simple computer problems of people, and being first on the blame list of several leads that were too lazy to check whose problem it really is. At least I never worked for a lead that I didn’t like or respect, which is more than I can say for some of my peers.

I realized that all that working hard and playing hard meant not having time for really living. The work was exhausting and draining, and the ensuing play is also exhausting and draining. That’s the yuppie lifestyle for you. On that light I really appreciate the work I do today, where I’m doing something that I know is worth something in the long run.

Mt. Tapulao

2006-09-09T12:27:00.000+08:00

Mt. Tapulao
September 1 to 2, 2006

Finally, after months of not having any climbs, I got an opportunity to join another climb. My former club was holding an induction climb for its applicants in Mt. Tapulao, and a chance encounter with one of the members got me informed about this climb. Still not being sure that I would be able to join the climb, I crammed my preparation for it and started jogging only the week before. I knew that the effort was pointless from a physical standpoint, but I was going for the mental consolation that I had some form of preparation.

I was still packing up to the last minute, and since the lead was not able to guarantee a place for me to sleep, I had to hunt around for a tent to borrow. My tent was still in the shop, and I had to borrow a tent from a co-teacher, repack it in a compression bag, and stuff it in my bag on the day of our departure from Manila.

Assembly was at the Pasay Victory Liner bus station, which was disadvantageous for me since I would have preferred a station nearer north, but since most of the climbers will be coming from the south, I had to adjust. Dawn was wonderful and drove me to the station after we had dinner with her friends.

The bus left the station around 11:00pm, and drove pell mell to Iba, Zambales. I wasn't able to get any sleep on the bus as I couldn't get comfortable in the back seat, and having had to endure the cold and the tight turns the bus was taking in the highway. We reached Iba around 3:30am, and waited until 5:00am until we were able to get transportation to bring us to Dampay Salaza, the jump off for Mt. Tapulao.

It was a seven kilometer early morning tricycle ride through open fields from the highway to jump off point in the town. We reached the town as the sun is breaking, and after the requisite registration and preparation, we headed off on our hike to the mountain.

The first part of the climb was a tough stretch that could easily be described as discouraging. It was an endless assault through the rock packed, open, and exposed mining road that served as the mountain trail. The heat of the sun was merciless, and I was feeling the sore muscles from my crammed preparation, our football game with the students, and the lack of sleep the night before. Eventually I lagged behind the middle group and fell back with the sweep team.

Eventually our 33-member party separated into three distinct groups, with our group bringing up the rear. There was a collective agreement on our group to take it easy and not to push too hard. We ended up taking long periods of rests on the hot stretches of the trail, and took the inclines slowly. The group ahead of us was pushng hard for the campsite to be able to reach it before nighttime, while we resigned ourselves to the certainty of taking a night trek. Having decided not to push so hard, we even took naps along the trail. Some guys thought I was faking it when I started snoring on these naps, and were surprised by my seeming ability to rest and sleep on demand, but that was mostly because of the lack of sleep on the bus trip.

There were two water sources along the trail, where we drew our drinking water from. The mountain can actually be climbed with minimal water packed in the bag, and a two-liter container is sufficient to last until the next water source. The campsite also has a nearby water source, so water was not a problem on our hike. We took long rests on these water sources, and had our lunch near the second source, before we began the final five hour assault up the mountain.

I observed that I experienced less thirst and no cramping on this climbs, two issues that I was expecting problems with. The first because it was a hot day, the second because of my lack of prep. It could be that my constant state of being dehydrated while in school helped my water discipline, but its probably the salty trail food I brought along that made me retain water better. I mixed nuts, banana chips, and raisins together for a sweet and salty trail food mix, which replenished salts lost by sweating, and provided the sugars for that extra boost of energy. Compared with the trail food I brought along with me on G2, I was able to get better performance from my body than with G2, where I was actually more prepared physically.

The trail passed through several mountain environments as we reached a higher altitude. The lower elevations consisted of denuded grasslands, which slowly became a tropical rainforest as we went further, into a fern-filled mossy forest as we reached the level of the clouds, and suddenly breaking into pine forest as we went past the clouds. When we reached the first pine trees, we were inside a thick rain cloud, and rain suddenly burst forth on us. Around this time the other groups already reached the campsite and were already above the rain clouds. The rain marked a long stretch of trekking without taking long rests, as rest was not really an option when rain was falling all around us. It was a pity that we were greeted by rain when we reached the first pine trees, as I was not able to observe them due to the lowered visibility.

Eventually we went past the level of the rain clouds, and were greeted by a hot sun and clear skies. It was already late afternoon, but we still took long rests that allowed us short naps. We reached a clearing that gave a grand view of clouds rolling under our feet, peaks casting shadows, and the sun preparing to set on the sea. At this point, long rests were no longer an option as the strong winds were chilling our backs, and after some picture taking we pushed on forward. As the darkness fell, we took one final long rest to regroup, and pushed on to the campsite in the dark. The clear moonlit night was a blessing as my headlamp conked out less than an hour into the night, as we were traversing the slippery mossy ground under the pine forest.

Tired and bedraggled, we finally reached the campsite around 8:00pm. People from the first group arranged an advance welcoming party to assist us as we neared the campsite. I was still fortunate to find a good site to pitch my tent, which was more than I can say for my other companions who had to pitch on rocky ground. I was unfamiliar with the tent I brought along, and took some time in pitching it.

A change of clothes, a warm dinner of beef tapa and soup, and I quickly fell asleep. The itinerary called for a sleeping bag, which made the cold night comfortable. I woke up early morning to see two guys sleeping beside me, and I realized I was so deep in sleep that I did not notice them enter the tent. A few moments later I heard Kate giving the wake up call for those who wanted to summit. I expected at least a small group to summit, but only Ryan was there waiting with a guide, already high up on the trail.

I quickly put my boots on and clambered up the mountainside to reach him. I was already high up when I realized t did not even had a bite of breakfast to eat, and here I was attempting to trek for another hour or so with only a small bottle of water. It was already too late to go back, since we had to summit in an hour and get back as soon as possible, so we can break camp and descend. I spent the summit assault resting occasionally, having no energy for a continuous ascent. Eventually, through a combination of persistence and patience on my companions’ part, we eventually reached the summit after an hour’s trek from the campsite.

The summit trail starts on the steep side of the mountain above the campsite. After a scramble through small rocks and pine trees, the ground levels slightly and the trail becomes a forest trail, quite different from the wide miner’s road that served as the trail from the jump off point to the campsite. The summit is dishearteningly visible, standing high and far away from the start of the trail. I got worried that I won’t be able to summit again, as I did not have anything for breakfast.

I was elated when I finally reached the summit. Having failed to summit G2, I learned to appreciate the opportunity to summit mountains, and I wanted to drink the experience in for as long as possible. Unfortunately, we only had a limited time there as we had to get back to camp early, so as not to miss the scheduled time for breaking camp. We were still able to take some pictures, catch great views of the sea and the surrounding peaks, and explore around, before we had to descend back to the campsite. The plains of Palauig are visible from the summit, as well as the islands of Palauig Bay, with the mountain casting a long shadow pointing towards the sea. The air was cool, although the sun was already rising and starting to heat things up.

We quickly descended back to camp, where a breakfast of sinigang was waiting. After the final preparations for the descend, we headed back around 9:00am. The trail was still slippery, and we reached the second water source in time for lunch.

The long and tough descend punished our feet thoroughly, with all persons in the group complaining of some pain in the feet. In my case my toes kept being pushed relentlessly against the front of my boots, and friction on the side of my big toe was causing blisters to form. Too tired to care, we walked through the pain and finally reached the jump off point around 3:00 pm.

Happily taking off my boots on the barangay hall, we went off to take a bath in the strong river passing through the town. Rivers are highly suspect for me, since there is always an upstream where some carabao could be bathing, but being pressed for time, we left the washrooms for the girls and most of us boys took our baths in the river. We looked like an amateur gay porn movie out there, sharing soap and shampoo, walking, wading, and swimming around each other naked to the waist. The water was cool and refreshing, but there was always that feeling that somewhere unseen and upriver, someone or something is pissing.

The last man of the group arrived around 4:30pm, and we promptly prepared to get back to Manila. It was tricycle rides from the town to the highway, and for six kilometers I rode on top of a tricycle, scared for my life because any accident will throw me off the roof rolling into the ground. I had another moment similar to one I had in Pico where I thought that having safely gone down from the mountain, I’ll just be injured ignominiously on the last tricycle ride. Thankfully I survived the experience, even enjoyed the whole exhilarating ride.

A jeepney ride to the bus station and one final bus ride home, we finally reached Manila around 11pm. The new North Expressway certainly sped things up both going to and from Zambales. We went our separate ways from Balintawak, where I went to Dawn’s place to spend the night and go to work at school the next day.

After three months of having no outdoor activity, this climb certainly charged me up again and had me looking forward to future climbs with my old officemates, with plans already underway to undertake two major climbs in the next couple of months. It certainly made me feel better about myself, being able to undertake that difficult climb in this shape, and with a bit of luck I’ll be able to maintain an exercise regimen to be in better shape for the next climb. I’m certainly very appreciative of my companions in this climb, especially with their attitude of walang iwanan, shown by our determination to stay as a group during the ascent and during my summit assault with Ryan. I hope I take away that attitude and apply it to facets other than climbing.

Cramming

2006-09-06T11:16:00.000+08:00

I did a lot of cramming last week. Wednesday last week was supposed to be the deadline for all trimestral tests to be submitted for review and reproduction. I was not able to meet this deadline, but I was still one of the early finishers when I submitted my exams last Thursday. There was a teacher-student football game that afternoon and I wanted to play without being burdened by guilt from unsubmitted exams and answer keys.

I climbed Mt. Tapulao in Zambales last weekend, and I crammed the preparation for this climb as well. I only started running the Saturday before the climb, then I went jogging again two days later, and played football with the students three days after that. The frenzied preparation for the climb resulted in sore legs for the duration of the week, aching muscles during the climb itself, and sore legs until now. At least I was able to climb, and summit the mountain despite the lack of preparation.

Today I’m still cramming. I’m not even halfway done with all the subject matter outlines for the second trimester, and that starts next week. I’ll also be revising some lesson plans, and submitting analyses of past exams as well. For the next two days I’ll also be checking test papers, and hopefully I’ve seen the last of failing exam grades already.

Better go back to making lesson plans :)

Game nights

2006-08-21T20:13:00.000+08:00

Tuesday night

Manong, Juaqui, and I decided to have a night of ping pong fun at the school, near the Kumon area. A couple of boards made for use of the table tennis club were just sitting there, so we set up a game table using the benches of the music room and the Practical Arts class. The board was too high by almost six inches, but we made do since the metal stands that should bring the table to the proper height were not yet completed. A couple of balls were lost over the fence. Manong was bothered by the height of the table and spent the next day thinking about how to solve that problem.

Wednesday night

Manong was able to solve the problem by using the small benches from Kumon and placing them on top of the bigger benches. Now the height of the tables seemed just right, and we played for two straight hours, substituting for the loser in a match. Mang Ramon, one of the manongs, joined the fun. I’m a beginner compared to Manong and Juaqui, so I tried to pick up as much information as I can from the two. Manong has a tendency to force his shots, so Juaqui racked up a good winning streak just by waiting for Manong to make a mistake. We finished off at around 11:30pm, ensuring that I won’t get that 8 hour sleep I’ve planned to take.

Thursday night

Manong was not feeling well that afternoon, so I was not sure if we’ll still go ahead with ping pong. However, I heard Juaqui bought a new racquet, so asked if he wanted to go ahead and play. We still played a couple of games, but I ended up taking lessons from him instead. We were about to finish up around 10:30pm when Manong arrived from the computer lab and asked to play a couple of games. He ended up playing more than that with Juaqui, and they finished around 11:30 again. He was already sniffling as he was playing. Guess who was not able to wake up and get to work the next day.

Friday night

Another tiring day, due in part to two nights of ping pong, and the Filipino week activities that morning. Poker night was scheduled that night, and Dawn and I planned on spending the night in the dorm. The release of the medical boards earlier that day prompted a barkada celebration that night, so we scrapped the dorm plan. We still proceeded with poker (Texas Hold ‘em!) at the Gutierrez’s, where Teacher Emma toured us around her house prior to dinner. The house was grand, and made me wonder when I would be able to construct a house of my own. Oh well.

It was another lousy night of poker for me, and I was the first to get eliminated on the game. Ramil ended up the big winner for the first round, sticking to his strategy of playing cautiously until Ruth was eliminated. Everybody was scared of playing against Ruth, who seemed to have a consistent run of good luck, defeating everyone else with the lousiest of the beginning hands. She does not get scared, she does not back down, she rarely folds, and she usually wins. No surprise she was the winner of the last round. No good poker run for me, but I still had a great time.

That’s a pretty busy week right there. Tomorrow’s the start of exam week, and it will be the second long test for all my Math subjects. Hope the students studied during the long weekend, as I would hate to check retests. I’m sure my students would want to avoid that as well. Aside from the usual busy workday, I’m sure there will be more game nights with the ping pong tables.

Stuck

2006-08-19T22:39:00.000+08:00

I spent most of the day today sleeping, and spent the rest of the day bumming around. It would seem that I should be well rested, but I still feel weak and tired. I had an ok school week, and had a good rhythm on my lessons, but I feel that somehow there’s still something wrong with what I’m doing. I’m spending the weekdays waiting for the weekend to arrive, and I’m spending the weekend staring blankly at the TV or computer screen, doing nothing of importance. I feel like I’m in a rut somehow.

I just realized how badly I missed climbing again last night. I was checking out photos of my friends and I was really envious that they got to climb several mountains since I left my old company. These were the guys I used to go to bars with during work nights and on mountains during my last climbs. Now they have moved on and climbed higher mountains while I got stuck on the mountain that is Antipolo. Now I’m not even in shape even if I get the opportunity to climb.

I love my work, I really do. I love the school, I love the kids, and I love the challenges of this line of work. It’s just that to work there, I have to spend my nights there as well, give up my choice on which food to eat, and essentially give up my weekends as well. My world revolves around a bunch of kids who probably can’t wait until dismissal so they can get on with their lives outside of school. I used to have a life outside of my work, and now I can’t see the distinction. I love the work but I miss my personal time and space.

I guess that’s enough griping. I better go and see if I can do something about it. Personal time is not just going do dump itself down on my lap. I better start exercising again, try to lose five more pounds, and get myself in shape for climbing again. I might have that opportunity sooner than I think, and then end up being unprepared for it.

Friday blues

2006-08-11T22:06:00.000+08:00

I suck at pingpong, and I routinely get beaten by my SO despite my best efforts. So it’s kind of ironic that I am the facilitator of the table tennis club of the students in our school. The way I see it, my role is to be the guy that will allow the club to be started in the first place, and the guy to coordinate with the school to provide the kids with the area and equipment for them to be able to play table tennis. Unfortunately, I can’t act as their coach or give them proper training to bring them up to competition level, but at least the kids are having fun during their club time.

---

When I was a freshman in high school, we signed up for an elective class on metallurgy. It was meant to introduce us to various fields of science and engineering, and a need for more metallurgical engineers in the country resulted in having that elective introduced in our curriculum. It was supposed to encourage us to explore that field and take up that course in college. The well-intentioned program failed dismally and resulted in effectively discouraging us from exploring a career in that field. The lecturers from the government office were boring, inconsistent, and ineffective. A field trip to the metallurgy center showed us how unappealing the work environment was. As far as I know no one in my batch even considered taking up that course at all in college.

Now I’m attempting something similar with my students. In a thrust to introduce engineering as a suitable college option for the kids, I was asked to handle an apprenticeship class for the juniors and seniors. The intention is good: not make it into a regular class to teach the students to work independently, group them into teams so they can learn to be interdependent, require them to look for funding for their projects so they can develop their business communication, and focus the project on one field, in this case electronics.

I decided to focus on a topic that is the easiest to understand and appreciate: digital electronics. The problem is, this is still a relatively advanced topic, especially for kids with minimal technical background. Our school has a very strong life-sciences program for its students, with biology, chemistry, and physics already being given as separate subjects as early as grade school. However, we still have a lot of room for improvement on the technical subjects, notably in computer science.

Back to the topic: since this is an advanced course for these kids, and with only 45 minutes allotted to the subject every week, I had to give them the textbook as a reading assignment, as I did not have the time to provide a formal lecture on the ins and outs of digital logic. A problem set was also thrown in on the mix to make sure that they read the text. The result: headaches for the students who can’t understand the text, headaches for the students who had to understand what I tell them during consultations, and who’ll have to teach their group mates who did not take the time to consult like they did.

I knew the topic was hard, which was why I required them to consult. I can’t say I can’t blame them for finding the subject difficult, because (1) it really is, and (2), it was something very new. My only fear is that I introduced the metallurgy effect to these kids, and threw them off engineering forever. Since this subject has a working device as its end goal, I’m hoping that the students pull this off and construct their projects properly and on time, and feel the rush of bringing an idea into its fruition.

Aaargh, appren. But if any of you kids are reading this, I promise you this: Work with me on our project, work well with your group mates, and at the end of it all when everything’s finished you’ll be happy we went through all that. I shit you not.

Missing the mountains

2006-08-06T01:27:00.000+08:00

I haven’t climbed for months now. This teaching job has taken over all my free hours, and I’ve been doing nothing on weekends except lesson plans, checking papers, and coming up with quizzes and exams. There were a couple of weekends where I was able to watch a movie or go out for dinner, but that was hardly comparable to what I was doing on my weekends back before I started teaching.

Even though I occasionally miss all the perks and free time and the rather substantial paycheck, I never regretted my decision to drop all that and pursue a career in teaching. When I started working at the school last summer, I felt my world shrink from shuttling between two office buildings in Makati and Cubao, to a small school in Antipolo. Gone were the familiar faces I would encounter on the street and on the malls, the hanging out with officemates on bars and restaurants, the spur of the moment movie gimmicks and hotel lunches with friends.

Even though I felt my world get smaller, I do believe it got deeper and more meaningful. I’m no longer working for an entity whose sole goal is to generate income. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I felt so devoid of purpose back then. Maybe that was one of the reasons why I became active in climbing mountains, to get away from the sterile office environment. Now I don’t feel that sense of purposelessness anymore, and I’m pretty happy with where I am right now.

Still, there are still a lot of aspects of my old life that I miss. No homework, work stops when I leave the office, nearby malls and fast food outlets, never running out of money between paydays, dinners and lunches courtesy of the company, medical insurance and allowance, air conditioned work environment, a staff of two, good quality paper and unlimited access to the printer and photocopying machine. That’s just the shallow stuff. There’s also the reduced capacity for savings, being able to afford medical insurance for my parents, having life and medical insurance myself, career growth, and being financially stable. But sacrificing all that made my choice more meaningful, and the true measure of success is what you had to give up achieving it.

I do miss the mountains.

High Adventure I

2006-06-10T19:55:00.000+08:00

I proposed and she accepted. We’re finally engaged! Woohoo!

Wedding planning, here we go!

[deep breath]

High Adventure II

2006-06-10T19:54:00.000+08:00

In a couple of days, classes will start, and I’ll finally be a teacher! I’m both excited and anxious, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be truly ready for it.

People are usually baffled why I gave up a fancy corporate job (that lets me finance my climbing activities) to take up a job as financially unrewarding as a teacher. The thing is, I really don’t know for sure, but I gave it all up for a dream of fulfillment and purpose, and actually making a difference in this world. Now I’m about to find out if that is indeed the case. May God bless me and watch over me as I take this step.

[deep breath]

Tragedy

2006-06-10T19:19:00.000+08:00

My deepest sympathies to the families of York Delos Santos and Bjorn Baquiran who drowned last May 31 while trekking Mt. Pinatubo on the Porac side. I never knew them personally, but York was part of the group who organized this climb that I joined last year. May their spirits rest in peace.

Mt. Cristobal

2006-06-10T18:31:00.000+08:00

Mt. Cristobal
Dolores, Quezon
May 20-21, 2006

After thinking seriously of quitting climbing for good along the G2 knife ridge, I found myself on the mountain trail again after a month. I tagged along with my former officemates who organized a training climb for the outdoor club applicants and hiked up Mt. Cristobal, the supposed dark twin of Mt. Banahaw.

I’ve planned to climb this mountain last February, but the events that occurred at the time of the People Power anniversary had my supposed companions canceling at the last minute. This time my former officemates organized the climb and I was more than happy to tag along.

A bus ride to San Pablo City, a long walk to the marketplace to pick up lunch, and a longer jeepney ride to Dolores, Quezon brought us to Kinabuhayan, the jump off point for the mountain. The mountain loomed before us, and its upper regions are already covered with clouds. Having had a generally inactive lifestyle in past few weeks since I quit my corporate job, I was worried that I’ll have difficulty engaging in another climb, especially since I gained a few pounds since my last climb, which was just a month before.

Although the added pounds did not make the climb easier for me, I was pleasantly surprised that I did not have much trouble climbing up this mountain. The trail from the jump off point led us through fields, through a steep cement highway (which are more tiring compared to steep mountain trails) until we reached Montelibano’s, a house situated on a clearing and serves as the last water source where climbers can gather water. We stayed here for an hour to have lunch and get some sleep to recharge before we assaulted the mountain for real.

I stayed with the lead group for this climb, as I was concerned that taking up sweeper responsibilities will give my knees hell, especially for a tough climb like this one. The trail was tiring, as it was unrelenting in its steepness. It was like going up a staircase of roots and rocks, and there was hardly any level ground to make the hike easier. It wasn’t that hard climbing up, although the descent the next day was really hard on my knees. There were a couple of points along the trail that had us holding on all fours as we walked past a ravine, and another couple of points that had us crawling under thorny growths with our packs off our backs. The trail was mostly forested, and opened up only when we neared the crater of this extinct volcano. The forest gave way to thorny bushes which gave way to trees again as we went down the crater to the campsite. There were some views from the thorny parts of the trail but were obscured by clouds.

Having lost sight of our guide, we passed through a wrong trail in looking for the way down to the campsite. I got scratched several times as we passed through thick growths until we finally found another way down. I was part of the first group that reached the crater campsite and we immediately set up camp. A cross was situated on the campsite, a sign of the religious and mystical beliefs of the locals here. The crater swamp, where the mysterious creature called Tumao supposedly lives, was right beside our tent.

We shared the campsite with another group (PHINOE I think their group was called) where one of the climbers brought a guitar. I thought that was really cool, lugging a guitar up a mountain just to spice up the socials.

We climbed up to the summit the next morning in search for a view, and the trail was dense and overgrown. I made the mistake of holding on to a thorny branch and had to spend a minute pulling out all the small spikes embedded on my palm. There was another campsite along the summit trail which looked less prone to flooding, but looked to be scarier at night than the crater, which would be a good camp candidate if I should have the chance to climb here again. We passed through thick and tall growths of grass and bamboo, which we had to push, lie down on, and crawl underneath of just to make a path. After spending a few minutes at the summit, we quickly made our way down to the campsite.

It was almost lunch time when we reached the crater from the summit, and we quickly broke camp. We descended at a fast pace, and the steep trail had me slip and fall down a record four times. It was also the first time that I slipped and fell flat on my back and I spent a few moments contemplating my position before getting back up before anyone saw me. We reached Montelibano’s at around 3pm and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. I had already eaten and I was taking a bath outside the house when the last group arrived an hour later.

The hired jeepneys were already waiting for us when we reached the jump-off point, and I let myself off along with a few guys along the highway to wait for bus back to Manila and home.

There wasn’t much of a view from this mountain, although I was able to catch glimpses of San Pablo’s circular lakes, formed from ancient volcanic craters. However, the trail was very interesting and enjoyable, that even without being rewarded by awesome views, the whole experience of climbing this mountain made the whole trip worth my time.

G2

2006-05-13T21:04:00.000+08:00

Mt. Guiting-Guiting
Sibuyan Island, Romblon
April 12 to 16, 2006

Mt. Guiting-Guiting was my first major climb, and it was the first mountain that thoroughly tested my limits. It made me question myself, my ability as a climber, and my reasons for climbing.

I failed to summit this great mountain, mostly due to a lack of preparation, an underestimation of the effort, and not being able to properly psych myself up. However, I made up my mind to return and reach the summit on my second attempt, and I vowed to be more prepared both physically and mentally on that attempt.

Ronie, my constant companion on most of my climbs, was the one who looked for an organizer for a climb up G2. We joined three climbers from the Samsung EXplorers (figure out what they call themselves) with whom I have also climbed with before. The Samsung boys made a game plan, where the meals for each day were properly planned and the food and equipment load were distributed among the five of us. It was a great tool, one that I’m planning to copy if I have to plan a similar climb.

It was a five-day affair, which I was able to participate in thanks to the Holy Week vacations, and my leads’ generosity in allowing me to take two planned “sick leaves” despite having two more weeks to go before my resignation becomes effective. The first day was just for traveling to Sibuyan Island, day 2 was for rest and preparation, days 3 and 4 were for the climb, and day 5 was for the travel back to Manila.

On the first day, we met up at Alabang and proceeded to the Dalahican pier of Lucena in Quezon. Here we met up with the rest of the expedition on board a Kalayaan vessel, a rather small wooden ship carrying cargo and passengers. We arrived on the pier around lunchtime, but the ship waited until the evening before launching off, having us wait on the cramped and hot passengers’ area the whole afternoon. The organizers were able to arrange for our bags to be placed on the captain’s area, so we were able to walk around the ship without worrying about the bags. However, there was no real area where we can lie down or rest, and when it was dinnertime we had our packed lunches on the bow of the ship. We ate our dinner with the sea breeze on our faces and the almost-full moon and star-filled night above our heads. It was a memorable experience, but one that I’m not looking forward to repeat anytime soon. Having no real area in the boat to rest in, we eventually fell asleep on the bow of the boat, exposed to the elements and sleeping where we would fit. I took out my groundsheet, still unwashed from Daguldol, and slept on it atop a thick rope snaking above the cargo area. As the night wore on it got colder and I eventually wrapped myself up with the groundsheet, never mind that it was still unwashed. I woke up at around three in the morning, and I wanted to get back inside the ship, but the waves were making the ship all bouncy, and I didn’t want to stand up. I waited for 30 minutes before deciding that I really didn’t want to stay outside anymore, and braved standing and walking back, a few inches from the edge of the boat.

At around four-thirty in the morning, we reached the first port where most passengers alighted. At last we were able to occupy the beds, and we promptly went back to sleep on the makeshift beds. It was still several hours to our destination, and I was already itching for a bath. I was able to catch a great sunrise on the sea, something I was not able to do so onboard a Superferry when I went to Palawan a few years back. Around lunch-time we reached the port of Romblon, where several of my companions bought marble souvenirs, although I did not see the point of having any marble souvenirs since most of the items on sale were just plain kitschy and non-functional. We had lunch in the city of Romblon, but Sibuyan Island was still three hours away.

As we neared Sibuyan Island, the silhouette of G2 gradually took shape. It was not as imposing as I thought it would be, but it was grand. We reached the port of Magdiwang at around three in the afternoon, and we proceeded to the beach resort of a friend of the organizer where we spent the rest of the day relaxing and preparing for the next day’s climb. Published itineraries for G2 normally have mountaineers spend the day at Manong Lee’s house, although we no longer passed by his house, although I believe the organizers passed by his house for a courtesy visit. We went to the market to stock up on other provisions as well as to buy some fish for dinner. Some of my companions also went for a dip in the water, but I confined myself to just strolling on the sand.

The next day had us up early, as we had to pack up, prepare our breakfast and lunches, and separate the items that we will be leaving behind before we started our climb. We started our climb at around 6:30 in the morning of a clear day. Along the way we passed by a river that was supposedly clean, where I had a drink of water and refilled my trail water bottle. I did drink from several water sources during the whole trek and I did not suffer any stomach maladies, so either the water there was really clean, or I have developed a tough stomach from all my previous climbs.

The open trail quickly turned into a forest trail, which was most welcome. All my previous climbs this year (Daraitan, Batulao, and Daguldol) did not enter forest trails and it was refreshing to be in such a trail once again. There were trees everywhere and there was only a narrow but clear trail to follow. The slope quickly increased, and the whole climb was a long, sustained assault that tested the endurance of the climbers. The forest environment also made for a very humid environment, and I was sweating gallons, not one drop of which was evaporating off my shirt. After an hour of this sustained assault, we reached Camp 1, a clearing which contained an annoying sign saying: “Welcome to Mayo’s Peak, 11 km ahead”. Eleven kilometers is an absurd distance from a welcome sign, and is a very long distance to consider since we were already tired when we reached that clearing.

We positioned ourselves on the lead pack, which allowed us to take a faster pace and not get dragged behind by stragglers. I felt that I was pretty well-conditioned, having had two successive climbs up Mt. Daguldol in the past two weeks. The trail was well-maintained, and even if one gets left behind, there is a clear trail to follow and it won’t be easy for someone to get lost.

The trek continued to be a sustained climb, never letting up and never giving any flat stretches. We maintained a strong pace however, and reached Camp 2, another clearing halfway up to Mayo’s Peak. We reached this clearing around 10:30 in the afternoon, and it was here where we had our lunch. This is also where we regrouped, and where we encountered other hikers who were just climbing down that afternoon. We stayed here for almost an hour, and then we started up again on our climb. We retained our position on the lead pack, and we continued the climb, up and up the steep trail. Soon the trail became foggy, as we entered a clouded area of the mountain. The air was cold, but I can hardly feel the drop in temperature as I was sweating and hot from all the exertion. I only realized how cold the environment was when I drank from my water bottle and was surprised to find that it was cold. At certain points I realized that I could see nothing but fog past the trees on my both my sides, and I realized that it was already open space on my flanks, and the trail we were walking on must only be a narrow strip of land that would already be exposed if not for the few trees growing along the side. I began feeling the start of muscle cramps on my legs after six hours of climbing, and at points I had to stop and prepare a mix of hydration salts and Extra Joss to get some salts back in my blood. The cold and humid atmosphere also made the trail very muddy at that elevation, and the conditions made the surrounding vegetation a mossy forest environment already. The misty air, along with the shade of the large trees, the growing mosses, and loud bird calls set an otherworldly setting.

Camp 3 was the last clearing before the campsite in Mayo’s Peak. After a rest of only a few minutes, we pushed on towards Bulod’s spring, a water source where we refilled our empty containers. The water here is not guaranteed to be potable, so we limited the use of the water from the spring to cooking. We still treated the water with iodine, in case we run out of drinking water. The treatment should be one drop of iodine per liter, and it should be given time to work and disinfect the water. It will have a strong aftertaste though.

The last stretch climbing up to Mayo’s Peak starts when the forest cover ends. The whole trail is exposed and bushes were the only vegetation. It was three-o’clock in the afternoon of Good Friday when we reached the end of the forest cover, and we stopped to say a prayer before tackling the last stretch. From the forest cover, the trail forked into a trail that leads straight up to Mayo’s Peak and another to a drop down the rocky side of the mountain, just a few feet from the fork. The wind was blowing furiously, and it was a scary, scary climb up the last stretch. The ground dropped off to cliffs, just a few meters to either side. The strong winds were swirling the clouds around us, and we had to keep our bodies near the ground for better balance. A few meters up the exposed area, a great view of the Magdiwang area of Sibuyan opens up, but was partially obscured by clouds. We had the pleasure of viewing it clearly on our way down though, with the sun about to set in the sea.

We reached Mayo’s Peak at around four in the afternoon. It was a thickly wooded area, and the campsites were distributed around several clearings. A hammock would be a good solution for the light backpacker here, but I would still prefer a tent when I make my second attempt here. We pitched camp and started to prepare dinner, but it started to rain at around five in the afternoon. Here my tent failed me again. Water started to drip inside the tent, and it really pissed me off because I did not relish spending the night in a wet tent, just when I would need all the rest I can get. Two girls whose companions were carrying their tent but were still behind entered our tent for shelter, as they waited for their companions to set up their tents. I was embarrassed by the condition of my tent, and I was also embarrassed to Ronie since he already volunteered to bring his tent and I insisted that we use mine. The rain eventually stopped, but we had to use some of our clothes to absorb the water that dripped inside the tent. We also had to contend with the fear that it might rain again during the night, and we had no real protection against the dripping water. Fortunately it stayed dry throughout the night, and Ronie preferred to sleep on the wetter side of the tent as it was situated on the flatter area on the ground. That worked for me as I preferred to sleep on the drier side, and the bump on the ground that irritated Ronie worked as a passable head rest for me.

The night exposed the first parts of my underestimation of this climb. I decided against bringing a sleeping bag and my usual earth pad, preferring instead a jacket, a bonnet, socks, and a small and thin insulating pad. It was a freezing night for me, as I did not have adequate insulation against the cold on my lower extremities. The small pad I brought meant that I did not have room to move around while sleeping, so I just placed it inside my jacket and on my back, and it was inadequate protection against the rough portions of the ground, although it was still a good insulator. I had some sleep, but I was not as well rested as I needed to be.

We were supposed to start our summit assault at five in the morning. However, strong winds kept us from starting right away, and we started the assault at 6:30 in the morning. The organizer informed us that the summit is only two hours away, and that we should head back if we failed to reach the summit in two and a half hours, otherwise we will be forced to stay another night in the campsite. Staying another night was not an option for me, as I had run out of clothes to wear for the next day, especially underwear. Also, I didn’t think I could handle another night if it rained, and we have already run out of food, as the plan called for only one day up in camp. These concerns were all in my head as we started to head out for the summit. That was another aspect of my lack of preparation, exchanging a lighter load for a complete set of food and equipment that will cover emergencies.

My first look at the summit trail unnerved me. It was a long, long trail along a scary, scary line, aptly called the Knife Ridge. The summit looked so far away (it was probably not even the summit, only the Peak of Deception) and the way looked like it could be the trail from Mordor to the mouth of Orodruin. The trail was exposed, with no trees to break the wind, and only tall shrubs to hold on to. It was a sharp drop to either side of the trail. The sides of the mountain were very steep on all sides, and it was as if it was a large wall that was erected to separate the island in two, with sharp rocks on top to keep intruders from crossing over. It was an awful sight. It was awesome.

In retrospect, I believe I already got scared when I first beheld the trail, and that was when doubt crept in my heart, and inwardly I already decided that I did not have to reach the summit. That removed the hunger, the need, the drive for me to reach the summit. I realized this when I saw our pictures and realized that I was the only one who was not smiling in our group pictures. I also did not have enough trail food, bringing only what was left of my banana chips and raisin mix from my last Daguldol climb. The organizer’s assurance that it will only be a two hour climb to the summit had me bringing only a handful of trail food, which was wrong, wrong, wrong. I was also about to bring only a small water bottle, but thankfully someone convinced me to bring a bigger bottle.

The Knife Ridge was the highlight of the whole climb. Here we had to climb rocks, rocks, and more rocks. On the rocks, the only trail to follow is the soil marks left by the previous climbers. We clambered up, around, and down huge rocks with very sharp edges, and we did this for hours. The edges of the rocks were freakishly sharp, one misstep, one slip, and you will either fall down on either side of the ridge, or you will smash your shin or your skull on of these rocks. Either way, you’re dead, or you’re injured so badly you’d eventually die since there would not be enough time for you to get rescued. All limbs are used, rock walls are climbed, jamming hands and feet on cracks is a must for several portions, and all this time the weather slowly turns from cold and windy to very hot when the clouds clear up and the sun bears down on you. Fear ceased to be a feeling that jumps in and out but turns into one hard solid lump in your chest that’s just there, which one will get used to and eventually ignore. After an hour climbing and scrambling while being scared shitless, I just stopped caring. I no longer cared how scary the trail was, and I no longer cared whether I summit it or not. I just wanted to continue until I can no longer go on.

I stopped and made my stand thirty minutes away from the last water source (very sweet water), and around an hour and a half away from the summit. I was already walking for two and half hours, and I was worried about not being able to descend on that same day. My water was running out, my trail food was out and all I had was a roll of mint candies. My legs were giving up, and I was thoroughly enervated. At that point I had nothing left in me and I knew I can no longer go on. So I just sat down and enjoyed the view from my vantage point. The Peak of Deception loomed in front of me; I was just at its base. The summit was still hidden from view, and clouds were swirling all around me. After a few minutes of sitting down I realized how cold it was, and I wanted to start back and head to the safety of camp. It was scary sitting there, exposed to the environment with nobody around in sight. I decided against heading back on my own, because if something happened to me nobody will know about it until everybody is back in camp, which wouldn’t be for several hours.

I sat there for half an hour, until finally someone was coming down from the summit. That was a long thirty minutes, and I sat there thinking why the hell I climbed this mountain in the first place, and wondering how the hell I was going to get back to the campsite, much less descend from the mountain. When the first pair down the mountain passed me, I followed after them, but I was still so drained that I was not able to catch up with them. Never mind that, I said to myself. At least if something happens to me there would be someone who knows.

On the way back I realized how drained I was. My energy levels were down to zero, and I was amazed every time I was able to negotiate a technical portion of the trail. I was amazed every time I lifted myself up with my arms, and every time I was able to push myself up with my legs. The mint candies were a Godsend, but only provided me with shots of energy good for a few minutes. I was stopping to rest every 10 minutes, and every time I despaired when I looked at how far I still had to go. At times I can no longer see the pair who passed me, as they were very fast and I took my time on the trail. There was nowhere I can turn to for encouragement, and a prayer was on my lips at all times. I promised myself that I would take a three month hiatus from climbing after this climb, then I seriously thought about quitting from climbing altogether, and giving away all my equipment. I thought about the family that I would want to have someday, and I wanted to kick myself in the head for even attempting to climb this mountain in the first place. Three hours passed very slowly, and suddenly I was back in the campsite.

The minute I stepped on the campsite, all the negative thoughts vanished, and I started thinking, damn, why didn’t I climb up to the summit? Of course, deep inside I knew I was already drained, and pushing for the summit in that condition will be a mistake. I prepared myself some food, and started to pack up, as groups are already starting to descend once a critical mass is reached. On camp I was already regretting my decision to abort my summit attempt, even though I knew I made the correct decision. Still, I felt so bad about it that I didn’t smile until I reached Manila.

My companions arrived at around 4:30pm, almost three hours after I arrived. Of course, they were jubilant for having reached the summit, but what can I do, I made the decision to quit myself. They had a very late lunch, and we started our descent at 5pm, with the organizers deciding that no one will spend the night in camp. I welcomed the descent even if it meant a long night trek, as long as we reach the forest line from Mayo’s Peak before dark.

The descent was a fast, continuous trek that gave my knees hell. We hardly stopped to rest, as we all wanted to reach the ground as fast as we can. There were lots of fireflies, and on occasion I stopped and turned my headlamp off just to watch them twinkle. Eventually, fatigue got the better of me and I just concentrated on pushing on and on until we get down. We stopped for a quick dinner in Camp 2, and as tired as we were, we were only halfway down from Mayo’s Peak. The rest of the descent passed as a blur for me, it was just a long and non-stop walk on a dark forest filled with animal sounds. I was too tired to be scared, and too focused on getting down to feel the fatigue.

We cleared the forest line at around 10:30pm, but we still needed to reach the house where we’ll spend the night. It was another half hour before we reached that house, and I was thoroughly drained, physically and mentally when we reached that house. All I wanted was to be back home.

The next day I split up from my companions, since they were still heading for Boracay. We took a ship straight back to Batangas, and from there a bus ride to Manila. That was when all my body pains started to make themselves felt, and I can hardly alight from the bus steps with pain shooting up my legs. When I finally got home I was just so happy to be back that I gave everyone in my family a hug for good measure.

Of course, after all those thoughts of quitting, I now want another shot at G2’s summit. This time I know now what I’m up against, and I can prepare myself properly for it. I initially planned to attempt it after three years, but now I want to get it over with as soon as possible, perhaps next year.

Not to say that I did not enjoy the G2 climb. It was a wonderful experience, in everything from the boat ride to the beach to the climb and back. I learned a lot of things, from outdoor skills, to food options, to good planning. Most importantly, I learned a lot about myself. That discovery of self is one of my reasons in climbing, and in that aspect, I succeeded.

Mt. Daguldol with the Accenture Outdoor Club

2006-05-01T23:15:00.000+08:00

Mt. Daguldol with Accenture Outdoor Club
First batch: April 1-2, 2006
Second batch: April 8-9, 2006

Our office club held the first training climbs for the first batch of applicants on Mt. Daguldol. I had the opportunity to climb with the two batches of applicants: The first batch was my assigned group, and I replaced a committee member on the second batch who was not able to make the climb. I did not mind the second climb so much as I was preparing for a major climb on Holy Week, although I wanted to avoid Daguldol because it is very far from Manila.

On the first batch, I took the role of sweeper along with Christian, one of the sportier committee members. It was a tough task with one of the climbers having trouble around the time we got to the middle of the trail, although we did manage to get her up to the campsite by sharing her load and telling her stories to distract her from the fatigue.

Batch 1

I was not supposed to be the sweeper for the second batch. However, the applicant who borrowed my extra tent left the tent on the bus, and they tried to catch up with the bus on the Batangas pier, and he was accompanied by the sweeper team. I had to take up the role of sweeper again for the second batch. This time one of the applicants started having trouble early; way before the hut rest point is reached. This was just at the starting point of the trek, and I started psyching myself that we may have to set up camp at the beach. Fortunately my co-sweeper Omeng had more faith in the applicant, who turned out to be made of sterner stuff. My co-sweeper showed patience and was very encouraging, and I tried my best to do the same thing. Eventually we caught up with the rest of the group at the first store along the trail. The sweeper team also eventually caught up with us, having successfully retrieved the tent from the bus.

I had already taken the last man position several times previously, but this is the first time that I had to perform the sweeper role seriously. This time we brought a large number of mostly beginners up a mountain that could be challenging for newbies, and some difficulties like we encountered are expected. I learned a lot of things from Christian and Omeng during the two climbs, mostly on the value of patience, encouragement, and perseverance. These are some qualities that a good sweeper must have, and which I need to develop.

A cookfest was the main dinner event for both climbs. On the first batch, there was a separate committee group to judge the creations of the applicants, whose selections included vegetable tempura, beef with oyster sauce, chicken curry, lemon chicken, pork chops, plus some other entrees that I was not able to sample. I was in charge of cooking for the committee judges, and cooked up a good batch of sinigang, which could have won the cookfest had it been entered in the contest. Due to the weird judging rules, the chicken curry won the contest, something that surprised us because nobody seemed to like it best, but it was a consistent second choice and gathered the most votes. Until now I have no idea what the prize is, perhaps several more kilos of meat for another meal.

Batch 2

The judging of the cookfest of the second batch was more disorganized, since there was no separate committee group to judge the food. We were all part of competing groups, which resulted in the judges naturally preferring their group’s food. The entrees for this batch included giniling in tomato sauce, “special” sinigang with baboy (yeah right), a couple of chicken dishes and another pork dish. My inability to identify the second batch’s food despite having pictures is probably indicative of the better quality of food during the first batch, or at least for my taste. The giniling dish, however, was great. Of course this was our group’s entry to the cookfest, prepared almost single-handedly by our groupmate Cham.

We finished both climbs on the beach, where we counted the casualties of the climb. Thankfully there were no major injuries on both batches, but the beach trek took its toll on the soles of several climbers’ shoes, especially the ones who wore sneakers during the trek. Both climbs had me getting home really late, and I promised myself I wouldn’t be hiking Daguldol again for another year.

Taal Volcano Field Trip

2006-04-06T20:25:00.000+08:00

Taal Volcano Field Trip
March 17-18, 2006

I joined a field trip to Taal with Dawn and Manong Henry, and their second and third year high school kids. I guess they will be my students soon as well, as I'll be leaving my current job to teach there this June.

I passed on a climb up Mt. Natib to join the field trip, which was a good thing since I was having a rather bad case of coughing most probably due to the changing weather conditions. The short trek presented some difficulties for me that I normally would not experience if my respiratory system is healthy. It was the same case when I last climbed Mt. Sembrano, where I hiked it afflicted with the same case of coughing that I had in Taal.

The kids were great and made me look forward to teaching them this school year. They were an articulate bunch, confident, outspoken and tough. The trek must have been demanding for them, because even though there was not much elevation, it was taken under scorching heat and dust in the treeless volcano environment. On top of that, they were supposed to learn stuff about geography, answer quizzes and submit an essay on Monday about the trip.

Taal Lake is already suffering from overfishing. Various fishpens for tilapia cultivation have been installed over large sections of the lake. This poses future problems with the lake, as huge amounts of wasted fish feed are deposited on the lake bottom everyday. Eventually the lake will become shallower and shallower, until it can no longer support life. The deposits also cause deoxygenation of the water on the deeper levels, and fishkills have been observed to occur twice a year when an underwater phenomenon occurs that causes the deoxygenated water to rise to the surface. Unchecked proliferation of illegal fishpens will most likely result in the lake waters being unsuitable for life in a few generations.

The fishpens are visible on the choppy boat ride from the PHIVOLCS station to the campsite. I was surprised to find the waters to be that rough since they looked calm when viewed from the station, and from elevated places like Tagaytay and Maculot. Not being used to boat rides on lakes, the salt-less spray on my face was a pleasant surprise. Of course it was still not clean water, but the salty deposits on my eyeglasses and the sticky feeling was not there, unlike boat rides on seas.

After pitching camp we headed off again by boat to check out the main volcano, the view deck on the Main Crater Lake. The first thing I learned on the way there was that the volcano-like structure visible on the island is NOT the volcano. It is just a cinder cone on one of the craters (Binintiang Malaki), but is hardly the main crater of the volcano. The Main Crater Lake is right smack in the middle of the island, and is accessible by a hot and dusty hike up the trail called Daanan ng Kastila. This is the main tourist spot of the island, and silly looking Chinese and Korean tourists passed by us, riding on pack horses and dressed hilariously inappropriately for the hot environment. Most were businessmen in business shirts, carrying what looked like laptop bags while riding on horses on the dusty terrain and looking woefully out of place.

There were several steam vents or fumaroles on the trail, and the students took turns taking temperature measurements of these vents. These vents were very hot (around 80 degrees Celsius if I remember correctly) and smelled of sulfur. According to Henry there were less vents the last time he was there, which could indicate an increased activity from the volcano. Actually, the volcano was already in alert level 1 when we went there, and according to PHIVOLCS staff, is due for another eruption in a few years.

The crater rim was definitely a tourist spot, and there was a parking area for horses, and a bunch of Chinese-Taiwanese-Korean (All look same! All look same!) tourists were there taking pictures. Locals were selling coconuts at outrageous prices (P30 per coconut), but of course the tourists were snapping them up. Despite the already tourist-y ambience, the view was impressive. From the crater rim was a sheer drop to the crater lake, and several steam vents can be seen smoking near the water line. Mt. Maculot's silhouette provides an imposing background to this view.

After a hot, dusty, and tiring trek back to the shore we were supposed to look for a hot spring where the kids can wash up. However, the trail to the spring proved impassable to the kids, and we called it off and went back to camp. I cooked the sardines pasta I learned from Jem on my last Batulao climb, which was a success, and hopefully impressed Dawn. :) The campsite was great because it was on the front of the captain's house and along the shore. The running water, a bathroom and toilet, and the breeze from the lake made for a comfortable stay.

The next day had us breaking camp early and heading off for another trek. We visited the Tabaro eruption site, the site of the last eruption in 1977. Here the path of the lava flow is visible from the crater going out to the lake. Sparse vegetation has already grown on the land, but the black remnants of the lava flow is still markedly visible. It was another hot and dusty day, and it was a huge relief for me when we finally reached the boats. A kid had leg cramps on the way up the Tabaro site, and another kid got exhausted and drained because he missed breakfast. We passed by a volcanic fissure along the trail, which was a crack in the ground, further evidence of the increasing activity of the volcano.

Everybody was exhausted by the time we reached the observatory on the other side of the lake. The two days were taxing for everybody, especially the kids. However, the kids were great and well-behaved, which made it easier for us as there were only three adults to watch over 17 kids on a camping trip on a volcanic island.

The trip was an educational experience for me as well. I picked up some interesting stuff on geology, which was great because it was never one of my interests. I got to know the kids, who exhibited great attitude, and I got to spend more time with Dawn. It's just a pity that I did not bring my camera along when we explored the Tabaro site, the lava flows would have made for interesting pics. Overall, I enjoyed the trip, even though my coughing fits made some portions of the hike really tough for me.

Mt. Manabu All-Women Climb

2006-03-16T08:10:00.000+08:00

Accenture Outdoor Club
International Women's Day All-Women Climb
Mt. Manabu
March 4-5, 2006

The fledgling club we established in the office had its first opportunity to climb during the International Women's Week, as requested by the community leadership who is providing financial support to the club. While not the first major activity (we have already attended a BMC and First Aid classes organized by the club), it was the first test of the ability of the club to organize, lead, and coordinate a climb safely. It was also the first time that the club's committee heads will be climbing together, bringing us in a situation where the safety of a troop of ladies depended on us, while not having taken a measure of each other's abilities yet. Experience and good planning pulled through and made the climb a success (well, at least from our point of view as organizers).

We opened the climb to the first 30 ladies who signed up on our registration site. Accompanying them on the climb were seven (supposedly nine) committee members (Kate, Rad, Jojo, Gea, Nanding, Zai and myself) and Gea's guest Bunny. Jojo instantly recognized Bunny as the owner of this blog, a blog that has a rather high Google ranking when searching for Philippine mountains.

At the Fiesta mall near the bus stop, I spotted a familiar face. Chay, a companion in previous mountain forays, was walking around apparently with the intention of climbing Manabu alone. We had him tag along with us instead of letting him go on alone. After procuring our packed lunches, registering with the barangay outpost, and dealing with Nanay Caring for Sunday's lunch, we headed off for the summit camp of Manabu.

I took the position of sweeper for the lead team, which was fortunately a stronger team than I initially assumed. We took a strong and steady pace up the trail, although two of the girls started experiencing cramps on their legs as the trail got steeper. The two of us sweeping the pack took turns carrying their bags, and applied first aid on one of the ladies.

Manabu is a very popular destination, and there were already a lot of people on the campsite when we arrived. We had our late lunch on camp as we waited for the two other teams to arrive and set up camp.

We spent the afternoon resting, telling stories, and eventually finishing off the first bottle of wine. During this time I got to know the committee folks better, and realized that they were a rather cool bunch to climb with.

Dinner preparations started when it began to get dark. My campsite pride of “perfect” rice was there (actually only the second time I was able to pull it off). I realized that hanging out with more experienced mountaineers had its own appeal, different from my usual office companions (with the exception of Noemi and the Chinatrust folks) who have the same or less experience as me.

The socials sessions started soon after, and it was one of the more fascinating socials I experienced while climbing. With only three guys in the socials circle, the conversation was dominated by female topics not normally coming up in a session where there are more guys than girls. Most of the topics revolved around relationships, and were discussed from the woman’s point of view. Wine, gin, garlic mushrooms, and sisig was passed all around as the night drew on.

I retired to my tent around half-past midnight, not too drunk as I passed on most of the gin shots, but promptly fell asleep anyway. Around three in the morning, I woke up to find my pants up to my socks drenched in cold water. My supposed waterproof tent failed me! The strong rain outside pounded my tent and water was coming in from a part of the fly that was not tautly pulled over the tent body. Despite the strength of the rain, it was fortunate that it was only a brief shower, and soon stopped. I was still able to change into dry clothes and sleep in relative comfort despite having parts of my tent wet.

Unlike my previous climbs, I was not the first one up this time. I woke up at 6 am to Kate’s voice calling me from outside to start preparing breakfast and prepare for break camp. Again I tried to prepare oatmeal for breakfast after the nasty oatmeal experience in Batulao, and yet again it was a failure. The sugar pack I brought got lost during the night, and I had to eat the bland glop again. After breaking camp and taking pictures, we headed on down at 9 am, taking the steep but faster trail down.

Being the first team to reach the jump off, we immediately took our baths as our lunch of tinola and tilapia were being prepared by Nanay Caring. This is the first post-climb bath that I have taken since October of last year, and I forgot how refreshing that could be. We had lunch when all the teams have arrived, and after a cool bath and a full lunch, all I needed was a good long sleep.

The first club climb showed us our strengths and weaknesses, particularly in planning and preparation. It proved that we can work together and that boded well for the future of the club. I personally learned a lot during that climb, and that made it a personal success for me.

Continuous Improvement items:
1. Prepare chocolate fondue in camp
2. Duct tape! Don’t leave home without it
3. Stop the peg-first style of tent-pitching that I’m currently doing
4. Always check the flysheet for leak points

Things I learned:
1. Always always set the expectations for guest climbers especially on open climbs
2. Always always waterproof your gear even if they are already kept inside the tent
3. Ensure that the flysheet stays taut at all points to prevent any places where water might pool, no matter how small
4. How to cook sinigang in camp
5. Duct tape is indispensable in climbs
6. We should not have assumed that first timers are immediately familiar with campsite traditions (i.e., socials)
7. (not really learned but more of a take-away) The enriching experience of the socials session with the climb participants

Mt. Batulao

2006-03-12T13:39:00.000+08:00

Mt. Batulao
February 25-26, 2006

My latest climb up Mt. Batulao was a frustration of sorts, as I originally planned to climb Mt. Cristobal with Ronie and Dane from Daraitan. The original plan was for a Cristobal traverse climb, which was shelved when Dane’s companions backed off for various reasons, including the street protests that marked the eve of the Edsa Revolution’s 20th anniversary.

Fortunately, my officemate Vincent organized a Batulao hike for our other officemates. Originally part of the Cristobal hike, they decided to break off and organize a separate hike due to schedule concerns, several first timers in the group, and the reputation of Cristobal as housing an insurgent army. On the day before the hike, they were still able to accommodate me and my former schoolmate Jem, whom I invited on the Cristobal climb.

The itinerary called for an early trek, which the twelve of us undertook under clear skies and scorching sun. We made camp on the fifth campsite, which was the one that offered the most shade beyond the first campsite.

Batulao looked disturbingly like a park. All campsites are labeled. New campsites (11 and 12) were created between the first and second camps. The first campsite had the tent areas clearly defined and the ground leveled. There was an enclosed latrine area. While admittedly a beautiful mountain, all these “improvements”, while convenient, certainly took a lot away from the whole experience.

Most of the girls remained at camp while we assaulted the summit late in the afternoon. The portion from the seventh to the eight camps was the toughest part of the assault. The trail was worn down, and loose soil and stones were raining down underneath the feet of climbers. We had to hold on to the sparse vegetation for support, and rocks had to be tested for stability before trusting our weight on them. When we reached the 8th camp, two decided not head further and head back to camp.

The six of us who remained pushed towards the summit. After scrambling up some rocks, we finally reached the summit of Batulao. Unlike my first time here, the skies were clear, and the view that eluded me during my first time here was finally visible. It was the perfect opportunity to take some silhouette shots, and Tristan’s was the best of all.

From the summit the Batangas landscape is visible. On the other side of Batulao was a long stretch of plains until the sea, and the sun was setting spectacularly on the horizon. Unfortunately waiting until sunset was not an option, as we would have to make the descent in the dark. I make a mental note to camp in the kick-ass summit campsite someday, and get to view the sunset that eluded me.

I reached the campsite as darkness quickly descended. Dinner was penne pasta with sardines in tomato sauce, courtesy of Jem’s recipe. After the requisite socials discussing my officemates’ new love lives, we retired to our tents relatively early. I do have to note that the camp caretaker was going around selling canned drinks to campers, yet another blight on the whole experience.

Mt. Batulao certainly has a kick-ass summit view, with a challenging assault that offers a fulfilling climb to the daring climber. However, the hot open trail, tree-less terrain, cultivated mountainsides, park-like unnatural campsites and vendors interrupting socials sessions can turn off the climber looking for an escape from the urban environment. I had a great time with my companions, but I was not as satisfied with the climb as I normally am after hikes. Still, it was a good weekend spent with friends, both old and new.

(First two photos by Jem Bantola http://www.flickr.com/photos/jem/sets/72057594077619688/)

Things I learned:
1. Cooking pasta in camp
2. The North Face tents really do have an “expensive” feel to them
3. Chopsticks can be good cooking utensils.

Continuous Improvement:
1. Get my own cookset.
2. Instruct new climbers how they should handle their garbage. (I had to pick up unsightly used tissue papers littered around our latrine area and pack them out)
3. Be more careful with my equipment. I lost my Lexan water bottle at the store near the Evercrest entrance and found out about it only when I got home.

Sardines in Tomato Sauce recipe:
Ingredients:
1 small jar Spanish Sardines
1 pack Spaghetti Sauce
Garlic and Onions
Salt to taste

1. Saute chopped garlic and onions in sardine oil until the garlic is brown.
2. Mix in spaghetti sauce and several pieces of sardines
3. Mix in low heat for several minutes.

Daraitan

2006-01-20T14:17:00.000+08:00

Daraitan
January 14-15, 2006

Daraitan is a trekking destination nestled in the middle of the mountains of Tanay, Rizal. Getting there is a 3-hour trip from Shaw Boulevard, with the last one hour on rough roads that can only be a muddy mess during the rainy season. Once the jump-off point is reached there is a variety of trekking destinations that can be explored, including river trekking, caves, and peaks that can be assaulted. On our trip here last weekend, we took the river trail for an easy hike to a campsite along the river.

There are jeepneys from Shaw to Tanay market, where there are other jeepneys plying the Daraitan-Tanay route. This is the route we took to get to our destination. One of my officemates, who we instructed to meet us in Tanay, was able to catch our jeepney as it passed by Cainta Junction, so he did not have to go to Tanay on his own. At the market we bought our supplies for dinner and breakfast, and the gin. I was also able to purchase a sheet of plastic sack material for my groundsheet, since I can’t find my old one at home.

The ride from Tanay to Daraitan seemed longer than the one hour it took to get there. The jeepney was filled to capacity, and passengers were on the roof. I was in the “backseat”: a wooden plank set on the metal rails on the jeepney rear entrance. After my legs died from the awkwardness of my sitting position, I decided to ride on the rails instead. My decision was timely as we reached the end of the paved roads, and it gave me a security of mind that I can simply let go in case the jeepney tips over on its side. It must have been more exciting for the roof riders.

We had lunch at the jump-off point. I had packed lunch, but food is available from a store here. The store overlooks the river that we’ll have to cross, and as we prepare to start hiking it also started to rain.

We crossed the river in the rain, which abruptly stopped as soon as we reached the other bank. Unlike my other companions, I was not apprehensive about the river crossing, having done my share of it on my Pinatubo hike. The current was strong though, and we crossed in a single file, supporting the girls as they crossed.

The trail to the campsite is also used by loggers transporting lumber on horses, and we met several along the trail. This meant that the trail was sprinkled liberally by horseshit, and we had to clean up and cover a toe wound by one of our companions to prevent possible contamination by the horse dung. I fell back when I decided to change into shoes from sandals, and I was overtaken by a funeral procession. I marched with the procession until I was able to catch up with my friends, and I was only able to overtake the procession when we arrived at the nearby cemetery.

The trail wended along the river, passing through limestone boulders and small streams. The trail was mostly horizontal, and we made good time as nobody felt the need to rest every now and then. Along the trail we met a rifle-toting kagawad of the barangay. He warned us against going to the caves if we have inexperienced swimmers with us, because the water level of the river is higher and the current stronger this time of the year.

We also met the owner (as he claimed) of the lands surrounding the area. He encouraged us to set up bonfires along the campsite, which we politely declined. He was a nice enough fellow, probably a politician around the area. We jokingly asked why he did not convert the area into a mountain resort, to which he replied that he had no plans of doing so, as he was not interested in seeing a large volume of visitors go up the area.

The campsite was reached after two and a half hours of hiking. The site where we set up camp was situated on a riverbank, and the soil was sandy, comfortable enough to walk barefoot on. It was almost like being on a beach, with a river replacing the sea. The soil may have been artificially transported there to create the campsite, as it did not seem to be the normal soil type along a river.

We had an interesting socials session that night, with the more experienced climbers sharing their stories of hypothermia, climbing the country's highest peaks, and best and worst climbing experiences by which our stories seemed paltry in comparison. One of our companions had Mt. Kanlaon for his first climb, and climbed it without supplies, subsisting on handouts from other climbers until he was able to get back down.

That morning we spent time getting ourselves wet in the river. The current was very strong, and swimming against the current ended us up farther than where we started. The other group we were sharing the campsite with had to rescue one guy from their group who crossed the river, but was too drunk to get back to our side of ther river. The guy was so drunk that he did not particularly appreciate the danger of his situation, and was still laughing after being dragged back to camp after his rescue. He eventually fell asleep from exhaustion, allowing his friends to get back at him by burying him in the sandy soil of the campsite, and left him there as they went to explore the caves.

Having observed that our group still had inexperienced swimmers, we declined their invitation to join them in exploring the caves. After a heavy brunch we packed up, cleaned out, and headed home.

I was surprised by the view afforded us on the way back, as I had no idea it was that pretty because I had my back on it on the way to the campsite. After an easy trek, we crossed the river once more and we were back at the jumpoff point. After a meal of instant noodles, we headed on home.

I marked this destination as someplace that I'll get back to. Hopefully by that time the river waters have subsided, allowing a safer crossing to the caves area, and that I'll get to spend time tramping about the surrounding mountainside. For now I'm happy for the chance to swim in the river.

Continuous Improvement:
1.Learn to cook curry!
2.Learn to cook anything!
3.Work out for a better body and to look better in pictures :)
4.Not pay for more than the normal jeepney fare. People here have no concept of a special trip.

Things I learned:
1.Making coffee from toasted rice!
2.Animal dung should not be ignored and should be viewed as a tetanus risk for someone with wounds in the feet.
3.Rice can still be fixed if it turns out to be too dry.
4.Provincial culture is probably hard to live with, with people getting ruder and greedier as they get older.
5.How it feels to swim in a river

A wedding in tobacco land

2006-01-12T21:48:00.000+08:00

I took my first solo bus trip from QC to Candon last December to attend the wedding of one of my father’s cousins. We were not really close but I wanted to take the opportunity to travel, as well as the opportunity to purchase unique holiday gifts for my officemates.

The bus ride itself was uneventful, although it was one of the best things about the trip for me. I appreciated the solitude I found on the seven-hour bus trip, and I came prepared for the cold cold bus ride with a jacket and a bonnet. This was a lesson I learned on my Sagada trip, where I spent the better part of the bus trip huddled under a thick towel with the air conditioning going full blast over my head.

My stay in the ancestral house was a crashing bore though. My relatives there were a rather antisocial bunch who did not entertain us, except for the bride’s mother who tried her best but was too busy with the wedding arrangements to spend a lot of time with us.

The wedding itself was one of the saddest affairs I have ever attended. No one was smiling, not the bride, not the groom, not my relatives (who were unanimously disapproving of my aunt’s choice for a husband), and not the guests. The reception was a huge disorganized gathering of the whole barangay, and the guests were uncontrolled. There was enough food for everyone, but the resultant chaos made it impossible to have a reception program for the couple.

I visited the town cemetery that afternoon, and was regaled by a grand-aunt with tales of how the surrounding tobacco fields were owned by the family a long way back. I kept thinking that it was such a pity they did not know how to manage their properties only to end up weeping about it in their old age.

I only stayed there for one night, and went back home the next day. We passed by some relatives in the next town, which included a 98 year-old great-grand aunt who made my grandmother look young and energetic. Afterwards we passed by the town market to purchase kalamay patties for my officemates, as well as Vigan sausages and vegetables for Dawn. My uncle then dropped me off in the next province where I caught a ride back to Manila.

Sad to say, the best parts of the whole trip was traveling by my lonesome, and shopping for stuff to take home. The quaint provincial village I was expecting was transformed into a congested barangay with cement houses of garish colors. It looked no different from the provincial towns surrounding Metro Manila. With the attitude of my relatives to boot, it is highly unlikely I will be going out of my way to visit again. It’s sad really.

Trekking Pole Camera Attachment

2006-01-11T13:54:00.000+08:00

I added a camera screw to my trekking pole to create a makeshift monopod for my camera. This should help minimize blurred night shots, and allow taking shots over ledges and from high angles. It can also be used as a tripod substitute by sticking the pole to the ground. Here are the steps:

1. I purchased a 1/4" diameter screw, 3/4" length. The 1/4" screw is the standard tripod screw attachment for cameras.
2. The head of the screw was sawed off, since I can't figure out a way of inserting it upside down on the hole on top of the pole handle.
3. The wrist strap was removed, and a 1/4" nut was inserted on the slot where the strap goes in, aligned with the hole where the screw holding the wrist strap was previously attached.
4. The screw is inserted into the hole and into the nut underneath, and tightened. A second nut is attached on the top for added stability.

That's it, a workable monopod using a trekking pole. I just have a couple of problems with my setup, first is that the camera is not touching the rubber handle but rests on the metal nut. I would have preferred the camera sitting on the rubber handle to avoid scratches, but it is not much of a risk. The second is that I had to remove the strap completely. I will probably just use a small piece of rope to function as a strap.

Since I'm planning to use the pole to take pictures over ledges, I'll also add a longer strap to my camera and keep it attached to my body should the monopod setup fail and drop my camera over the ledge. I'm pretty confident that it won't but you never know.

Chocolate

2006-01-11T09:56:00.000+08:00

I joined a Maya Kitchen class in chocolate making last week, which was a cool new experience for me. The last time I cooked something up in the kitchen was 11 years ago when I made mashed potatoes on our then-new microwave oven. It was a company-sponsored cooking class, so I got to attend and sample chocolate dishes for free.

We spent the morning watching demonstrations on melting chocolate, and making chocolate cheesecake, chocolate mousse, and chocolate cookies. The cheesecake was the softest, and most melt-in-your-mouth cheescake I have tasted, unlike the rich and solid cheesecakes sold in Starbucks. I am still hesitant to try the recipe out, since I already have a couple of failed cheesecakes under my belt, although I have more confidence now than before I attended the class. The mousse was a little gummy, which is just the way I like it, and the cookies were just great.

From the class I learned how to melt chocolate properly (constant stirring with a wooden spoon), how to prepare the cream cheese for the cheesecake (use a mixer instead of a blender), what is shortening (lard), and how to handle chocolates for cooking (keep away from water).

The afternoon was the exciting part, when we get to make our own chocolate recipes. The recipes were simple, which is fine for me because I'm just a beginner. We made Bailey's Truffles (best recipe of that afternoon), chocolate-dipped marshmallows, marbled chocolate peanuts, and poured chocolate into molds. At first I was only chopping and melting the chocolate, but I wanted to get more involved so I made the second batch of the truffles, deliberately avoiding making chocolate shapes from the molds, since there's nothing new there, just reshaped chocolate bars.

It was a cool class and I picked up a couple of skills that I can use to impress my friends. I do need to try out the cheesecake soon, and get over the cheesecake slump I've been experiencing.

Bailey's Truffles

Ingredients:
225 grams premium chocolate, chipped
1/4 cup condensed milk
1 tbsp instant coffee in 1 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream or brandy
1 cup flavored cocoa powder

1. Melt the chocolate in the double boiler, mixing with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is melted evenly
2. Allow the chocolate to cool (can be placed in the freezer for 2-3 minutes)
3. Add the rest of the ingredients (except cocooa powder) in the chocolate to form the mixture. Mix well until creamy
4. Allow mixture to harden (can be placed in the freezer for 10-15 minutes)
5. Form portions of the chocolate into balls using your hands
6. Roll the chocolate ball in cocoa powder and place in fluted paper cups

Mt. Pinatubo via Porac (Delta 5) Trail

2005-11-23T22:30:00.000+08:00

Mt. Pinatubo via Porac Trail
November 19-20, 2005

Last weekend’s hike was my best experience so far. The Porac trail of Mt. Pinatubo is a beautiful landscape, carved from the land by the eruption of the volcano whose remains we came to see.

From the river jump off point, the trail takes the path of the river. We headed all the way upriver, until the murky waters in the Porac town area turned clear as we reached the river’s source. Our hike was a grueling 12 hours from the jump off point to the campsite, although a smaller group should be able to take it in eight.

The view along the trail was breathtaking, with massive walls of earth, sand and rock enclosing the wide river trail. The trail was sand and rock and water, with countless crossings of the river to get to safe footpaths. For hours the trail is both drastically changing, but having a quality of constancy in it. It’s just so pretty it’s hard to describe.

Potable water sources are available starting around 5 hours into the trail. A waterfall before the distinctive “kweba” formation provides cold replenishment after the long hike. The so-called “kweba” or cave is not actually a cave, but two massive rocks leaning on each other, creating a passageway in between. Beyond this point the trail starts to get tougher, with the river path becoming more complicated.

We reached the waterfall marking the end of the long river trek and the start of the upward assault to the campsite, just as it was starting to get dark. This is the time of the day when everything just gets gray, compounded with all the sand around us, made for a truly gray hour indeed. The assault to the campsite would have probably taken only an hour from the falls, but problems near the steep descent to the campsite forced our rather large group to wait uncomfortably on the steep surface for more than an hour before we were able to reach the campsite.

Once we reached the campsite we immediately set up the tents and prepared the dinner. After dinner we promptly went to sleep, being too tired to engage in socials, due to the long trek, the lack of sleep the previous night and the early start the next morning.

We were already awake by 4:30 am to prepare both breakfast and lunch for that day. However, we were only able to start on the assault around 7:30 am. The first hour on the trail was still upriver, although the rocks were bigger and harder on the feet and ankles. Halfway up the trail moves to a rocky forest trail marked by several streams, passing by a couple of waterfalls and involving a scramble up a rock wall. After two hours of trekking, we reached the crater rim.

The view of the crater lake from the volcano rim was breathtaking. From our high vantage point, the mineral saturated blue waters of the lake were stilled. A few feet forward from where I was sitting was s sheer drop down to the crater, and the clouds were almost on our level. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.

Twelve hours of trekking with 35 pounds of gear, blisters on my feet, sore ankles, additional two hours of assault, all the associated expenses, the 30 minute stay on the crater rim was worth it.

After the main highlight of the weekend, we then proceeded with the nasty business of getting down the mountain and getting back home. The two hours hike from the crater to the campsite did not fill us with optimism that we can get back to the jump off with less time than the day before. It was already 1:30 pm when we left the campsite, and we prepared ourselves for another 10 hour hike.

I got separated from my group during the descent and subsequent river trek, so I proceeded with full speed on the way back, initially with the intention of reaching the water source before my juice runs out. I had less than a glass of juice left when I left the campsite, and I had to conserve that before I reached the water source. During my trek there were times when I was walking all along and there was nobody in sight. I realized that such isolation can be soothing and relaxing, and that trekking can be a form of meditation as well. Of course I have the knowledge that I’ll only have to follow the river, and that there are lots of people in front and behind me, otherwise I’d probably be scared shitless of being alone in a desolate place like that.

From the water source to the jump off point was probably the longest part of the whole return trip. The river stretches out far in front of you and then turns toward a curve in the mountain, then once you reach that turn you find out the river still stretches forward until the next turn. At each turn I kept hoping to see the silhouette if Mt. Arayat, indicating that the jump off was nearby. I never did see Arayat that day, with night falling on me before that last turn towards the jumpoff.

Night trekking the river was scary, and I was fortunate that a group overtook me and I was able to join them for the last stretch of the hike. It was already dark, and we were already using headlamps, and I reached the jump off point at 6:30pm, five hours after I left the campsite. The rest of the large group arrived separately in batches, and almost half have not yet arrived when we left the jump off around 11:30 pm. I can only imagine how tough the long night trek must have been for those folks, when I already found my 30 minute night trek to be a troublesome and scary hike on the river.

I arrived home at 5:30 on Monday, way too late to make it to the office.

Things I learned:
1. The sensation of a river crossing during a trek
2. How a the crater of a volcano looks like when viewed in person
3. A shell jacket is better raingear than a poncho
4. Backpacks should not be brought onboard classy provincial buses. Use the outside compartment for huge bags
5. How to properly use a rope for climbing or descending
6. Wheat bread is a good source of energy

Continuous Improvement
1. Always wear socks when using sandals during river crossings or beach treks
2. Bring just enough shirts, not too much
3. Keep the jackets and headlamps on top of the backpack during descent. Night treks and cold spells may happen unexpectedly.
4. Avoid alcohol altogether during hikes
5. Sleep early

More pictures here in my Shutterfly album:

Mt. Sembrano Dayhike

2005-11-23T21:43:00.000+08:00

Mt. Sembrano Dayhike
November 6, 2005

As practice for the November 19 Mt. Pinatubo climb that Ronie and I signed up for, we decided to climb Mt. Sembrano again. It is easily reached by jeepney, and the trail is rather tough and steep, making it an ideal mountain for us to train on, given that we are only available for one day of hiking.

My main challenge for this climb was my health. I had a case of what was probably pharyngitis and I was suffering from a persistent cough. My lung capacity was diminished by all the phlegm in my respiratory tract, plus I was croaking like a frog, and at times lost my voice completely. I did not have a fever though, and I felt strong enough to do the climb, so I still went ahead and forced myself to undergo the climb.

My mistake was pushing a pace that was faster than I can handle. I had the opportunity to take the lead, and I set a fast pace for the group. Unfortunately, this drained me quickly and I was forced to take a rest, after which I realized I was already having a hard time breathing. We were still some distance away from the Manggahan campsite, roughly halfway up the mountain already (the easy half), and I was already contemplating staying behind once we reached this campsite.

The group (Ronie, Mabel, Jojo, G3) left me behind in Manggahan as I requested, but after a quarter of an hour I got bored and felt rested enough to follow. I followed them up the assault trail to the summit alone, but I took an easy pace. Soon enough I was able to catch up with them as they stopped for lunch, and then I continued the rest of the hike with them.

Mabel, Jojo and I opted to stay in Peak 1, instead of pushing for the summit at Peak 2. Ronie and G3 continued on towards the summit, while the rest of us entertained each other by swapping stories. On our way down, we stopped by the falls to refresh, and then finally went back to Manila.

Going on this hike made me realize that I should really be mindful of the state of my health before going climbing. While I was able to reach my destination, I did not maximize my enjoyment of the activity because of my cough. Also, I could potentially have overexerted myself and unnecessarily prolonged the healing period by going on the climb. I could also have been a burden to the group if my condition got worse. On the other hand, overcoming these limitations gave my ego and confidence a boost. The view did not disappoint either. However, I decided that if I’m in a similar situation again in the future, I won’t push for the climb anymore.

The view was still grand, even if I did not reach Peak 2. However, what disappointed me was the amount of garbage present in the campsites, the falls, and the peaks. To think I was part of a clean up climb on this mountain just a few months ago, and again it is in this state. I guess this is the curse of mountains that are just too accessible from the city.

Things I learned:
1. I learned why someone who’s having trouble with his respiratory system should not climb while in a sickly state.
2. Not everyone is aware of the “common sense” guidelines of LNT.
3. Dayclimbs have their own appeal separate from overnight camping trips.

Continuous Improvement Items:
1. Plain Extra Joss in water sucks, mix in some juice or iced tea to enhance the flavor
2. Do not climb while sick

Pics from the climb

Triple Trip Weekend

2005-10-26T21:05:00.000+08:00

Mts. Makiling, Manabu, Maculot
October 22-23, 2005

Our climb last October 22 highlighted the need for effective prior information before embarking on a climb. The four of us: me, Ronie, G3, and Alexis planned to go camping near Mt. Makiling's Peak 2 during the weekend. Upon arriving at the UPLB College of Forestry entrance to the Mariang Makiling trail, we were informed nicely but firmly that camping is not allowed, and that Peak 2 is closed to visitors until January next year. However, we were allowed to go up until the Mudsprings, but not further beyond.

We immediately decided to spend the night instead on Manabu peak, as this is the closest mountain we can think of. The idea of doing a dayhike to Maculot the next day was brought up and heartily approved. Once the forest officer on the trail entrance figured out that we were not going to insist on going forward to Peak 2, he warmed up to us and allowed us to store our bags on their station as we go up to explore the Mudsprings.

We brought our packed lunches and water and headed out towards the Mudsprings. It was a one hour hike from the base of the mountain, passing through the entrance of the Makiling Rainforest Park and branching out to the right of the wide forest road to a forest trail. According to the posted sign, the mudspring is formed by hot sulfuric acid breaking down the surrounding rock into highly acidic boiling clay. A group that looked suspiciously like a cult was chanting prayers when we arrived on the mudspring area, and we got worried that we won't be able to cut through and look at the mudspring. We had our lunch by the nearby stream, and fortunately the group finished their prayers as we finished our lunches, allowing us a peek into the seething mudspring.

From the mudspring we headed back to explore the Flat Rocks. We had no idea what that was at that time, so we decided to check it out since it was still early and we have made up our minds to do the Manabu trek at night. Flat rocks turned out to be an area along the river passing through some flat rocks allowing people to traipse around in the water. There was already a huge high school group there, so we really didn't have anything to do there.

We left UPLB soon after, getting the correct contact information from the forester so we can make sure that the campsites are open on our next visit here. From Los Banos we proceeded to Lipa via a passenger jeepney passing through the STAR tollway for Manabu peak.

We started the Manabu trek around 5:30 in the afternoon. We encountered several adventure racers along the trail, participants of the Batangas Adventure Race sponsored by Nomads. Darkness reached us on the trail, and we reached the summit campsite two hours later. We met a lot of other climbers on the trail, and when we reached the campsite we had trouble looking for a suitable area as there was already a whole village of tents set up.

We found a suitable area near the spot where I had lunch on my first trip to Manabu. After setting up camp, dinner, and a brief socials session, we went to sleep relatively early. The morning brought some unpleasant surprises for me, as I noticed there was a lot of garbage littered around the cross on the summit. Since there was no one else there, I packed the litter out and went back to our campsite. I also passed through the other campsites, and I was dismayed to see that there were a lot of narrow ditches dug around the campsites, for the purposes of keeping water away from the tents. This is very much against the behavior being prescribed by the Leave No Trace ethics. The ditches were obviously dug some time back, perhaps as far back as one or two weeks, but they were scattered around the campsite. I had the impression of a large group, perhaps largely ignorant as well, camping here some time back. In fairness to our neighbors, they did not dig any new ditches, and are perhaps better informed than the earlier groups. There was still a lot of garbage around the campsites, and hopefully the groups did their share in packing out the garbage.

After a breakfast of chicken soup, breaking camp, packing out our garbage and packing in the canned food that our climbing neophyte planned on leaving behind, we left Manabu to head for Maculot. We had a quick descent, reaching the jump off point after an hour of descending.

From Lipa we boarded a bus for Lemery, and let ourselves off in the town of Cuenca. It was still early, and we headed to the market to have our lunch, as well as to purchase water for our Maculot assault. After eating and a bit of rest, we proceeded to the Maculot jump off point and started our trek around noontime. We left our bags in the mountaineer's store in the jump off, and climbed the mountain with only our cameras and water bottles. We met several pretty hikers along the trail, who are already on their way home. We joked that we should have spent the night in Maculot instead, and possibly spent the socials evening with those girls. We reached the mountain shoulder after a couple of hours, and assaulted the Rockies for photographs. I hold the opinion that the view here is still one of the best views from a mountaintop, even after several mountains from the first time that I stood in that same place.

We started our descent after staying on the shoulder for half an hour. We were able to complete the descent in less than an hour, and after a brief rest, we headed on to Lipa for a meal, and headed on home.

There were a lot of issues with this climb that I noticed, and there were several problems that popped up that can hopefully be avoided in future climbs. The first issue is that there should have been five of us, and I took the responsibility of providing the fifth person with a separate tent. The person did not show up, and we found out about this almost two hours after the agreed meeting time, after I had to contact several people just to get her new number which I did not know. We had an additional tent that we'd have to carry but won't use. I had Alex carry the extra tent, since there was no longer any space on my bag, adding to his difficulties on his first climb. I'm planning to fix this on future climbs by depositing any stuff borrowed from me before the climb, so I won't be stuck with the stuff should the borrower fail to show up. Also, by making sure that all essential group items are with those people least likely to back out at the last minute.

The next issue is Alex' lack of proper briefing. Going into his first climb, I should have given him a better briefing on what to expect, what to bring, and how to behave. I had to pick up after him several times, as he was leaving trash around. Granted he wasn't doing it on purpose, I can't really blame him because it was I who failed to inform him of the expected behavior on top of a mountain. Also, I could have advised him on how to better pack his bag to make his ascent easier. It was rather obvious that he was having some difficulty with the climb, as I can hear his deep breathing even before I can see him on the trail. That's already granting that I am completely deaf on one ear.

Lastly, the most obvious mistake was that we attempted to climb Makiling without confirming that it is open for climbers. We did make some inquiries prior to the climb regarding the matter, but we just coursed our inquiries through other climbers. We should have gone directly to the source.

However, despite these problems we still had lots of fun. Since there was only four of us, decision making was quick. We were also able to sustain a faster pace than our usual. We used up less space in the populated campsite. Three tents probably would not have fitted comfortably in our camp area. The tiring experience also provided great exercise, which will be useful should a November 4 weekend climb push through. I had the opportunity of observing a boiling mud pot, the first time that I saw such a phenomenon. The only negative aspect that really stuck to my mind is the relatively neglected appearance of Manabu, with all that garbage and tent ditches.

Overall, it was a great climb with great companions, and our small number did not prevent us from having a great time, although admittedly the socials was not the same without our other usual companions.

---
Contact Information for Mt. Makiling
Forest Office Jojo Malinao - 09266999360
MCME - 0495362577

Mt. Talamitam

2005-10-12T15:17:00.000+08:00

Mt. Talamitam
October 1-2, 2005
After two months of missed climbing opportunities, we have finally climbed Mt. Talamitam. Mt. Talamitam is located in Nasugbu, Batangas, seemingly just across the highway from the distinctive Mt. Batulao.

Our group consisted of me and my three officemates: Erik, Malou, and Suzette, joined by Ronie and Mabel, Jo Paul and Glena, Jojo, my high school batchmate Philip, and his friends Lourdes and Golda. From Metropolis Alabang, we hired a jeepney to take us all the way to the jump-off point in Barangay Bayabasan in Nasugbu. The way to the jump-off point is marked by an “Ang Dating Daan” sign along the highway, since the trail passes through the town chapter of this religious group. Further down this small road leading to the trail is Mang Nick’s house, the jump off point of the mountain.

We had our lunch at Mang Nick’s house and started our trek around 2pm. The trail passed through two foot bridges crossing the small river and enters the forest line. After less than an hour of trekking through the forest line, the trail exits into open grazing fields.

At this point my lack of exercise in the last two months became apparent. Our pacing was also making it difficult for me to gain momentum for the trek. We lapsed into a start-stop pacing, with the rests taking up to 15 minutes, breaking down any momentum we have gathered during the trek. It was also difficult to start walking again after a rest that long. I think we lapsed into that pace partly because of the lack of exercise, and the presence of relatively inexperienced climbers in our group. Our group took our time during the climb, and took the last 100m assault with our muscles already cold, making an otherwise easy climb more challenging.

I was the designated sweeper during this climb, and so I had to take the last position and I can’t overtake anybody. Those of us who were bringing the rear adopted the strategy of letting the first group go ahead a few minutes, and then catch up with our steadier pace. This helped conserve our momentum in the short run, but did not help our overall speed.

Mt. Batulao is visible during the trek, and provides a grand backdrop to our climb. It also provided a conversation piece during our trek, since this was the last mountain we climbed prior to Talamitam.

Erik also received a phone call from his counselor (or so he claims) in the middle of the climb. It was a good thing he was on level ground and not on the challenging incline when he received the call, although that would have been interesting.

We reached the summit campsite around 5:30pm, with the whole climb taking almost double the average time for this mountain. It was already getting cloudy, but at least we were able to get around half an hour of a window before the clouds totally closed in on us. By the time it started to get dark, you can’t see anything past the grass marking the edges of the campsite.

My pack rat instincts finally paid off when we were setting up our tent. Erik, who was designated to bring the dome tent, dropped the pegs and the mesh cover of the tent on the way to Alabang. My instinctive packing of extra pegs paid off, and we were able to secure our tent. We used my raincoat to cover the mesh on top of the dome, and used my plastic twine to secure the raincoat to the pegs. We had a lousy looking tent, but it was the next driest tent after Ronie’s tadpole the next day.

We started to prepare dinner as it started to get dark. It turned out that in our office group, I was the only person with extra water for cooking, and all the rest only had trail water. My water was barely enough for the rice, which almost got burned. Erik and Malou only had 3 liters between them, and that was just enough for trail and camp water. Ronie prepared sinigang for dinner, and we shared our pork chops with the group. The sinigang was the perfect solution for our tough rice, and there were no complaints about the cooking.

Our socials were surprisingly lively and fun. I guess we were expecting a more quiet session with my officemate Marco not around. With only a couple of liters of gin, I did not expect to get tipsy quickly. However, the shots were taller than usual, and people passed on the shots early, so I found myself getting smashed earlier than usual, with only an hour or so into the socials. The alcohol running out is usually the signal for us to conclude our socials, but we stayed on chatting even after the last round has passed. This time, the lamp running out of butane signaled the end of the socials.

When I woke up early the next day it was raining hard. I was on the side of the tent facing the wind and the cold tent fabric was being pressed against my face, but I was still relatively dry. The raincoat covering the mesh was doing a great job, better perhaps than if we used the original flap. The rain stopped when it was already light, and I went out to check out the campsite. Again I was the only one up, but I still had a slight headache so I sat on the large outcropping rock and ruminated. A few minutes later the rain started again, so I was forced back into our tent. When the rain stopped, most of the people are already awake and were trying to start to prepare breakfast. This was when we noticed that one of the tents have flooded, and the rest of my tentmates had a better appreciation of our situation.

We were forced to have breakfast inside our tents, and we shared one can of Spam between the four of us. I was a bit concerned about not having any carbohydrates before the descent, but the rain was too strong to cook rice. We were already contemplating breaking camp in the rain when the rain suddenly stopped.

We immediately broke camp, but it started to rain again as we started our descent. There was no turning back at that point, so we pushed on in the strong rain. The rain made the descent cool and not very tiring, although it made the trail much more slippery. I was again in the tail position, making the trail more slippery for me than the rest of the group. The pace was again excruciatingly slow, but the cold rain kept me fresh. My shoes, which I carefully kept dry during the night, were soaked on the way down, making my effort for naught. The sun came up after we cleared the steep portion of the trail, and the wet freshness was soon replaced an uncomfortable damp feeling.

We reached the jump-off after three hours of trek with the same slow pace, this time due to Golda’s injured knee. I gave up the tail position to Jo Paul before we reached the forest line, and I positioned myself nearer the front.

Halfway through the forest line, my officemates and Jojo pushed on ahead of the others, after an agreement that it would be faster if we can reach the jump off and wash up, so when the others arrive the line to the bathroom won’t be too long. We almost got lost a couple of times since we were following trails that headed out to the river.

We reached the jump off around 30 minutes before the rest, and took our turns in the bathroom for a much needed bath. After everyone has finished washing up, we headed for Tagaytay for our late lunch, and then headed on home.

This climb was not as eventful as my previous climbs, but I was still able to have fun. I realized that two months of no activity will take its toll on my endurance, and that not having proper pacing will have its effect on the trek time (almost doubling it), and we’re not as equipped or ready as we should be. I did get to meet new people, and got into a drinking session with a batchmate I have not seen since high school, and climbed with old buddies, which was more than enough to make up for the negative aspects of the climb.

Things I learned:
1. Exercise! Keep in shape!
2. Make sure all group equipment is accounted for.
3. If I have better equipment, I should bring that.
4. Double check for stuff that may have been left behind. I left my sarong back at Mang Nick’s place.
5. Digging earth with a stick is difficult. Next time bring a shovel.

Continuous Improvement:
1. Use my freaking tadpole tent.
2. Read the stuff on the jump-off. They are there to help.
3. Always bring twine.
4. Learn to cook!

ITINERARY

DAY 1
9:30AM – Assemble at Jollibee Metropolis Alabang
10:00AM – ETD for Balibago
10:30AM - ETD for Tagaytay (Palengke)
11:15AM - ETA Tagaytay Olivares Mall (Jeep Going to Nasugbo near 7-11)
12:00AM - ETA Sitio Bayabasan follow the cemented road at your right and look for Mang Nick’s house (green fee is 20php); Lunch
1:30PM - ETD Jump-off. Start of the trail is across the second bridge(foot bridge with a sign pointing to Mt. Talamitam)
2:00PM - ETA Farm Land (rest along the trail under the shade of tree. prepare for the assault)
3:00PM - Packs on Back resume trek
4:15PM - Peak Campsite
5:00PM - Prepare Dinner
6:00PM – Dinner
7:00PM – Socials
11:00PM – Lights Out

DAY 2
5:30AM - Wake-up Call
6:00AM - Prepare Breakfast
6:30AM - Breakfast
7:00AM - Breakcamp...prepare to descent
7:15AM - Start Descent
9:00AM - Rest along the river
10:00AM - Mang Nick's house, sign out at the log-book.
10:05AM - Wait transpo for Tagaytay
11:00AM - ETA Tagaytay Lunch
12:00PM - ETD to Manila
1:30PM – ETA Manila

Mt. Batulao

2005-07-27T18:17:00.000+08:00

Mt. Batulao
July 16-17, 2005

Mt. Batulao is located in Nasugbu, Batangas, and got its name from “Ilaw sa Dalawang Bato” an annual phenomenon where the sun sets in between the two peaks of the mountain. It was also our group’s mountain destination for July.

I was asked to take charge of the planning and coordination for this climb, and I had my officemate Noemi’s help with the planning. She is the most experienced climber in our group and has climbed the mountain just last year, and she provided suggestions on what to expect during the climb. We had a bigger group on this climb than on the previous one (Pico de Loro), with more of the Chinatrust people coming along, and more of my officemates as well. My former team lead Lori and her friends Chris and Karen also tagged along, although they were only doing a dayhike and wouldn’t be spending the night with us.

The meeting point was again set at Park and Ride in Lawton, to make sure that we rode the bus from the terminal. It was originally set at Baclaran, but there was a concern that the bus may be full by the time it reaches us and we’d have to stand during the long ride with our bags blocking the aisle. We left Lawton almost two hours behind schedule, because my officemate Amy decided to come along at the last minute got caught in the late morning traffic on her way to Lawton.

There were 17 of us on the bus to Nasugbu, which passed through Cavite and Tagaytay. The traffic was heavier than I planned for, but we were already late so the traffic condition was expected. We reached the Evercrest entrance at almost lunchtime, so we decided to have lunch at a nearby eatery. After having lunch and resting, we hired a couple of tricycles to take us to the jump-off point inside the Evercrest compound. This is also the way to Caleruega, the pretty church where most of my female friends want to get married in.

From the jump-off point the mountain looked very far away, and when I pointed it out to my companions they refused to believe that it was our destination because it looked so far away. The mountain looked great and impressive, with two large peaks and several jagged peaks that looked like teeth. It was beautiful. The jaggedness of the peaks was probably brought about by erosion exposing the large rocks underneath. If I recall correctly I read somewhere that the mountain used to be an active volcano, so the rocks making up the jagged peaks are most likely volcanic in origin.

The trail was a mostly flat hike through rolling terrain. There was hardly any forest cover, and tall cogon grass grew on both sides of the trail. It was an easy trail to the campsite, and we made good time with only a few stops before reaching the base of the mountain. We passed through several small peaks where we observed our progress and saw our point of origin grow further and further away and we stood a bit surprised by our quick progress.

One of the good things about the hike was that the mountain was visible almost all of the time, making a good gauge of our progress and how far we still need to go. The cloudy day was perfect for the hike. Clear skies would have made for a hot and dehydrating hike since the trails were exposed to the sun, and rain would have made the trail muddy and harder to manage. I have been praying for good weather since we started planning, and I was really thankful that my prayers were answered.

We eventually reached Camp 1 and decided to camp there. There are ten marked campsites on the mountain, with Camp 1 near the base and Camp 10 located on the summit. Personally I wanted to camp higher up, but it was one of the bigger campsites and had a nearby hovel of a “washroom” where the girls can have more privacy when going to toilet. We set up camp, rested, and prepared to assault the summit.

After around thirty minutes we started on our summit assault. Amy and Noemi remained in the camp while the rest of us left for the assault. One by one we passed the other campsites, and only Camp 7 was occupied. Camp 7 looked to me to be the ideal camp, high enough to command a good view, and large and flat enough to accommodate several tents. Perhaps in the future if I come back this will be my campsite of choice. From Camp 7 the trail became steeper, and we started cracking jokes that we should just stop and claim that we reached the summit anyway.

From Camp 9 to the summit we had to pass through a steep rock face that had to be climbed with both hands and feet. My thoughts while climbing that part was how the heck will I get back down later. I knew I was afraid and I felt my fear inside me, but I also found out that I can control my fear and not let it control me. I can in all honestly admit to feeling fear during the summit climb, but not once did my knees shake nor did my heart beat harder in nervousness. I felt the fear, I knew it was there, but I never let it rise up and paralyze me. I used my fear instead to make sure that I was keeping myself safe at all times and that I am not doing anything stupid to increase the risk to myself and my group. Kind of like the Bene Gesserit Litany of Fear.

With some effort I eventually reached the summit. It was a wonderful feeling, and I felt the rush. Camp 10 was a rocky ground with steep drops on all sides, and would really be a kick-ass campsite if dared. Clouds covered us, obscuring the view below, which is a little disappointing, but the sensation of being inside a cloud is cool in itself, so it was still a great feeling. I learned later to my companions who arrived in the summit before me I made a grand entrance of mysteriously coming out of the fog, which was cool.

We spent around 30 minutes in the summit, taking pictures and admiring the view. I knew that the inevitable decision to go back down will come, and I took it with some apprehension, remembering the steep path we took getting to the summit. The descent was not as bad as I expected it to be, although I at the steep rocky part I had to go down facing the rock to keep my balance. The descent was not as bad as I thought it would be, although I have to conclude that the Rockies of Mt. Maculot is nothing compared to the Batulao summit trail.

It was not yet dark when we reached the campsite, but we started to prepare dinner anyway. The two girls we left behind were already drunk, having consumed the better part of one of our bigger gin bottles. Lori was also there already, having turned back during the summit climb. It was disappointing to see the two drunken girls in that condition and an argument broke out between one of the girls and her boyfriend, who was understandably upset. This spoiled the evening somewhat, but we decided to go ahead and still try to have fun. Lori and her three friends left before dark, since they were not spending the night, and we went ahead with the dinner preparations. I tried to duplicate the “perfect” rice I cooked back in Daguldol, but I wasn’t able to do so, although the rice I cooked was not bad at all.

Dinner was adobo, corned beef, and meat loaf. It was not creative, but it sufficed for a hearty meal. Chay and the rest of the Samsung group arrived while we were having our early dinner, and set up camp. They were not able to join us for dinner, and they prepared their own dinner while we started with the socials. A brief rain passing through cut our socials short, and we resumed a few minutes after the rain stopped.

The drinking session did not take too long, since we were short one bottle of gin, and I did not get drunk at all. I planned on not getting drunk during this climb, but the lack of gin made it easier since I did not have to come up with excuses to get out of the drinking circle. After all the gin was finished we settled down on our tents and went to sleep.

I was awakened by the strong rain at around four in the morning. We immediately moved the stuff near the tent entrance further back, since the water was getting in from that side. The tent leaked water from some of the seams, but not too much as to drench us or flood the tent. I think the table cover I brought along as a ground sheet helped in keeping the ground water from seeping in. We were still comfortable inside even if the entrance and our feet were wet. Apparently the group in Vincent’s tent was not us lucky as we are, and they got flooded inside their tent. Their tent was old, and the zipper on the entrance was not working, exposing them to the rain outside. It was a good thing for them that the rain was brief even though it was strong, or else they would have been in a worse condition.

The rain woke me up early, and I was not able to get back to sleep. While I was wandering around outside Marco moved from their flooded tent to our tent and went to sleep. I could probably have squeezed in if I wanted to, but I decided to just walk around the campsite and contemplate. I knew that my companions were pissed at the rain, but I knew that I had to experience it someday and I welcomed the rain that night. I realized that the rain we experienced was just perfect, as it was not long and sustained to cause us misery, but just enough to show us that we were not prepared and how to patch up the gaps.

While the rest were still sleeping, I and Vincent started to pick up the garbage scattered around by the dog owned by the caretaker of the nearby hut. We made a mistake leaving the garbage bags on the ground after the rain, instead of hanging it up somewhere the dog can’t reach it. I called to my other officemate who was already up to help us with the garbage, and I was pissed when he did not come over to help. I made a mental note to remind him of his responsibilities during a climb, and contemplated not inviting him to the next climb. I guess I’ll still keep him on the email list, since it would be rude not to, but I promised myself to make sure he is more aware of his responsibilities during a climb.

The only food I brought along for breakfast was the mongo bread and tasty bread, so I started munching on that. When the rest of the group started to wake up, Noemi’s boyfriend Weng started to cook rice and fried luncheon meat. I could not resist so I joined them with their breakfast and resolved to bring something tastier for breakfast on the next climb. Cleaning up after breakfast, we started packing up our gear and our garbage. The caretaker instructed us to leave our garbage by his hut, so we took the trouble of segregating the recyclable bottles for his use, while making sure the rest of the garbage are tightly packed on a separate bag.

We started on our descent later than planned, again the effect of having a large group with everyone waiting for everyone else. We left the Samsung group behind, since they have yet to explore the summit. I felt that there was more ascending than descending going back, and though the trail was easy I thought it seemed harder than when we were going towards the mountain. We were able to go back quickly, and only took three stops for rest.

We reached the jump off point at around 11 a.m., and reached the Evercrest entrance a few minutes later. I planned on having lunch and taking a bath at the store near the Evercrest entrance, but my officemates were already planning to go home without eating or washing, but changing their clothes first. At first I decided not to come along with them, since I was so hungry, but they were still there after I had my lunch, so I changed clothes and joined them anyway. We said goodbye to our other companions who remained to rest and wash up, and took a jeep back to Tagaytay to get a ride on the bus bound for Manila. From there we all went our separate ways and made our way home.

I thoroughly enjoyed the climb, especially the summit assault. It was challenging and exciting, breathtaking, and the feeling when I reached the summit was exhilarating. Our campsite problems with the rain also added to the challenge, and hopefully prepared us for the next climbs. Learning by experience is tough, so we better make sure to glean as much as we can from the experience. Apart from the experience with the mountain, there was also some negative experience with my companions. One came in almost a couple of hours late to the meeting point, another got drunk and had an argument with her boyfriend, another whined about the rain, and refused to help pick up the garbage. It really wasn’t so bad, and we all got along and had fun eventually, but reminding myself of the reasons why I climb made me look beyond that and focus on the fulfillment I felt on that day.

Continuous Improvement items:
1. Use a tent with a flysheet and groundsheet.
2. Cook rice for breakfast and don’t settle for noodles and plain bread.
3. Use more water for the rice, stick with the original formula.
4. Make sure everybody understands their responsibilities.
5. Clean up all cooking implements after preparing dinner so they can still be used for breakfast. Do this even if you are not in charge of them.
6. Keep the cooking implements within easy reach so the early risers can easily prepare breakfast even if the stove or cookset is in another tent.

Things I learned:
1. How to properly use a groundsheet (fold sides in to keep water out).
2. Walking poles may not be so useful for steep inclines.
3. Fear can be controlled even if it can’t be removed.
4. Good breakfast can cheer you up.
5. It’s tough to learn by experience.

Our Effective Itinerary (may be too hot for sunny days with no cloud cover):

Day 1:
07:00 Assembly Time at Park and Ride Lawton
08:30 ETD for Nasugbu Batangas (fare: P127)
11:00 ETA Evercrest
11:30 Lunch at carinderia near Evercrest entrance
12:30 ETD for Jump-off point
13:00 Start Trek
16:00 ETA Camp 1
16:30 Summit Assault
17:15 ETA Summit
17:30 ETD Summit, Start Descent
18:15 ETD Camp 1, Prepare Dinner
19:00 Dinner, Socials
22:00 Light's Out

Day 2:
07:00 Wake-up Call, Breakfast
08:30 Break camp
09:00 Start Descent
11:00 ETA Jump-off Point
11:30 ETA Evercrest Entrance, lunch at same eatery
12:30 ETD for manila
14:30 ETA Manila

Bohol Vacation

2005-07-12T20:10:00.000+08:00

Bohol
May 31 – June 3, 2005

I went to Bohol last month with Dawn and we had a blast. She invited me to tag along with her mom, aunt, and stepdad while they go on vacation to Bohol.

It was my first airplane ride, and it was more fun than I expected. I experienced some jitters during take off because of the speed of the plane as it prepared to take off, but as the wheels left the ground it was smooth sailing all the way to Bohol. I was staring out the window most of the time, gazing at the clouds and attempting to figure out which part of the country we were flying over.

From the Tagbilaran airport we hired a van to take us around the island, stopping first at the Blood Compact memorial site, and then heading off to a church whose name I unfortunately forgot. From the church we made reservations at Loboc river boats where buffet lunch was served, and went to the Tarsier conservatory along the river bank.

The little creatures were so cute, but because of their nocturnal nature were sensitive to daylight and flash photography. Touching and petting the animals was forbidden, but unfortunately some tourists ignored these rules and went ahead and petted the tarsiers. Hopefully they did not get too stressed. There was a fat tarsier there that was the cutest of the bunch, and its big round eyes googled at the camera.

We took our lunch at the restaurant boats plying the Loboc River. We had our lunch while going upstream on a river cruise. There were some obnoxious Rotarians sharing the boat with us, unfortunately. We also viewed a hanging bridge over the river, with a man on the other side more than willing to demonstrate his strong teeth by dehusking a coconut in 30 seconds.

From Loboc River we headed for the famous Chocolate Hills, and they were really weird. They looked strange and unnatural; although the plaque on the view deck assured us it was a natural formation. I heard a theory about the Chocolate Hills being actually the earth taken from the Rice Terraces in the Cordilleras being dumped by aliens on Bohol. A myth also tells of two giants hurling earth at each other, which resulted in the formation of the hills.

After the brief stop at the Chocolate Hills (there really wasn’t anything else to do there except gawk at the hills), we finally headed off to Panglao Island where we planned to stay for the next two days.

Panglao is a veritable beach paradise. We reached Panglao through one of the two bridges connecting the small island to the larger island of Bohol and stayed at Dumaluan Beach resort, near the better known Bohol Beach Club. After unloading our bags we headed off to the beachfront.

The beachfront is part of the long stretch of Alona Beach. The white sand is very fine and very soft to the touch. The water is very shallow, allowing a person to wade further out to the water. The water is also very clear, and if you are lucky you can see small fishes swimming by your feet. We stayed by the beach front for the remainder of the day and turned in early to get some rest.

We went off to sea early the next day to look for dolphins. I was able to catch the sunrise from the beach before we went out on the rented boat, and really, the best places to watch sunrises and sunsets are by the sea and on top of a mountain.

We were not so lucky watching out for dolphins, and only saw a couple of dolphin tails rising out and diving back in to the water. I think that the attitude of the guides in racing straight to a sighting scares off the dolphins, but I guess its better to see dolphin tails swimming free from afar than watching captive dolphins perform close to you.

After the guide determined that we probably won’t be able to see any more dolphins as the sun was already high, we headed off to Balicasag island, which is located 20 km from Alona beach. It was interesting to observe the water surface as we headed off to the island, which changed suddenly from slightly bumpy to being smooth as glass. This is probably caused by the currents below and the varying depths of the water. It was crystal clear all throughout though, and the corals and sea grass are visible under the water.

Balicasag Island is primarily a dive site, with a variety of corals and fishes flourishing a few feet off the rough beach. The fishes here will eat bread off your hands, and can be seen nibbling on the moss hanging off the boats. We did not have dive equipment, and settled for snorkeling instead. Even with snorkeling equipment only, we were able to explore the diverse sights below. Fishes big and small were swimming a few feet below me, and they move with deceptive speed. The fishes will swim slowly and will seem to be within reach but will easily avoid hands that attempt to catch them.

Corals of various colors, sizes, and shapes greet the snorkeler, and further out the corals take on more beautiful shapes and colors. I was wanted to dive in and observe the corals closely, but the vest I had on kept me floating on the water. The sight below was spectacular, and the water was deep enough that we were already in the company of divers. I was tempted to take off the vest and dive in, but I worried that I may not have enough strength to put on the vest back (hard if done on the water), or swim back to the beach without getting tired.

I also found out that disturbing the corals by accidentally stepping on them can provoke a defensive reaction on their part. The dust that stirred up when I stepped on a coral turned out to be loaded by stingers, and I felt a light burning sensation on my arms, chest, and back. Urine can be used as first aid for stings, but I just bore the irritation of the stings since I had no wish to be covered in urine during my vacation.

The dive sites around Balicasag island are great, and I’m really looking forward to having another chance at exploring the underwater world, hopefully with scuba gear, although that is terribly expensive.

From Balicasag we headed off to a sandbar running off an island. It was an interesting place, a small beach 5 meters across and the sea on both sides. The seagrass around the sandbar is littered by starfishes both big and small. The big ones were a bright orange, and the small ones are slightly translucent and looked more fragile. The sandbar looked like a track field running around to and from the island, and it might be interesting to jog around the sandbar in the morning, and would probably look like the jogger is walking (or running) on the water surface if viewed from afar.

From the sandbar we headed back to the resort, and found that the already shallow beach water was even lower during the low tide, and the white sand underneath was exposed, extending the beach further out. We waded out from the boat back to the beach in the shallow water.

Dawn and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking down the long beach, and passed by the other beach resorts. It turned out that the other beachfronts are prettier than our already pretty beach front, mostly since they are wider and had more room. We passed by the Bohol Beach Club, and their beachfront was adorned with palm trees and looked really classy. There were some hot foreigner chicks along the way too, making for good eye candy. We passed by a cool sand sculpture of a turtle with her eggs and several hatchlings. The sculpture was very detailed, with broken eggshells where the hatchlings came from and small crabs. The hatchlings, eggs, and crabs were shaped from cookie cutters, which was very creative.

We spent the next morning on the beach, but I did not go in the water anymore, since the salt water aggravated my smarting coral stings. After having lunch we prepared to go back to the airport and catch the return flight to Manila. From the beach we made one final stop in Panglao to checkout the Hinagdanan Cave. The cave had a huge cavern with a pool of water where people can swim in. I did not find it to be all that interesting, and being easily accessible it did not give me the feeling of wonder and fascination I had on my first caving trip in Sagada. Still, the interplay of the sunlight and the darkness inside the cave was beautiful.

On the flight back to Manila the grand beaches of Panglao were visible, and the water was so clear that the corals below are visible from an airplane window. I spent the rest of the flight looking out the window trying to identify which island we were flying over, and looking for mountains that I can identify. I was only able to identify Mt. Maculot, and I was enthralled by the view of Taal Lake from the plane.

My trip to Bohol was a really exciting experience, from my first plane ride, to looking at the weirdly shaped Chocolate Hills (which were green this time of the year), walking on the white beaches of Panglao, and snorkeling at Balicasag Island. I’m really thankful to Dawn and her family for having me along.

Mt. Malepunyo - Manabu peak

2005-07-12T18:59:00.000+08:00

Manabu Peak, Mt. Malepunyo (Mt. Malarayat)
July 10, 2005

I got invited to a dayhike to the Manabu peak of Mt. Malepunyo last Sunday by Erick, a hiker I met online when I was asking around for an itinerary to Mt. Batulao. The hike was originally planned to be in Mt. Nagcarlan, but ended up with Manabu because it was supposedly the easier hike.

I was unable to get my friends Ronie and Erik to tag along to the dayhike, so I went on alone. I figured it wouldn’t be so bad joining another group all alone (again!) since it was just a dayhike, and I would not have to bring my own tent, cookset, and stove, like I did when I hiked Mt. Sembrano.

The climb was an easy one, even with all the mud sticking to my shoes and the trail getting all slippery. From the last house along the trail we took the trail going to the left and planned to go down via the trail on the right. It took us around two hours to get to the summit, including getting delayed by a couple of horses grazing along the trail. We did not want to risk getting a kick in the head from the horses, and tried to wait them out. When it was clear they were not moving from the trail we had to pass through the bushes beside the trail to get around the horses.

We were blessed with good weather. There was no rain to slow us down or muddy up the trail some more. The sun was up and large clouds covered the sun making for a cool hike. The view from the summit was clear, commanding a view of the wide plain and the other Malepunyo peaks. Mts. Maculot, Cristobal, and Banahaw are visible, with Banahaw sitting grandly with its peak covered with clouds. A white cross marked the Manabu summit.

We set up camp on a shaded campsite, prepared lunch, and took our afternoon naps. My sleep was constantly interrupted by ants crawling on and biting my skin. At some point I eventually fell asleep despite the bites, which fortunately did not cause itching and blisters like the ones from red ant bites.

We broke camp by 3:30pm and started the descent by 4pm, going down a different trail from the one we took coming up. We made good time and reached the jump off after an hour and a half. We headed on home after having some snacks along the highway.

Manabu was a good experience, and the commanding view is impressive. I had to admit that I preferred the view around Pico de Loro better, but staring at Mt. Banahaw, I was enchanted and awestruck by the huge mountain rising from the plain. I made up my mind to scale this mountain someday, but it does not look like its going to be anytime soon.

Manabu actually came from the words “Mataas na Bundok”, which was weird considering that from the summit there are several mountains that are obviously higher than where you are standing on, although it is speculated that the locals who named the mountain lived within the area and did not have the proper perspective from which to judge the height of the mountain.

I had a good climb, had some exercise prior, got to meet new people, and explored a new mountain. Not bad for a Sunday.

CI Items:
1. Eat a big breakfast prior to a climb. I felt hungry during the climb.

Itinerary:
0600 Meeting at Park and Ride, Lawton
0645 ETD for Fiesta Mall, Lipa, Batangas
0845 ETA Fiesta Mall, Lipa, Batangas
0900 ETD Jump off point at Barangay Sta. Cruz
0930 ETA Barangay Sta Cruz
0945 Start Trek
1145 ETA Manabo Peak, campsite
1200 Lunch
1530 Break Camp
1600 Start Descent
1730 ETA Jump off
1815 ETA Fiesta Mall
1830 ETD Lipa, Batangas
2100 ETA Manila

Thanks to Erick, Erwin, Holi, Abet, and Brian for letting me tag along.