A total of 17 bands participated on this year’s parade, 9 of which paraded from Talaba and 8 from Habay, all of the band converged at the Municipal Plaza.

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But before I ventured into blogging, I have tried numerous ways of being noticed on the world wide web, my first site was built in 1999 (that makes me a Netizen for 13 years now) using GeoCities’ free web hosting. Then I discovered blogger.com, the pre-Google blogger.com was so lame to which I decided to register my own domain, it was http://southpawlife.com registered early May 2004. It was a static “blog” site, a few months of static page blogging has passed before I discovered cafelog/b2evolution. Then WordPress came, I was using WordPress since then.

This blog has come a long way, many challenges and changes, but 1 thing is certain, I’m determined to continue sharing my thoughts.

During my last 3 climbs (Manabu Peak, Mount Maculot & Pico de Loro), discussion about a major climb was opened, initial target was to scale Mount Napulauan in Hungduan, Ifugao but lack of preparation and the lenght of time that will be needed to climb it makes us consider another mountain. Then came the idea of climbing Mount Tapulao in Iba, Zambales.

Mount Tapulao stands at an estimated 2,037 MASL, what interest me the most was the amount of hiking time needed to reach the summit. According to the people who’ve experience hiking Tapulao, it was a 21 kilometer (half marathon) walk on an open trail which will take about 12 hours to reach the bunker and another 2 hours to summit. It is definitely a major climb.

I prepared well for the upcoming climb, physically, for almost 3 weeks, I did at least 2 hours of daliy bike run, most of the time during the hot hours of 9:00 – 10:00 AM to test my endurance from the heat of the sun. Instead of taking a trike, I would walk a kilometer as part of my training and also to save P25 of the fare. I also planned to take cardio training in a gym nearby.

I only took a few days off from training when I was in Anawangin Cove for the First SEO.Org.PH’s First Outdoor Camp (April 21-22) and on Monday to kill the hang-over brought about by the much booze at the event. Tuesday, I was back to training, it was an hour of early morning bike run before going to the supermarket to buy my food stuffs for the climb, trail food, pre-cooked “ulam” and a pack of danggit.

It was also that Tuesday when I found out that a close friend who lives nearby died (on April 20) and will be buried the next day, so I took time to visit the wake and attend the funeral service.

I woke up the next day having joint pains and itchy throat, I suspected that the itchy throat was another case of sore throat and the joint pains was because of my biking the previous day. But it was not, flu had conquered me, I was not able to freely move the whole day. The flu hit me harder the next day, I was forced to text Sir Jim to inform him that I will not be joining the climb.

I was feeling better on Friday (the day of the meet-up) but I didn’t push through, I just stayed at home to further recuperate and just wished the group good luck.

Although it was to accept, I can live with it, besides, me being sick can be a liability to the group, sabi nga nila “di naman aalis ang bundok d’yan, pwede pa rin siyang akyatin anytime.”

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About fifty (50) campers met in front of the Antel Seaview Towers in Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City at around 1:30 AM of April 21, 2012 and went on a 5 hours bus ride to San Antonio, Zambales. There were two pit (pee and food) stops, one in a bus stop in Lubao, Pampanga and the other was at a gas station near Subic Freefort.

At around 6:00 AM, we arrived at San Antonio to take our breakfast and buy the supplies, it was also the meeting place for the campers coming from the Province of Bataan. After about an hour of rest, marketing, eating and waiting, we proceeded to Barangay Pundaquit for a boat ride to Anawangin Cove.

We rented to huge motorized boats, the Jericho Tonie 1 & 2, each boats can carry more than 30 passengers at a time which makes it suitable for us, we number more than sixty (I wasn’t able to get the exact number), one of the boat make another trip to bring the equipments and supplies, i.e. generator sets, foor, coolers beers etc.

Upon arrival, we pitched our tents, had our lunch and continued with the socials.

There were numerous changes since I last visited Anawangin Cove in January 2012. The previous campsites that were closed are now under new management and it is now called Anawangin Cove Wild Life Camp Site, it’s where we had our camp. Inside the camp, there was a Henna Tattoo and souvenir and a sari-sari store which sells the Pinoy famous summer treat, the Halo-halo.

One good addition to the camp was the water tank and a motorized water pump, now we don’t need to manually pump the water from the deep well. Water faucets inside the bathroom and toilets are now available which makes taking a bath easier for campers.

It was a day to learn about the craft and also to enjoy the company of fellow online workers so group socials and talks were encouraged.

At night, the “formal” talks and lecture started, followed up with question and answer then the fun continued. We had a camp fire and enjoy the rest of the night talking and having a few drinks.

The next day was scheduled to explore the rest of the cove, dip in the water and to have fun, before going back to Pundaquit, we passed by the famous Capones Islands for exploration and more swimming.

It was fun, I’ve met some new people who do the same work as I do, some were SEO Practitioners, Web Developers and bloggers, one thing binds us, we are all Online Filipino workers, it was also a great time to make learning fun. Thanks to the sponsors, Red Horse Beer, Pepsi Cola, Farmer John, Slimmer’s World and others.

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I was born in raised (and still living) in this beautiful province, little that most of my friends know that my father hails from another great province, the province of Camarines Sur (popularly known as CamSur). My father was born 70 years ago in a village known as Inapatan, Municipality of Nabua in the province of Camarines Sur. Ironically, I have never been to the province in my 42 years of my life, the only chance that I was about to see the province was in 1982 when my grand father Gregorio died, but that was my elementary graduation day.

After the death of my grandparents, there were no attempt to visit my relatives there, I was only able to meet some of them whenever they visit us.

A very long weekend paved a way for us to journey to Camarines Sur to visit the province and connect with our relatives.

We left our house at 10:00AM of April 6th to pick up my nephew Tobey who attended the children’s summer camp in our church, it was scheduled to end before noon that day. We had our lunch there and after a few chit-chats, we started our long journey to CamSur.

Good Friday traffic was the best, it only took us about 5 hours from South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) to our first gas stop in the town of Gumaca, we were able to enjoy the beautiful landscape of the provinces of Laguna, Batangas and Quezon.

Since it was my sister’s first time to drive to Bicol, she was relying heavily on the GPS feature of her iPhone 4, upon reaching the town of Calauag, Globe’s 3G was died, as a consequence, we missed the Quirino Hi-way (or R. Andaya Hi-way), instead we continued travelling via the Pan-Philippines Hi-way. This made our travel longer passing by the whole province of Camarines Norte.

Two hours after, we reached the city of Daet and decided to take a pit stop at a Greenwich Pizza outlet, while having our dinner, we called one of our cousins living in Naga City to inform of our visit. It was then that we were informed that since we missed Quirino Hi-way, we are still 2 hours away from Naga City.

We arrived in Naga City at around 10:30PM, everyone was tired, my 2 nephews were asleep when we met with Ate Bie (Margarita) in Naga City, she will be our guide to the town of Nabua, one and a half hours later, we reached the village of Tupas-Sogod in Nabua where a cousin and an aunt is living. It was a night spent making up for the lost time, at 82, Aunt Vina (uncle Pablo’s wife) is still strong and never forgot her time together with my mother, I was dead tired so I called it a night. They were still talking until I passed out.

I woke up early at 5:00AM the next morning, I went our to savor the fresh provincial air. It was then that I was able to appreciate the surroundings, the property, based on my approximation measures more than 1,500 square meters, I was informed that the land belongs to Auntie Vina’s family. Within the property are different fruit bearing trees, star apple, jackfruit, pili among others. Also within the property stands the remnant of the old house which was destroyed by a typhoon some years back.

The breakfast was generous serving Pancit Bato (Bato is another town in the province of Camarines Sur) and sinapot (Maruya). I spent the rest of the morning talking to cousin Danilo and brother-in-law Daniel, time passed so fast that we didn’t notice that it’s time for lunch, our lunch was fried Tilapia, Ampalaya and Tulingan in coconut milk. After lunch, my nephews wanted to take a dip, Manay (Ate or sister in Bicol) Bie suggested that we go to Pasacao (beach town in Camarines Sur), it was the nearest from our place unless we consider CWC (CamSur Water Complex) which is not really for us since it’s a water sports complex and Balatan town is quite far.

Forty Kilometers and an hour and a half later, we reached the beach front of Pasacao, almost of the beach resorts were full, good thing we found a beach that was able to accommodate us. The beach at Pasacao was not any tourist from Manila would dream of, nonetheless, the kids enjoyed it.

It was hot at (maybe) 33°c, I decided not to take a dip, I’d rather enjoy the shed that the cottage is providing. Around 4:30PM, we headed back to Nabua, dinner was ready when we arrived, it was fried chicken and Pancit Bato. Manoy (Bicolano term for kuya or brother) Danilo has brought a sack of freshly harvest Caimito (Star Apple) and a sack filled with fresh Pili (husks and shells on), I didn’t retire for the night until I devoured 4 Caimitoes.

I woke up at 5:00AM the next morning, it was our last day in Camarines Sur, the breakfast was again Pancit Bato and Sinapot, after breakfast, we had a hands-on tutorial on how to remove the husk of the Pili fruit. Later in the morning, we visited Uncle Ignacio’s family in Inapatan (about 20 minutes away from Tupas-Sogod), they were as excited as we are to see them, we were counting years of not seeing each other. Uncle Ignacio and Pablo never left Bicol to try their luck in Manila, of the 6 Refuerzo’s, four (Oligario, Vicente, Roque & my father Hermiño) went to Manila to work.

Oligario the eldest became a soldier and later settled in Quezon City, Vicente (4th) became a worker in a cement plant and settled in Teresa, Rizal, my father (6th) worked as a carpenter and settled in Cavite, and Roque (5th) also worked as a carpenter and later on lived with us in Cavite. Ignacio (2nd) and Pablo remained in Camarines Sur to tend to the fields that our Lolo has left them.

Our visit to Camarines Sur may not be what others are expecting, no fancy beaches, no island hopping and any other fun activities that other tourist would prefer doing, but for us, it’s completing the person within us, it is all about reconnecting with our roots, it’s discovering the part of us that was long missing.

I’m not being so mellow-dramatic about the experience, being deprived of meeting my lolo and lola, it is important to me to see where they used to live and what kind of life they had.

Despite the long hours of Travel, nothing compare to the experience that we had. It’s more personal, it’s knowing who I am and where I came from.

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The meet up at the Ternate Municipal Hall was scheduled at 8:00AM, at least 11 people have confirmed their attendance for this much awaited climb. According to the weather bureau, there will be rain during the weekends, and it looks like we will be trekking on a rainy day. It was raining the whole week, a storm build up was spotted far south in the Mindanao area and threatened to affect even the Visayas and Mindanao. But it didn’t kill our spirit, the group was determined to scale the mountain. Of course, all safety precautions and warnings were taken seriously.

There are lots of reason why I was so excited in pursuing this climb, it was set to be the training climb for Mount Tapulao which is scheduled later this month, secondly, I got a new bag, it was a Deuter Act Lite 35+10 SL and just being with friends who enjoys nature as I do is enough reason to be excited.

With all things in order, I left the house before 6:00AM, I’ve estimated my travel time to Ternate to take at least an hour and a half, though it was just around 30 kilometers, tranferring from 1 public transport to another will eat up much of my travel time, a tricycle ride from our village to the jeepney waiting area, the jeepney ride to the bus stop and finally the bus ride to Ternate.

I arrived at Ternate shortly after 7 o’clock, then a few minutes later I received a text message saying that part of the group were at the Ternate public market taking their breakfast while the group from Manila is about 45 minutes away. At about 8:00AM, the group coverged at the Municipal Hall with the rented jeepney already waiting for us. The group decided to pass by the public market for the last minute marketing before proceeding to the DENR registration area.

The sun was up when we started trekking, everything seems to be in order except the weight of the bag that was hanging on my back. Sir Jim weighed it before we left Ternate and it registered 16.57 kilograms! That would be 1.5KG for the bag, more or less 3KG for the tent, 3KG of water (1KG per 1L), about 4KG for the food, cookset & stove combined plus another 5 or more kilos for clothes and other necessities.

Since it was a training climb, the pace was a little bit faster than our Mount Maculot climb, Sir JR was the designated pacer while Sir Jim was the sweeper. The target was to arrive at the camp site in 3 hours time.

There were not much rest stops taken, besides the usual base camp 1 and Alibangbang park, we only stop whenever it’s necessary. It only took us 3 hours and 57 minutes to reach the camp site.

Upon arriving at the campsite, the weather started to show signs of rain, the group decided to pitch our tent and then the rain starts pouring. As a safety precaution, we need to cancel our summit assault.

We consumed the remaining time talking, eating and appreciating the view from above, by 6:00PM, dinner was served. During the socials, we faced 2 bottles (long neck) GSM Blue alongside the usual talks of anything under the sun (or the moon to be more accurate), that’s the fun part, the hassle came after we called it a night (10:00PM to be exact), a group of more or less 20 persons arrived at the camp site and started talking while pitching their tents, that’s normal though, but the problem was, it didn’t end even after they’ve finished pitching the tents, they went on with their non-sense talk (and even shouting & cursing) until around 4:00AM the next day.

Everybody was pissed! Sleep deprivation was not on the list of our expectations in climbing Pico de Loro, more so, all of us would rather enjoy the serenity of being away from the hustle and bustle of city life. That sucks, but the scene reminde me of what the culture of Pico de Loro was and is still today. The noise and partying remained as it was before, we (not SMB Mountaineers, but my hiking buddies then) used to be them in the late 90′s, now I understand why other campers would shout (and curse) us then.

All of our anger vanished when we reached the summit, despite the strong winds and the difficulty of the assault, the view from above was breathtaking, from there you will be able to see how great God’s creation was. It’s beyond definition.

From the summit, we broke camp and started our descent to our next destination at 8:00AM, our next stop will be at the falls. The small amount of rain has brought enough water to flow at the falls, normally during summer, the falls will dry out, that’s another blessing to count, we soke ourselves to the cold water, nothing beats a cold “shower” after a long day of walk.

Overall, it was fun, for me it was a test of my endurance, I tell you, carrying that 16.57 kilos of load in my back for 3 hours and 57 minutes was no joke! I have endured the more than 6 kilometers anf trekking carrying the heavy load, no way I will do that again. Maybe another training climb before Mount Tapulao, MakTrav (Makiling Traverse) or Mount Batulao will be good.

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I went to Glorietta to kill some time, at the activity area was filled with gadgets and appliances in display, I browsed some of the display and left immediately, seeing those items made me drool. From the activity area, I went straight to G4 (Glorietta 4) to check out what’s playing on the big screen, one movie catches my attention, it was the “Hunger Games,” I checked the screening time, next schedule was at 3:50 PM.

I left the movie house lobby thinking of coming back after 30 minutes to see the show, I spent my time browsing some books at Power Books (G3), I’m a s*cker for fiction, I love reading, although my eyes are not cooperating, it can’t deter me from grabbing a book and read.

I’m too particular about the book topics that I wanted to read, crime, court room drama, espionage & politics, I also have a short list of authors that I admire, Patricia Cornwell, James Grisham, Irwin Shaw, Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy to name a few. While browsing, a book entitled “Intent to Kill” interests me, I’m not familiar of the author James Grippando, I read the summary and no doubt, I want to read the book.

Instead of watching a movie, I went to the nearest Starbucks and ordered a venti Cappuccino and read the book until 6:00 PM. I was almost halfway when I stopped reading to get my dinner and attended the meeting.

It only takes about a day and a half to finish the book, it was a good book, definitely a page turner, James Grippando knows how to tickle my imagination.

Getting a book instead of watching a movie was definitely a better choice, now I wanted to read more!

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When I went back to mountaineering, it’s just necessary for me to make it a regular habit, not just to keep my body fit, but also to serve as training for my future climbs. Good thing that I don’t need to go far to bike, our subdivision is an ideal place to do some bike run.

My almost daily bike run covers about 1.6 kilometers, passing through almost all the phases of the subdivision.

This morning’s bike run was a good one, according to my iPhone’s Pedometer, I was able to cover a distance of 1.642 kilometers with 1728 steps with just 18 minutes and 22 seconds, burning 94.6 calories. A great start after being on the sofa the whole day for 2 days.

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I almost got distracted when I was invited to join a free [promotional] tour to Cagbalete Island in Quezon Province, the invite was so tempting that I almost gave up my quest of retuning to Maculot. Since I’m not much of a beach person, the latter won.

As usual, I met fellow climbers from Cavite at Phoenix Petroleum gas station at the corner of Daang Hari and Molino Road in Bacoor, Cavite at around 6:00 AM of March 12, 2012. There I met Sir Jim, JR & JM and Ma’am Gen (an SMB newbie), from Bacoor we went to Jollibee Alabang to take out breakfast and pick-up Ma’am Lanie, I had a Longganisa breakfast meal and a glass of Pineapple Juice. After finishing up our breakfast, Sir Jim received a text from the group coming from Manila that the bus had left the terminal.

From Alabang, we headed to our destination, we arrived at Cuenca, Batangas Town Proper after almost 2 hours, bought supplies at a convenient store while waiting for the Manila group to arrive. It was not long when then finally arrived at 7-11 Cuenca, took their breakfast there and time to roll towards the jump-off at Barangay Siete (7).

We had our lunch at the jump-off, we also took the opportunity to prepare and be briefed of the climb, since there’s not much shade at the campsite, we decided to start the climb before noon and it’s gonna be a slow pace trek (petiks climb) taking into consideration that the trail is a continuous steep uphill climb.

The first 15 minutes was a test for my cardio, good thing I brought much water and there are several pit stops where you can buy buko juice, suman and other stuffs.

At 500 MASL, the view was breathtaking, a good way to relieve of the hardness of the trail.

Upon reaching the final pit stop and before the snake-trail, we decided to rest for about 30 mins, the sun is still harsh and we don’t want to be toasted at the campsite. At around 3:00 PM we started our assault to the campsite, enjoyed the view from the top, pitched our tents and took much needed rest before we explore the famous “Rockies.”

The Rockies is one of the 3 destinations of Mount Maculot, the Summit and the Grotto are the 2 others, it’s located north-west of the campsite and stands at an estimated 703 MASL. At around 5:00 PM, we started our “Rockies” exploration, I’m in awe of the view from the top of the Rockies, from there you can see the whole Taal Lake, looking the west, the full view of the Balayan Bay. Bad thing though, my camera’s battery died while I was taking photos at the Rockies, lessons learned, charge the battery before going on a trip!

After exploring the Rockies, it’s time to cook, time to test my new Kovea Camp 5 stove and the Kovea Solo 2. For dinner, we had rice, (pre cooked) Chicken Adobo, Salted Egg, and canned goods. After dinner, we had our socials, 2 bottles of GSM Blue and a bottle of Marka Demonyo (Ginebra San Miguel) with Mango Juice as chaser and indian mangoes as pulutan, the socials is not just about the booze, it’s all about the talk and sharing of information and experience. The topic went from mountaineering, religion, aliens and supernatural beings. The strong winds and night mist didn’t stop us from enjoying the night. At midnight, it’s time to hit the sack, the wind was strong and it’s getting colder.

It was drizzling when I got out of the tent the following morning, the biggest suprise was when the rainbow showed up, Mount Maculot never ceases to surpise me. At around 7:00 AM, we had our breakfast and broke our camp at around 8:30 AM.

We started our descent at around 9:00 AM, the drizzle is slowly turning into rain and we fear that the trail will be a slippery. The descent took us a little over an hour, suprisingly, it wasn’t raining at the jump-off. We took our shower at the jump-off and had our lunch, most of us had a bowl of Batangas style Lomi. After lunch, we left the jump-off and headed home.

Same mountain, different experience, I always enjoy visiting this mountain and hope this will not be the last. Next stop, maybe another training climb at Pico de Loro.

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Just heard about the tragic incident in Mt. Batulao earlier today of a girl who died after falling down from the trail. This is a very sad news, and my heart goes out to her family and friends.

I was saddened by the bad news, Mount Batulao is one of the famous dayhike destination for local mountaineers, I was about to climb the mountain in December but the bad weather made me reconsider my decision.

According to ABS-CBN‘s report, the victim was identified as Diana Fajardo, a first time mountaineer, from Cainta, Rizal. The report also said that “they stopped to take a photograph at Peak 8 of Mt. Batulao’s New Trail when Fajardo lost her balance.”

According to the police, the incident happened around 11:00AM, “the victim fell to her death after she slipped and tumbled 250 feet down a cliff”

Mountaineering has been a famous recreational activity, words are not enough to explain the feeling of being on top and just appreciate how wonderful God’s creation is. But the sport [or recreation] has its dangers, there were several incidents that were reported in the past, deaths are not new to this activity.

Knowledge and safety should be the primary concern of people who wish to embark in this kind of activities. When dealing with heights, it is important to take extra precaution, a slip or miscalculation can be fatal.

I hope that the incident would not stop us from exploring, rather, this should make us rethink of the dangers of our sport. I hope that we take every safety precautions while hiking [or climbing].

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