My 2014 Mid-Year Adventures in Summary

OMG so it has been 6 months already? I still find it surprising that time flies by so fast, I remember just before the year starts I told myself that 2014 is gonna be MY YEAR (14 is my DOB after all) so I'm so gonna make the most out of it.

So, I feel like sharing my adventures in summary, half year to 2014. I'm still overwhelmed as usual, I feel blessed having enough time with my great job for making this all happen. I got no time for drama so I feel  super happy when I'm going places. :D

To start this, I may not have weekly getaways unlike what my other friends have, I already feel contented in once a month getaway LOL. I don't want to make my family feel that I enjoyed the outdoors so much, they might want to disown me LOL.

January
Color Manila Run 2014

 I joined my travel buddies, Isang Backpack Ka Lang at Color Manila Run 2014. It was my first fun run, and literally, it was a really crazy, fun experience! I think it was more of a kid's rat race because of the crazy stuff we did like splashing water all over which makes the color powder stick like glue to our faces. Because of that, we were the dirtiest racers Color Manila Run has seen, which we totally didn't mind, we're there to have fun anyway.

February
1. Mt. Batulao, Nasugbu, Batangas

I went on a totally spontaneous climb with my buddies at Mt. Batulao. Spontaneous because there was no week-long planning involved, or no fixed IT. It was just as simple as "Tara, akyat tayo this weekend!" and then we just found ourselves boarding the bus going there.

Oh, gosh how can you not unsee that view? 

Team Batulao: @godeye, @gladjaytor, @jepepips, @learnhowtofly, the blogger, @zaiclops

I loooove Mt. Batulao because of its scenic mountain view. It's already first on my list of mountains with great landscapes. It's an easy mountain to climb,and my first time walking on mountain ridges too. Though I wasn't able to climb the summit (due to a nasty hangover) I still enjoyed the view; those grassy slopes and round peaks makes it so charming, I'd totally want to see it again.

2. Mt. Pulag, Bokod, Benguet

Yes! I climbed Mt. Pulag again for the second time! I had great hopes in seeing the sea of clouds again, but due to the weather we were only welcomed with a thick fog and a drizzle at the summit.

I saw my first milky way for this year at the campsite! I had this thing for milkyways and I can already locate them without using any star locator haha. So I was super happy that there was a clearing that night! I guess there's nothing disappointing about that. :)

Hello Team Pulag! :D

March
-NONE- LOL

WHAT? I skipped March? What did I do this month? *update* oh okay, I got lots of bookings for Say Pink! Photobooth Services LOL. It got me occupied most of the weekend HAHAHAHA so....moving forward.....


April
1. Mt. Daguldol, Nasugbu, Batangas

This was a summer climb organized by my travel group, 1BP. This mountain has the prettiest and the cleanest campsite I've seen! It's like a mini-meadow LOL.

As I've mentioned on my last blog post about Mt. Daguldol, it can pass off as a garden/backyard of some private villa. The grass is well maintained, there's adequate shade from trees and though it's one tough mountain to climb, the view of the night sky is breathtaking.

Jumping sleeping bags at Mt. Daguldol.

2. Tinipak River, Daraitan, Rizal

A visit to the country's cleanest river and seeing its enchanting rock formations is one trip to nature that I'll never forget. Check out my blog post about this place to see what I mean!

That view on top of these rocks going to Tungtong Cave is truly breathtaking!

May
I've visited the most number of beaches this month! I've also crossed one 'C' from my mightly list of places to go to this year (they're four actually :3)

1. I've been to Calaguas, baby! Okay so that's beach #1

The most pristine beach I've seen! It's at par with White Beach at Malamawi Island in Basilan when it comes to beauty! Aside from Mahabang Buhangin (that's what it's called) we also had a chance to visit the nearby beaches.

2. Bunga Beach, Camarines Norte

3. Maculabo Island, Camarines Norte

After our Calaguas trip, @traveladik, @jepepips, @learnhowtofly and I went to Quezon to meetup with my other friends, @gladjaytor, @godeye, @ezzy_dangerous. They weren't able to come to Calaguas with us due to their schedules so we just settled for an island hopping adventure at Pagbilao.

4. Kwebang Lampas, Pagbilao, Quezon

There's tons of glowing planktons here at night.

5. Dampalitan Island, Pagbilao, Quezon

6. Borawan Island, Pagbilao, Quezon

Borawan, Borawan... I have so much to say about you, but I'll leave that to my next blog post LOL.

However, out of all six beaches, NOTHING compares to the beauty of Calaguas! No one will ever argue with me over that!

Milkyway over Calaguas.

I also saw the biggest milky way view I've ever seen in my life! It literally covered the entire sky that night!! Those were the times when I wished I had a wide angle lens to capture it!

June
1. 3 of my travel dreams came true this month!

Go on top of Mt. Maculot

I've always been looking forward to see this mountain. I wanted to see that view myself. So when my travel buddies went up here,  I didn't mind the grueling, and seemingly never ending assault! Also the fact that we're going trekking in the wee hours of the night (12AM!) AND.. someone just died there, we still pushed through! We're such brave adventurers after all, and the reward for all that trouble is truly breathtaking. :D

Visit and swim in the photoshopped river, Enchanted River in Surigao del Sur

OMG I visited the most photoshopped river in the country!!! I'm being exaggerated but truth be told, it really looks photoshopped, but it's NOT, but damn the real thing looks so saturated, I don't even need to edit this picture!! It's so blue!! You really have to see it! God, i love nature!

No saturation needed for this photo, the water is really that blue. :3

Swim with the jellyfish at the Jellyfish Lagoon in Bucas Grande, Surigao del Norte

It was such a surreal feeling when I was swimming with them! They're so gentle and soft and cute too! I find them malambing because they're the ones who comes close when you're around. I even made a short video about it! Check this out!

Aside from having some of my dreams come true this month, I was also able to visit these places during our trip.

Bucas Grande, Surigao del Norte

Sohoton Cove, Surigao del Norte

This is the passageway that leads to Sohoton Cove. You can only enter and exit the through here.

Britania Islands

Naked Island and Hagunoy Island

That's Hagunoy Island as seen from Naked Island. Why Naked? 'Coz the island is just pure sandbar. No trees or shade whatsoever. :)

Tinuy-An Falls, Surigao del Sur

I just stared at Tinuy-An Falls when I saw it. Literally. I was in awe at how beautiful it is, I even forgot my camera so I had less pictures haha.

Now my last trip for this mid-year was kinda nostalgic because I came back to the place where it all started. A short story here, I was bitten by the travel bug last 2013 where I met my travel buddies (whom I've been traveling with for the rest of the year :3). I met them all at Instagram and through exchanges of post and pictures we just decided we should all go places together haha. :D Our first meetup was at San Fernando, in La Union, though only @jepepips, @gladjaytor @ezzy_dangerous showed up at that time (@traveladik was at a different place and I haven't met @dimplesamay back then), we had tons of fun learning how to surf together. :D

2. San Fernando, La Union

So for this comeback in 2014, though only Je and Sam was able to go with me, we still made the most of out of our weekend by visiting not just San Fernando but a few sidetrips as well.

Ma-Cho Temple

Tuddingan Falls

..and that sums up my mid-year adventures! They say it's already too much haha but the year's not over yet, I've already got a string of travels for the rest of the year and I'm totally looking forward to that!

Cheers to traveling and more adventures for me! :)

Conquering Mt. Daguldol

Last weekend, I just climbed my sixth mountain, Mt. Daguldol with my awesome outdoor club Isang Backpack Ka Lang. This is probably the second time I told myself not to trust blogs that say they've been there but they've never really relate what's IN there, well, especially for mountain climbing newbies like me.

Getting to Mt. Daguldol is easy:

- Take a bus going to Lipa (get down at SM City Lipa)

- From SM City, take a jeep to San Juan.

- From San Juan, take a jeep to Brgy. Hugom

We had our lunch and bought our supplies at San Juan wet market. This was also where our hired jeep was waiting for us to take to Brgy. Hugom where we will start our trek along Laiya beach.

After registration, securing a small hut for tomorrow (so we could rest after the descent) and getting a guide, we started trekking along the shore. I find it weird that we started the activity at midday, when the sun is at its most intense. The sea was so inviting, It makes you want to jump in and forget that you're supposed to trek going up the mountains.

Dear sea, please take me away from this excruciating heat.

Yours truly trekking at the beach.

See how hot it is, it's 2am!

It's still a long way to go to that corner over there.

I would classify the trail as moderate to difficult. Before I went here, I googled  everything, from the trail to the campsite, but I only got answers for the latter. So I'll be telling the truth that this mountain is not for those who just wants an easy climb, like Mt. Pulag. LOL. The first part was slippery due to the small crumbling rocks, not to mention it was extremely hot, they did some kaingin on the other parts of the mountain so they could plant some vegetation. There's very little shade for you to cool yourself in, so I suggest you cover yourself entirely even if you sweat like there's no tomorrow (sweat or sunburn, you decide.) However, the guides have installed small huts along the road (but quite far from each other) so you can take short rests for a bit.

That trail is slippery due to small crumbling rocks.

So many winding uphill climbs....

After cooling down, we resumed our trek to Mang Lizardo's place, which is marked by a flower garden with a small hut of refreshments that sell fresh buko juice to ice cold halo-halo. I didn't pass the chance, because according to them, it's still 2-3 hours trek going to the campsite. That doesn't sound good for me since we already missed the sunset when we reached Mang Lizardo's place.

We just arrived!

Chillin' at Mang Lizardo's place.

From here, the winding ascent to the top begins. You'll pass by rows of big boulders along the way and it's pretty hard to climb them with the weight of my things as the trail gets stiffer, tougher and harder. It's dark already when we reached the second wooden gate (or was it third? I lost count already..) the trail past this point is bearable than the other, rocky but you don't need to climb much, but be careful because it's too narrow, one slip could make you fall that nearby cliff.

Those big boulders look interesting, like, how did they get there LOL.

Taking a break before another ascent.

It was my first time doing a night trek and good thing I have my LED light for me to use. However, not too long on this trail, I saw the most incredible thing I've always wanted when climbing mountains: fireflies. LOTS OF FIREFLIES. The last time I've seen fireflies was when I climbed Mt. Natib in Orani, Bataan. Seeing them somehow took my weariness away. There's this little who came up to me and I've felt how warm a firefly is, it's just so magical. I've always wanted to keep it and take him with me, but my friend says mind the faeries who live there, if you get what I mean.

The sunset that I missed because I was too slow... This was the first group who went ahead of us.

About 30 minutes of walking on the same trail, we finally came to an clearing which finally screamed "SUMMIT" for me so I hurriedly ran to my buddies who were already making preparations for our dinner, well, they can't feed themselves because I was tasked to cook food that's why. After cooking dinner, we had tons of fun from having a crazy socials night to rolling on the grass in our sleeping bags then sleeping outside our own tents. Sleeping there felt so good, I hardly had a backache because my sleeping bag is equally as soft as the grass I laid on.

Socials night.

Chicken Mechado for dinner

Mt. Daguldol's vast grassy campsite compensates for the lack of scenery this mountain has to offer. Probably the best campsite I've been, it's so pretty and well maintained - it could pass off as a backyard of some private villa or something.

We even enjoyed taking jumpshots while still on our sleeping bags and it was epic.

Whoops! ..and thank you Kirby for waking up for five minutes to let us nail this jumpshot.

The view of our pitched tents sunkissed by the morning sun on a grassy hill is a beautiful, I'd wish all campsites were made of these.

To cap off our climb, the group enjoyed taking selfies and group photos at the summit before heading down.

The grassy summit.

#selfie

Turista vibes at the summit of Mt. Daguldol.

I find it so weird that it only took me two and a half hours to climb down but almost five to go up, that already includes slips, slides and falling down on my knees during the descent (I told you, the trail is slippery!). I already missed them when I got down the mountain and was already too tired to walk on the beach (coz I fell several times LOL) So the guide suggested we should hire a small boat to take us to the other side of the island! 

The panoramic view of the entire coastline of Laiya was breathtaking! Here I was, having the ride of my life, treading the bumpy waves and enjoying the salty air on my skin. I didn't mind the heat of the mid-day sun as I waved goodbye to Mt. Daguldol for giving me one of the best camping trips I've ever had. :)