Warrior Pilgrimage

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on September 1, 2010

I LEFT THE OFFICE in Mandaue City at ten thirty in the evening of April 30, 2010. I will take an overnight trip far north to Daanbantayan and, from there, cross over to Malapascua Island early in the morning to retrieve a package and bring it back to the mainland.

I will not be alone. Eddie Alberca will be with me and he will drive the Toyota Revo over two small cities and nine towns, a distance of roughly ...

Featured at www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on August 24, 2010

AS I WAS UPLOADING the pictures of my recent day hike down the Upper Kahugan Trail of December 27, 2009, people can't help but notice the bare trail which months ago have been thickly-populated by madre-de-cacao trees locally known as kakawate. These same people are people I know and they belong to local mountaineering groups. They love to pass by this trail going down to Napo then Guadalupe after a day of climbing Mount ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on August 15, 2010

IT HAD BEEN A long time since I last climbed Osmeña Peak. When talking of Osmeña Peak, part of the package is taking a long trek direct to the Kawasan River in Badian or go on a stop point in Basak, also in Badian, and take a long ride to Matutinao where there is Kawasan Falls, if you follow upriver; and a good white-sand beach, if you prefer to stay on sea level.

Osmeña Peak is the highest point of the island ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on August 8, 2010

IT IS THE MIDDLE of summer, April 18, 2010. The hillsides are brown and the creeks are dry. Camp Red, meanwhile, is in training mode. The mainstays – Boy Toledo, Ernie Salomon and I – are towing a trio of bushcrafter wanna-bes – Niño Dizon, Dave Uy and Brady Betonio. Tailing along is Wil Davies (aka Jungle Wil) of Jungle Wild Adventures.

The route is Bebut's Trail, a beautiful trail that I have discovered on ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogaspot.com on August 1, 2010

I TOOK A DAY off from my weekend trips to the bush today, July 18, 2010. I have to keep a promise I give to my wife, Vilma, a week ago to clean my backyard of an unused structure which have served as my dirty kitchen of long ago for it is in a sorry state and an awful sight to look at. It has to go.

I rose up early at 6:19 AM and turn on the FM radio to listen to the '80s rock classics in NU 107 as I sit and ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on July 15, 2010

MY MOM CALLED me up early in the morning of June 29, 2010 inviting me to attend and witness the swearing in to office of Vice Governor Greg Sanchez in Mariner's Court. I took the invitation as an opportunity to visit the said seamen's hub, located in the heart of the Associated Labor Union (ALU) compound near Pier 1 of the Port of Cebu.

Although I only saw a fleeting glimpse of the said building in my previous ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on July 8, 2010

FOLLOWING UP ON my February 28, 2010 complete exploration of the last stretch of Bebut's Trail, a route which start from the back of the Our Lady of Guadalupe de Cebu Parish that I discovered on January 10, I brought Boy Toledo, Ernie Salomon and Glen Domingo on May 21 to assess for themselves the condition of the route.

Glen D brought with him his coffee maker and we brewed coffee in a small upland community ...