Warrior Pilgrimage

Featured in Warrior Pilgrimage on March 1, 2011

I HAVE NEVER been there. I sometimes pass by the place going to Santander and know that it is Oslob when I see the welcome sign. But not today, August 18, 2010. I have an errand to do here.

Oslob is a seaside town in Southern Cebu. It has powder-white beaches along its coastline and pristine blue-green waters near the shore where the sand bottom could be clearly seen from the highway. It is 116 kilometers from Cebu City ...

Featured in WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE on February 1, 2011.

VISITED MY OLD friends in Danao City on July 21, 2010. I call them Mr. Fine and Mr. Coarse. They are craftsmen skilled in the repair of small handguns and they are a father-and-son tandem. I used to go there once every 3 or 4 months to answer some of my friend's favor to have their pistol or revolver checked for flaws and to improve its features. But not anymore.

This time, I'm dropping by just to say hello and keep ...

Featured in Warrior Pilgrimage on December 19, 2010.

JOHNSON LUYM ARRIVE with his Ford Ranger at eight in the morning in Mango Square and both me and Ernie Salomon immediately get inside together with our backpacks. It's a long way to Tabunan and we have to pick up Wil Davies and Ricky Sevilla. Today is Sunday, July 25, 2010.

We pass by JY Square in going to Banilad and we pick up Ricky first before meeting up with Wil. The truck is wide and it accommodated all of us ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on October 25, 2010.

IT'S JUST A cloudy early morning and I'm going today, July 14, 2010, for Dumaguete City which is crossable by a body of water. I have been worrying about the news of last night's about a typhoon Signal Number 3 (“Basyang”) hitting landfall in Luzon. So I dress up and hope for the best as I carried my backpack outside the street and hie a taxi bound for the South Bus Terminal.

I sit myself inside an unairconditioned ...

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 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 June 8, 2010

A WEEK AFTER my exploration of an unnamed trail on January 10, 2010, I invited Boy Toledo and Ernie Salomon to assess for themselves this newly-discovered route. Nathan Cannen, who went with me on that day as my official photographer, invited Myla Ipil. The trio are eager to try the trail and my flu is not a hindrance to deny them this privilege.

As always, we start from the back of the Our Lady of Guadalupe de ...