Buntot Palos, Pangil, Laguna

Credit goes to Ge Ja

I have not been anywhere remotely fun in weeks. My life has revolved only both at work and at home. But I have been looking forward to this weekend's getaway for ages since the Daraitan trek.

As far as I know we will be trekking with a lot of people, but a lot has also cancelled on the last minute making our group as small as six people. We decided to call our newly formed group as "(E)X-Men" after realizing that four of our members were ex's. LOL Funny as it may seem, it didn't make the trip even a wee bit odd, weird and awkward. It was actually the opposite.

Okay, so I got to my best friend's place at around 12 midnight on Friday. His mom, whom I have missed so much, made me a warm cup of Milo which we drank as we sat on the mattress laid out in front of the TV. Soon after finishing our drink she retired to bed while Ge and I stayed up a bit longer to watch TV.

However, our plan of retiring to bed sooner didn't go so well. We ended up chatting till about two in the morning; we tried sleeping but couldn't resist the urge to wake up the other in a funny way. For example, just when I was about to succumb into a deep slumber he would intentionally tap me and say 'good morning' or ask if I'm about to go to sleep. Yes, we're weird, mainly the reason why we're still friends after all these years. LOL

Anyway, we did set an alarm but no one got up on time. LOL. We ended up leaving their house in Baras at about 6-6:30am. As soon as we got to Famy, Laguna we stopped by at our favorite Lomi stop and had, well, Lomi for breakfast. Shortly afterwards, we made a quick trip to the grocery store across the restaurant to buy some snacks before we headed to Pangil.

Breakfast with the group.

A very satisfying bowl of Lomi <3

We arrived in Pangil and started our trek at around 9am. The trek, honestly, was unlike the others I had. It was the roughest trek I've been to so far but it definitely is the best.

Yes, forgive the faces. Haha! From L-R: Me, Tweet, Tita Cookie, Tricia, Koi and Ge.

The trek was divided into five stations, the fifth being the majestic waterfalls but I'm getting ahead of myself. Of course, no heavenly place can be attained without passing through a long and rough road. And boy, was the trail rough. LOL. The longest were the first two stations which seemed to go on for ages, but once at the third station, the view got a lot better making us thrive harder to go on and get to the best part.

This is the view from the first station. Marvelous, isn't it?

Going to the second station.

Here's one of the many horse trails.

Credit goes to my best friend for taking this lovely photo of me taking a photo of the lovely view. haha!

Enjoying the background view at the third station with le best friend :D

 

Now, the photos above were the trails going to the fourth and fifth stations, consecutively. They were really steep and slippery but get this, by the time we reached the fourth station, all tired and sweaty, we were amazed of the view in front of us.

Nothing says we're close to the end than seeing this.

Look at our smiles of relief knowing that we're almost there. haha!

And finally...

Credit goes to Ge Ja.

Que bella, indeed! oh and yes, more photos!

Credit goes to Ge Ja .

Credit goes to Ge Ja .

At the foot of the falls.

Tricia (right) and I (left) just behind the foot of the falls.

And there's Ge at the far left... posing as a third bikini top gal. LOL!

No one's around but us so we had all the confidence to take our shirts off haha!

Here's a photo of us fooling around at the rocks. Ge's showing off his leg at the camera.

Here we are when we first arrived at the falls. There's a random chick at the back probably substituting for our missing member haha

We stayed there for hours, just basking in the cool and refreshing water from the falls. It definitely is a lot of fun and no words can ever describe the happiness I felt when we went behind the foot of the falls after lunch. We were at ease though the rocks were slippery; we also managed to get a very heavy shoulder massage from the raging water. LOL It was loads of fun being there at that time and moment with the people I was with.

Oh and here's a video of me jumping off a not-so-high cliff. Believe me, this video is actually 4 mins long, with 50% of it showing me contemplating whether to jump off or not. I'm actually afraid of heights and I have this very weird fear of jumping off and hitting my head on some huge rocks, so... yeah hahaha it was actually really hilarious.

 After the soothing time at the back of the falls, we jumped off again and packed up our things. Soon after we're back on the trail; it took us a bit longer than the first time though since we're all so tired and sleepy from the day's activities.

Time to go.

Then halfway through, my best friend asked me to stand beside this tree and pose for a photo for some reason. I love this shot. Captures my sleepy eyes and red hair under the mid-afternoon sun.

This indeed signifies the end of our day. Later that hour, we were back in our van driving to the same restaurant where we had breakfast and had dinner before heading back home. Everyone in the back were asleep as we drove home. LOL. I shall never forget this experience. There is a sense of achievement in this for I have never expected to make it to the end and back knowing that I have gained so much weight and had less exercise than before. Most of all, my fear of heights had somehow lessened. Nothing beats an adventure like this; I can never trade this experience and the feeling it comes with after with the comfort of my bed and pillow.

Daraitan, Tanay Rizal

WARNING: PHOTO FLOOD AHEAD. 

My besties and I took yet another trek in Daraitan, Tanay yesterday. It was the roughest trek I've been in so far, but it was worth it. 

We started the trek at about 9:30 AM. The road was muddy, rocky, and slippery. All in all, it was a tough and rough one. But we were able to get through those with smiling faces. We trekked almost until lunch time till we decided to stop for an hour to fill our grumbling tummies.

          

Soon after, we went back on the 'trail' to get to one of the caves. And mind you, the way gets even more difficult, I was even worried how I'd still make it home later on that day. LOL

    

This is actually my first time to be inside a cave, and it's far different from what I have imagined nor seen at the movies. It was actually better than I have expected and oh, the water was oh so cool but you don't feel chilly afterwards. I never knew that bathing inside a cave could be this awesome. 

    

Nearly an hour later, we found ourselves climbing out of the cave and walking the trail home. But we made a pit stop by the river where we bathed again. 

Once we're back to the town proper, we decided to grab some late afternoon snack at a local restaurant before heading back to my bestie's parent's place to shower and prep up to go home. 

I couldn't imagine this day going any other way. This experience has definitely boosted my confidence; there is definitely a sense of achievement in completing a total of 4-5 hours of trekking. 

Going Around Laguna

This year my goals are pretty simple. I just want to learn how to apply makeup well, continue running (and run several fun runs), eat and most importantly, to travel.

Last weekend, I went to Laguna with my best friend, his mom, his sister Tricia and his sister's friend, Lui.

He picked me up at around 3am last Saturday and we went to their house in Baras where we chatted with his family for a while before we finally retired to bed. The next morning, Luigi arrived and we started to prep up.

We departed at around 10am and stopped by the Hypermarket in Tanay to gather supplies and well, while we're at it Tricia decided that we grab some Palabok first. Shortly after, we're back on the road and soon we stopped by a quaint restaurant where we ate a sumptuous bowl of Lomi topped with pork cracklings. Yum!

  

Afterwards, we drove to Lumban to buy some very special and all-time favorite local delicacies: espasol and white cheese. The espasol is like no other. It isn't the kind that is wrapped in a long strip of paper but covered in too much powder and is just actually just a quarter of the size of the wrapper.

No. It's wrapped in a strip of paper that is about 3.5 inches long, not covered in too much powder and is actually 3.5 inches long! And yes, it's very delicious--it's addicting and did I mention that they're really cheap, too? Oh yes.

The white cheese wasn't the typical kind as well. For one, it's extremely fresh (the one on the picture was fresh from the stove top) and it's practically oozing from its packaging. It's flavor was just right, not too strong like the ones we can usually buy from the market or from the city streets. Bottom line, it's really good!

Soon after, we headed for Panguil Eco Park to get the real deal started. We arrived quite late in the afternoon but just in time to enjoy the place with the sun still up. They showed me around a bit and then we hiked for nearly an hour, crossed the river in so many ways several times to get to the end (or beginning?) of the river where a majestic waterfall awaited us. The current was a bit strong and we all got bruises (well, at least I did) but I guess, that's the beauty of it. To be honest, it wasn't the easiest trail to follow, a bit exhausting but at the same time, exhilarating.

It was at that moment that I realized what I truly want to do all over again, which is to go to other places like this and discover the beauty that nature has to offer in every aspect no matter how hard it is to get there. Also, sharing this experience with my companions made it really meaningful and special, which made me look forward for more mini-adventure trips like this in the future.

Going back, after we basked in the beauty (and pain) of the waterfall, we headed back down. Halfway through, we stopped and waited for our turn in the water tube post and while waiting we tried to play against the river current a bit and chatted. Soon after, we were lying comfortably on our backs as we watertubed down the mountain.

The fun didn't actually stop there; though we all felt tired and sleepy we went down to the lower part of the dam and played around the water a bit more. I guess this is one of the most memorable parts of our time there. First is the waterfall and how I literally sighed in relief and awe once my best friend took my hand in his and looked at it and bathed in it together.

The next one was this part in the dam where the four of us tried to charge against strong current but my best friend ended up trying to pull his pants back up because the water was too strong that it almost stripped him off. LOL! At the same time, we tried to do it again several more times, but the I always get carried away by the strong current that my best friend and the other had to get a hold of me and save me from drowning for about three more times. LOL!

 

It was crazy but it's the happiest I've been in months. I have never felt so alive, so relieved of all emotional and physical pain. For that weekend alone, I feel like I've started anew. Later that evening, we tried our best to dry off ourselves and went to have dinner at a local eatery, which was Manay's.

We were shivering from the cold but we barely mind for soon after dinner, we checked in at a warm spring resort and practically inhabited the pool.

We stayed in the pool for hours trying to fight off the cold gusts of wind but were not successful until about 10pm. LOL. Believe me, getting off that pool is the hardest decision we had to make that day but we had to do it. After showering, we stayed up a bit more to have a drink but we went to bed eventually and slept till late in the morning.

We had a very sumptuous breakfast; one that I've never had in a very long time and one that, until then, I never thought I missed having. After breakfast, we roamed around the resort a bit and decided to finally go back on the road. We headed for Liliw to buy some shoes and slippers. We decided to look around and go from shop to shop before finally buying what we really like as to compare prices, quality and design. We did that practically all afternoon; we stopped by at a small eatery to have lunch. We had a really great Pansit Palabok/Malabon for lunch, one that is incomparable to the ones we previously had. We also took chances with the local rice cakes they were selling on the street, just to know how they taste like.

  

We honestly ate so much that afternoon that we ended up waddling around the place. We roamed around just a bit more before we hopped back on the van and went to a stream where local townswomen were doing their laundry earlier that day. The water was really cool and clear and what's best was that we found a hidden Station of the Cross statues scattered around deeper in the forest area.

 

After that, we stopped by at a local park where we played around like children at the Marvel statues and Land Before Time statues. Juvenile as it may seem, rarely do we get the chance to act as such and sometimes, it's not as bad as it may seem. Even when little children looked at us in total wonder.

 

But like any other story, our day and our trip has to come to its end. Not too long after that, we got back on the road and headed back to Baras, only stopping by at another branch of Manay's later that evening to have dinner. But though the weekend has come to its end, the memory of all the experiences and genuine happiness will always remain with me... I cannot stress enough how thankful I am to have these people in my life. May we have more weekend adventures ahead of us.