Third part of my Holy week vacation in Batangas and hope not the last... :P
Anyway guys, as I continue, Masasa beach is more than a beach, you can sail, snorkel, swim and whatever that can you think of. But for me and the Sanyapak team we learned that there's a mountain to climb there. Mag-asawang Bato is the name of the small mountain. Why is it named like that? Well, as we have known from the locals of Tingloy, the peak of the said mountain has two giant boulder at it's very peak or formerly it is one giant boulder that splits into two.
Well, at 4:00 pm, we decided to climb the moutain. We asked some locals about the way there but in our surprise, the first 100 steps or so are in paved way. Not so hard after all eh. As we walk on, there's a wall that blocks our way or we think at first that we took the private way. We asked a woman about the trail we supposed to go and she replied that we just hve to walk beyond the cow's resting tree. In other words, we have to go the ridge of the mountain.
As we hike, we noticed that there are some places in the mountain that used as their place for making coals and some are used to shepherd their cows. There are some places also than can be use as a camp site to any mountaineer that want to stay there.
As we follow the trail to the peak, we saw a fork trail beyond us and we decided to split our team and search for the right trail. Me and Tonio followed the traditional trail or as we speak the farmer's trail 'coz we know that the mountain is also used for the cow's resting ground. After a while, Egay shouted at us that Enan just found the right track and after that we just follow the bushy trail. After 5 minutes of hike we found a clearing and we saw the very peak of the mountain, the two stones of Mag-asawang Bato.
Enan is waiting for us at the foot of the stones as we hike after him. As we are getting nearer to the stones, the way is a little tricky to walk. Why? Well, the ridges are to small to walk, the bushes are to thick, the dry branches are sticking out every where that pokes us as we go through it. Well, not much comlains on that as we arrived at the stones of the mountain. We then took our pictures there. As we finished our picture there we saw a small path way to the other side but we didnt bother to explore it since we dont want to descend at night since we only carried our water. Hence, we descend the mountain with cheers. Mountain number two for the group...
Here's our pictures from the Mag-asawang Bato ...
Above: The Mount Mag-asawang Bato
Above: Enan point's at the peak.
Above: We followed Enan at the peak.
Above: The two giant boulders or a split stone?
Above & Below: The team at the center of the the stone.
We reached the Masasa beach at 5:30pm. Wow... just one and a half hour of hike for it. Anyway, my family is waiting for us there and when we finished our packing we then go home to Pulang Bule. As we arrived at Tatay Dante's house and learned that we climb the Mag-asawang Bato, he asked us if we saw a giant clam that rest at the mountain. We stared at each other in surprise, we didnt know anything about that and if we do we would love to take some pictures there too. Then we remembered that we saw a small path way near the boulders but we didnt took time to explore it. Men oh men, we felt that we didnt complete the exploration there. As we sit and talked about it, we decide to return to this island (Tingloy) to see if it's true or not.
Well guys, hope you like my five days adventure in Batangas from Cuenca to Tingloy island with my friends Niel, Tonio, Enan and Egay (Sanyapak) and with my family (my wife Chin and my kids and also my wife's family, the Gamo clan).
Thanks guys....
By the way, you can view the pictures at the Sanyapak site and some details of the climb.
After the fun climb at the Mt. Maculot, me and my friends (Sanyapak) travel to Tingloy island. This island is located just below Anilao of Batanagas. Travel time is just an hour from Cuenca to Talaga port area where we will ride a boat from there to Tingloy which will cost only PhP 55.00.
Above: As seen, I'm on the roof and I don't like it :(
Above: It's soooo hot in here... Buti pa si Karen cool :P
We have to wait for my wife and her family to arrive before we ride a boat because they came from Manila and it happens that we get there first as we where much nearer than them. As we waited for an hour, they finally came... Amen! Then we board the boat immediately but since the boat's sits have all been taken, me and the guys with Chin, Che and Karen had to sit at the roof of the boat. Boy oh boy, it's scorching hot in ther at high noon, whew. When I asked Enan to get my things at my backpack to cover my self from the sun, Enan answered that it is impossible to get it since my backpack is under all of other people's bags. Oh men, what a bad timing for me. And that's not it, my wife (Chin) asked me if she could borrow the bandana I'm wearing and asked my self if she's serious then when I looked at her well... I think shee needs it more than I do. That's the time when I feel more toasted under the sun but I'm glad that my kids (Yzzy & Dre) are on the lodge or sitting area of the boat. because if they there, I would like to take another boat than to let my kids roast.
Above: Che, Karen, Chin
Above: My beautiful wife. Pls. do take notice to her sombrero 'coz that's the one that looks like the one called Sumbrero Island.
As we move along, Chin and Che tried to persuade my irritaion by showing me the poinst of interest that we could see along the way. The only thing that catches my attention is the Sumbrero island, now I know why they name it like that. Just see the picture below and have you noticed that Chin's hat is like the island named Sumbrero?
Above: Sumbrero island at the right side, the small one.
As we approached the Tingloy island, I thought that all of us will get off board since we arrived at a small docking area or port but in my surpirse they told me that only passengers who live near the first port we dock are the only ones that's gonna got off. Wow, like a taxi cab that takes you in front of your gate eh. Anyway, we had to wait three more docks to get to our own and when we got there my wife's relatives are there waiting for us and gave as a warm welcome. Before I forgot to mention, when someone is getting off board the boat the Captain's crew and himself help their passengers unload their belongings such as heavy bags or boxes and not only that they will even carry you if you don't want to get wet if the docking area had been reach by the water, now that's what I call a complete service.
Above: The Galaxy, the boat that we ride across the sea.
Above: This is where we stayed at Tatay Dante and Nanay Nita's humble house.
When we reached the house that we'regonna stay in for four days, you wouldnt believe it again 'coz the house is just 60-70 feet away from the shore lines. Wow! My kids just can't helped their selves as soon as they set foot on the shores... well, they have to give respect first to Tatay Dante by gving his blessing by "Pagmamano". And then they're off like crazy and wild. Yzzy, Dre and Che's daughter, Gabby. Stomping their feet, exploring the shore for sea shells and taking a dip.
Above: Pareng Egay is teaching my kids how to swim.
Above: Me and the kids
Above: Yzzy & Gabby
Above: Yzzy, Chin & Gabby
As we (Sanyapak) unload/unpack our backpacks we followed the kids to the shore (we also asked for Tatay Dante's blessing too of course and to Nanay Nita before anything else). The water is cooler tha I expect and view is so great from there. You could see the Anilao from where we stand.
Above: From Pulang Bule which Yzzy & Gabby swims, you can see the Anilao at their back.
After the hosts prepared our meal and called us, we then oblige to them as we ate. After the meal, we (Sanyapak) need to fetch some water to fill two big water drums/containers and some pails. Water is the other problem that the loacals there needs besides from electricity. Lucky for us there's a near deep well that we can get some but when we look at it... the water is almost at the level of the pit. Then Nanay Nita told us that there is another deep well that we can some water, she showed as the way and well... let's just say that the water there is much more than the first one. The distance from the second well is about 24-26 feet upon my estimation but on the first well is just 10 feet away from the door. Anyway, there's no complaining about it since we looking for another thrill and experience in our life :P.
After all that, an old man passes by and asked us if we like some "Tuba" (coconut wine). Hmmm, what then heck, we ordered two gallons of it, hehe. The old man told us that he will just harvest and when his finished he will delivered it to us. Ayos ba, fresh from the tree it self. And when the dawn comes so does tha old man with his two gallons of tuba. First, we need to eat our dinner and go to the drinking session :D.
Above: Our little "Barik" (booze) session.
On our second day at the isla or island, Enan washed Egay, Niel and Tonio's clothes but we need to get him some water from the well. But in the heat of the day, the two wells are almost dry so nanay Nita asked a neighbor to let as fill our containers with their water from their own "Poso" (sorry guys, we forgot to bring our camera there) but this time, instead of filling the smaller pail we carried the two big water drums/containers that I mentioned earlier. Me, Tonio and Egay go to the poso and fill the containers at almost full of it. Men, this is heavier than we thought but as we agreed upon I will be on the middle so that I could carry to of it by each hand and Egay and Tonio will assist me by lifting each of the handles of each drums. At first the laod is heacy but when we found our pace then the carying is a little bit easy. The distance from the poso to the house we staying is about 85-95 feet or more. Since it's Good Friday, it is better to do this sacrifice. Suddenly, pn our midway of carrying the drums, a woman just said something like this "I know what's good or bad.....etc etc". And you know what, Egay and Tonio burts inot laugh and me but as much as possible I'm trying to control it since I am the one whose carrying the heavy load but I'm only a man, we drop the drums as slow or gentle as possible we can but you know what, I felt my back snap a bit. Like my old lumbar injury returned. The woman that I'm mentioned is what they called a "lokaret" or crazy woman from their town. Tatay Dante and his neighbors inform us that. Anyway, thank goodness that Niel came by to help us carry the drums back to the house and when we arrive there I started to stretch my self especially my back to avoid any further injuries.
Above: Chin bought some Dan Eric's ice cream to cool off the heat. Sarap to the last drop!
On the next day (April 11, Sat) we all then travel to the other side of the island. We had to walk at least 20 minutes or so then ride a tricycle for a fare of PhP 20.00 per person. As we enter the Poblacion we noticed from the start of our ride up to where we gonna get off is all paved and the people here are many compared to the one's living near the bay. As we got off the tricycle, there's another paved road ahead of us, that road is leading to the Masasa beach proper and in my curiosity about the place, I noticed the monuntain from my right, I asked some local there and he answered that the mountain I'm asking about is the Mt. Mag-asawang Bato (I will tell our exploration here on my next blog). Anyways, as soon as we are all complete to arrived at the jump off to the beach we then walk down the paved road. From the top of the road, you could see the fields which the farmers are planting their rice and vegetables. Some are green and some are had been dried by the heat of the sun. And when we arrived at the bottom of the hill we saw a clear blue water. Wow, it is more beautiful than the Pulang Bule. There are people everywhere from all walks of life and we thought that we're the only ones are there.
Above: At the left of the pic there's a small sari-sari store and on the right as you can see we just put up our tent and Dre is ready to swim.
Above: On the other side is the Mindoro and as you can see the beach in Masasa is so clear.
Above: Gabby, Che and Karen enjoyng the waves at the shore.
Above: For girls only...
Above: Mahal, mahangin ba sa beach? :P
Above: Mother & daughter
Above: Chin on phone, hello Papa Totoy
Above: One big family
As my friends and my family explore the place, Egay, Enan, Toni and me put up the tent to shade our selves from the heat and to put our things there and Niel as expected again grilled some pork for us.
Above: Karen, Chin and Che
Above: Chin & Jimi
The water is fine, the sky is clear, the sun is hot and my friends and family are all happy with it. Ahhhh, so nice to have a people like them on my side. All in picture perfect for me......
I made plans before the start of the Holy week and this is what I did. I gathered Niel, Enan, Egay and Tonio and invited them to climb Mt. Maculot for the 2nd time around. When they agreed I open up that we could also go to an island just under Anilao of Batangas. I told them that we have a place to sleep on and the beach are more likely beautiful and beyond that the place is known for thirty (30) dive spots to explore and a mountain to hike. Well, that's how I convinced them to join my adventure for the whole Holy week.
Our schedule is to depart Manila to Batangas on Wednesday (April 8, 2009) as early as 5:00 am. All five of us are all in complete gear and ready to roll that day. We can feel the excitement in the air as we all know that this can be more fruitful than our first climb as a group of Sanyapak.
As we are on the bus we are all inform that we have to take a jeep at Tambo becasue the bridge that Cuenca has is under repair or maintenance. As we jump off the bus and ride a jeep going to Cuenca the jeep pull over to pick up another two passengers. A filipino and a eaurupian young lady (well that was my first impression on her and I will telll more about her later), anyway, as we travel the road we need to get off at the bridge and cross it at the right side of it. Planks of coco lumber was made by the carpenters as our foot bridge to cross to the other side and as we crossed the bridge we need to ride another jeep to our destination in Cuenca.
We arived at B. Laqui Street exactly as we planned and immediately ride a tricycle that will take us to the jump off of Mt. Maculot. When we arrived at the jump off we noticed more and more people are going to the mountain. Maybe since it's Holy wednesday they also decided to climb it as to explore. As we ascend the mountain we noticed a store that sell a ice cold buko (coconut) juice. They told us that there are five more stores that we can see as we climb up to the summit. As we walk again we stop over at the second store and ask her somehting. Her name is Aling Mercy and she's the only one that sells buko juice at PhP 5.00 and PhP 15.00 for the halo-halo. She inform us that as long as we climb higher the price will do so. Well, why? Carrying a bulk of ice and two water jugs (filled with water of course :P) is no joke. It is very strenous especially if she's the one doing it all. Anyway we also met his son at the fourth station or the fourth store that sell buko juice as well but the price is PhP 7.00.
From left: Aling Mercy with his son in green shirt, Me, Niel, Egay, Tonio and Enan (red bonet)
On the climb we also met a drunk guy whose telling us that it is more easier for him to descend the mountain when his all drunk. Huh? well if you see it for your self you'll be amazed how he do or did it.
When we depart the last store we knew that it's gonna be hot on the next minute as we will pass the "kugon" of thatch field. There, you can now see the Taal lake and some part of the Batangas region. We met four young men there and asked us to take their picture using their Canon camera and they did the favor to us by using Enan's camera to take our group picture. Then after that I decided to climb the kugon as fast as I can because I know I or we need to be fast that minute because more mountaineers are hiking now and we need a cooler place to pitch our tents.
As I arrived the summit or camp site of Mt. Maculot a store on my left side surprises me. Why? The store has instant coffees, instant noodles, nuts, Coke, Sprite, Royal and they also have a halo-halo :D. As the rest of my team arrived we then look for a place for our tents. After pitching the tents Niel decided to cook us our lunch and I ordered five halo-halo for us to cool off the heat and that time is very, very hot at twelve noon.
After we eat our lunch we decided to hang a bit at the first store we saw. The owner of the store is Richard and it was 24/5. Well, 24 hours in 5 days only, for the Holy week :P. Anyway, there are also two stores that you can see there but they all sell the same stuff but Richard's store is much mor cooler to stay. We also met Sir Ed an environmentalist. A cool guy too but not as funny as Richard, :D
Richard's Store
When more and more moutanineers come to the summit we decided to move to another place so that they can also be refreshed or rejuvinated at the store. We explore the summit and saw more people on their tents. We laso saw the two mountaineers that I have mentioned before. Then Tonio show as the water source of the mountain. We ascend at the back of one of the stores. As we descend we saw more young men on their back singing and some are just day dreaming. As we arrived at the water source we saw three people taking a bath. The water source is a "bukal" or spring. The bukal is not that big but enough to refresh you.
As we climb again to the summit, we stop at the bottom of it to escape the heat. We talk there about our plans for the next day. At late afternoon we ascend the summit and check our belongings or tents. As we do so, we return to Richard store. We noticed the female foreign mountaineer taking pictures. When she took ours I asked her if she's gonna post it in her blog or something. She gave me her flickr account to view her pictures that she take. Her name is Sarah, the sweet lady from Canada. I asked her where's her other companion and she replied that Tomas (name of the pinoy mountaineer) is taking a nap on his tent. Then there started our conversation with our gang. To tell you the truth, I'm not that well in speaking english continuously, I could feel my nose bleed slowly, hahahahaha.
As the dawn approaches, Niel decided to prepare our dinner and Tonio and Egay will help him on it. Enan and I decided to go to the rockies to take some pictures. As we go there the thatch is much more higher than ours and as we descend again we decided to take some pictures at the ridge. Then came the whole family of mountaineers with their nine year old kid and they assault the rockies with excitement. As we saw them rejoicing at the rockies Sara and Tomas came and also wnet to the rockies. As the day goes to night we agreed to return to our camp and eat dinner. After we ate and cleaned our place we then go to Richard's store and talk there about our next trip on the following day. Then, it's lights out for us.
We wake up as early as 4:00 am and pack our bags then after it we all go to the rockies for the picture taking. We noticed that some are still sleeping as we pass by their tents and some are cooking their breakfast but when we arrived at the ridge we all then descend it to go to the rockies. As we then ascend now for it I accidentally bump my head on the rock and Tonio told me to watch for the big rock that could hit me but it was too little too late 'coz I just did, :P. When all of us are all on top of the rockies we saw the majestic view of the Taal lake and the Batanagas and on top of that the sun is rising as beautiful as it was. What a wonderful world we have....
After we took some pictures we all then descend the mountain and went on to our next destination. Next stop, Tingloy Island.
Do you know that we have here in the Phiippines a Baseball league? Yes we have guys and they on their Series V (5). And on top of that, they will also have an all star game on April 12, 2009 at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium. This should be broadcast on TV and having a sport such this can influence more Filipinos if it is telecast live. All teams have their unique attitude on the game and I think if we watch more of it's game we can learn more about it and the heart and soul of all people who put up this together.
When I was young I do also try to play baseball but sadly, we don't have any place to play the game. Playing this really needs a wider place. My friends in my neighborhood plays baseball on their school. When I saw them practicing some pitching and catching at Plaza Azul (a wide place that we can really play) I asked them if I could try it. Gladly the boys accepted me as one of them. Anyway, I noticed that the player or me really needs some know how on how to trhow the ball properly and I'm glad that they teach me with it. Baseball is really fun to play and very challenging. I guess if I play continuesly and excel on the game maybe I could be one of the players on Baseball Philippines. Well, that's wishfull thinking right now.
I hope that the league expand more and exposed more local talents to play baseball. Everybody knows that Filipinos are not that tall to compete on any ball game but I assure you that Filipinos has more speed and agility on our size.
Good luck Baseball Philippines and I'll try to watch a game or two on my free day. I'm proud of you!
Before dawn, as we arrive from Laguna where I was working... goin' to our Pasig branch, we suddenly saw a failed hold up at the Santolan LRT station. Only one policeman is holding the crowd. The police officer put his motorcycle besides a delivery van and stop all the vehicles that are crossing. He then called for a reinforcement which people from every where from his point suddenly obey. Then a group of MMDA traffic officers help him subdued the onlookers and the heavy traffic that it causes. The Policeman decided to enter the passenger jeep on his own as he shouted to the other suspect(s). 2-3 MMDA officers are holding 2 unidentified suspect too that the policeman grab.
As the traffic go slowly, we then worry that a passenger could get hurt in the incident. If the suspect(s) get's too nervous he/she could grab anyone as their hostage. But thank goodnes it's all over in a sudden and thanks to the one and only policeman and some passerby and also to the MMDA officers. Now that's what I call a man on his duty. I salute you sir whoever you are.
Me and my officemate always follow our tail lights as we go home. As we drove our motorcycles along the Marcos Hi-way it was all smooth and no traffic.
After we pass the intersection of Katipunan and Marcos Hi-way a passenger jeep gave as a long beep of his horn. We ignore it because we thought that he just wanted to pass as quickly to get some passengers ahead of the other jeepneys. Then he open his head lights to a high. Then I tell to my self that "what's his problem..". Then after we pass a gas station we saw a traffic building ahead of us then me and my friend decided to take the right lane of the road. Then suddenly we saw the jeepney passes us by a foot then crashes to a van, tamaraw fx then hitted the rear of the other jeepney in front of him then the jeepney hit another one.
Whew, boy we are lucky. If we ignore another minute of it we could be in the middle of the mishap. Then we observe what could possibly the cause and we heard that the jeepney lost it's brakes. We are blessed that time and so to his passengers and to the other passengers of the public vehicles and to the driver of the van.
