Summer of 2005 must have been my busiest yet, with all the gimiks, outings and even seminars that I attended. I began this month with a Life in the Spirit seminar at the PACEM Novitiate House in Antipolo City and I got to see all the folks from Good Shepherd again.

Another big event this May was the big move of the DES department to the next door office. Then of course Stephen, a former officemate in GS, got married to his girlfriend Lovely, last May 7 at Muntinlupa. We also celebrated Mother’s Day at home with my brother’s girlfriend Janice.
Ma got us a cute little puppy that I promptly named baby Blogger but he died after a few days. He was then replaced by his sibling, a white pup that I call Blogger II.

In the workplace, I’ve become a dedicated blogger specialist so I’ve been introduced to the world of RSS feeds, headline animators and blog search engines.

Last May 15, my blockmates and I went back to our alma mater to play badminton, go jogging and eat at our favorite restaurant, Chocolate Kiss, at the UP Bahay ng Alumni. On May 19, our community celebrated our annual fiesta with bands, contests and sports fests.

I also went back to Enchanted Kingdom just 29 days since I went there. Ryan hadn’t been there since our field trip during our senior year in High school! Highlights of the trip include watching a 4D movie for the first time and getting to win a stuffed toy tarsier at the Safari Shootout using a crossbow.

Finally, the last weekend of May was spent in Mount Daguldol, San Juan, Batangas, where Jasper and I joined the Talikasan of the UP Mountaineers. I got to meet some wonderful people and I hope to see them again soon in our post-climb and when I sign up for their organization’s snorkelling lessons this schoolyear.

May 2005 has been magical and memorable and I can’t wait to create even better memories next summer.

I kept tossing and turning the night before we left since I kept running my list over my head so I could be sure I didn’t leave anything important behind. I finally fell asleep at around  midnight and after a few hours, I got up to go to our meeting place at the JAM bus station in EDSA Kamuning.

Arriving at 4:30 AM, I was the first one in our group and pretty soon Jasper, Leslie and Sarah arrived at the bus station. By 5:45 AM, we boarded the bus but Rafa had not yet arrived. I called him up and learned that he was still in Quezon Avenue. Dennis, the team leader, stayed behind to wait for him and another person who was late.

By 8:20 AM, our bus arrived at Lipa City and we hired two jeepneys to take us to Brgy Hugom in San Juan, Batangas. Rafa and the others caught up with us in McDo Lipa, where we had our second breakfast.

The jeepney ride took about two hours and to while away our time, we played several rounds of pusoy dos.

We registered at HEGA (Hugom Ecological Guides Association) and they let us leave behind our non-essentials to lighten our load for the trek. The jeep brought us to the jump off point and we started our climb at around 11 AM.

We paused for a break every 15-20 minutes so we could catch our breath and take some pictures of the amazing view. At some points, we could see the blue ocean below and several peaks beside Mount Daguldol as well.

One of the breathtaking views that kept me going.

We stopped for lunch at around 12:30 at a bahay kubo, where we bought Mountain Dew — it wasn’t cold though. I was quite surprised to learn that they had electricity there and we could hear the residents watching a noon time show. Halfway to the top, we passed by another store that sold ice-cold Mountain Dew and ice water.

We finally reached the campsite at around 3:45 PM and immediately started pitching our tents. Jasper had brought an earth mat while I laid down my plastic mat with its inflatable pillow. The campsite had a hose where we could get water but just to make sure, I boiled some water to be used the next day.

We walked for a bit to reach the summit where we took pictures of each other and the surrounding mountains and the clear blue sky. We talked with Patrick, who told us about his trip to Pandan Island (where the sea turtles are just as big as people!) and informed me that the prequel of Sassy Girl is entitled Windtalkers (got to find that movie!).

Our group consisted of  (from left to right) me, Rafa, Leslie, Sarah and Jasper.

Our group stayed the longest at the top since we had already pre-cooked our meals and all we had to do was cook rice. Dinner that night consisted of fried chicken with gravy and soup with shiitake mushrooms.

While boiling water for the next day, I got to talk with Leslie and he told me more about Linux and Opera, a browser that is supposedly way faster than IE or Mozilla.

At around 8 PM, they started the socials by introducing each other while downing shots of vodka and juice. I was hoping there would be a bonfire but apparently, it’s against the Mountaineer’s creed to create one. Our group of 32 was a mix of different nationalities — Leslie is Malaysian while Kyle is German.

Our group slept pretty early since we were all tired but the rest continued to talk and drink until the wee hours of the morning.

I woke up at around 3 AM and was awed by the sight of the half-moon (yes, that is just a half-moon) glowing eerily in the sky.

After a few more hours, we woke up at around 6 AM and got to see mist covering the entire valley below. It was truly amazing and just as Leslie described it — it’s as if you can walk right through the bridge of mist.

We ate our breakfast of fried rice, corned beef and cheese omelet before breaking camp and packing up our stuff. We spent around 15 minutes taking pictures of every group (six in all) as well as the organizers of this Talikasan, Batch Woohoo of the UPM.

By 10 AM, we took a buko break at a kubo we passed by. The trek down was a lot easier and I got to enjoy the scenery — it felt like a walk in the park with all the flora and fauna. We passed by a little stream where I got to take close up shots of dragonflies with my SLR and we even saw a monkey playing on one of the trees.

We reached the foot of the mountain by 11:15 and waited for the jeep that would bring us back to HEGA. After thirty minutes, we were already by the beach and set up our place in one of the kubos. Rafa and I cooked lunch — adobo and the stir-fried sitaw, which could have turned out better.

We played around in the warm waters while others swam to a big boat where they could use the katig as a diving platform. We left the beach at around 3 PM and again boarded a jeepney to Lipa City. We encountered some heavy traffic since there was a Santracruzan going on that same day.

By 6 PM, our bus left the terminal to head back to EDSA Kamuning while Rafa opted to ride the bus going to Lawton. We also got to buy buko pie as pasalubong when we passed by Calamba, Laguna. I got off at Ortigas station and bade goodbye to them, with the hope of seeing everyone again at our post-climb on Friday night.

Click here to see my photo album of this event.