trekking the tagba-o river

I went hiking with Alan and his officemates at Tagba-o river. We left JY Square Mall at around 10:30 on a pickup. The ride was around 45 minutes. We passed by Tops and then Ayala heights. We made a right turn on the corner of Transcentral highway and Taptap. Then from Taptap, we took a left at the road that goes to Tagba-o. This is one of farthest area of Taptap, I guess. From Taptap to Tagbao was all downhill. At one time, the road looks like Lombard St. except that there's now asphalt or cement :) The road ends at the Tagba-o river. From there, our guide told us to leave all our things at the car except for our food. Since most of us brought burger, gaan ra kaayo among mga dala. I didn't expect that we will be walking on water the whole time. We just followed the river upstream. Few meters away from where we started was the first falls. Naa dayun kaambakan. Naa pa gyud bato nga medyo taas (6-8 ft) nga didto ka puede muaambak. Water was 15 ft. deep, mao nga dili na maklaro ang ilawom and of course water was freezing even if it was already high noon. We took a dip at this point and saw a snake on one of the stones. Padayun mi ug saka, until we've reached the next falls - duol ra pud. Here, we took our lunch. Nice pud ang setting kay naa na pud kaambakan. I even tried to put in the water the gatorade bottle that I brought kay di man bugnaw :) At this point also, is a rock that has a hole under where you can dive and swim to cross to the other side of the rock. Nalingaw ko paglabang nako kay layo akong naabtan nga mubo ra man diay ang labngon. Then after few dips, we moved pataas na pud. This time mas lisud ang agiaan. You really have to cling on the rocks and make sure that you're holding a safe one otherwise you'll fall into the big rocks under, and the rocks are slippery pud. Nice kaayo ang next falls. It's bigger and stronger and there are holes in the rocks under the fall where you can hide and catch part of the waterfall. Going into these holes is quite difficult and going down is much harder because the stones are slippery. After few minutes, we climbed again to go to the next falls. This time, the rocks are bigger and difficult to climb. There was one part where we had to cross by hanging on to the rocks while hanging. Medyo lisud ni siya nga part, plus gialalayan mi tanan in climbing kay way klaro nga mapatungan ang tiil. Then we have to jump from one stone to another para lang makapadayun. Then, viola! bigger falls, place is much wider and view of the creek is much nicer. If we still have to go higher daw, the creek is flat na kay this is sort of the top of the creek na.

This is one of the nicest adventure within the city that I did here in Cebu. Check my page at Yahoo! 360 for pictures

pipino juice

this is the drink that we ordered at lemon grass - the new vietnamese-thai restaurant at ayala entertainment center. food was great. we ordered spring rolls, tom yam thale, suon nuong (grilled spare ribs), and ga nuon voi ngu vi huong (grilled vietnamese chicken). for the drinks we had the ever delicious pipino juice. nope, it's not the real name. lily just made it up 'coz she did not see its name in the menu. well, it looks like a juice made of pipino...obvious ba? daghan kaayo ang slices sa pipino nga makita. it has slices of orange, lemon, cucumber and herbs. it tastes like lemonade with a touch of pipino :D and it comes in a big pitcher. hapit mi nahubog sa kadaghan kay tulo ra mi. they call it the "citrus & herb fresh juice" diay. you must try it.

the other picture is the paper placemat with the name of the restaurant written and somehow a drop of the pipino juice fell into it. right at the top of the grass. making it look like a tree. it won't be a lemon grass anymore, but a lemon tree.

Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet... :)

Viva! Pit Señor!

Viva! Pit Señor!
Originally uploaded by dongperez.

this is the dawn mass at the basilica minore for this years fiesta. the last time i went to this mass was 3 or 4 years ago. we did not experience a hard time looking for the spot in the pilgrim center. we took the back entrance of the center and we are a little bit earlier. i should have taken a shot of the ballons for the petitions but there wasn't enough space for me to get my phone. only after the communion that i was able to take the picture. while on the line, I saw alfon with his family few meters away. Viva! Pit Senyor!

rafting the south fork of american river

In the summer of 1998, I went rafting at the South Fork of the American River in Auburn, California. It was my second time to go whitewater rafting. The first one was few years back, where I promised that I won't do rafting again. But, here I am. Having fun with the water again. This time was different. It was more fun, except that I was too conscious and always ready with whatever will happen with the boat :)

scary or not?

We visited Davao Crocodile Park last December 29th, to find out that not only crocodiles live there but a lot of other animals. This one big snake was near the entrance together with some lories. We were almost done with our tour when this snake was taken out of its cage by the caretakers. Some foreigners had a group picture with the snake. When we saw them having the picture, we decided right away that we also want a picture with this big reptile. When the picture was taken for the foreigners, they were so quiet. But not us, we were screaming when the snake touched our laps... there was something inside the snake that is moving, some sort of solid object or maybe it was the snake breathing...muginhawa diay?

christmas tree at waterfront

time to party again... this time at a bigger place na gyud ang company party. i guess wala napuno ang pacific grand ballroom. this picture was taken after the party. this tree is always up every year i guess. i've seen it last year and i don't know why but i think it looks nicer this time. or mas nicer lang akong gisul-ob :D

drinks at mizu

drinks at mizu (waterfront) was so expensive that we ordered fruit juices and tea only :(
bisan ug dili maayo ang service for the food that we ordered, ok lang kay lami man :D