Warrior Pilgrimage

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on October 8, 2010

IT IS SO HOT today. A perfect Sunday for training. Camp Red takes the trail of Napo to the Babag Mountain Range. Coming along is Dr. Abe Manlawe who is preparing himself for the Mount Apo climb with the Cebu Mountaineering Society come June. It is May 23, 2010.

I am the trail master for today. Boy Toledo and Ernie Salomon will assist me and we will have two low-frequency handheld radios for this occasion. New ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on January 22, 2011

I STARED AT THE far expanse of the metropolis and all its neighboring islands as I stood on the ridge of the Babag Mountain Range. It's just another regular Sunday for me hiking alone on the trails. It is September 6, 2009 and this is my twenty-fifth session here. Oh, I just arrived yesterday from Iloilo, crossing two bodies of water – the Guimaras and Tañon straits – and a whole day of travelling by bus over the great Panay ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on November 8, 2009

IT IS FATHER'S DAY, June 21, 2009.

I am going up to Mount Babag today and I am alone.

Yeah, alone...

...again.

I have no problem walking alone. I find good therapy in the silence and I love the sound of my voice. I talk to myself. Yes, hum a song. Imitate a bird call. That's what you do when you're bored.

From my home, I rode a public jitney in the ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on December 8, 2009

AFTER AN ABSENCE OF more than a month, I am reunited again with Boy Toledo, of Ernie Salomon and, later, with Manwel Roble. Here we are again, maintaining our physical conditioning program walking the mountain trails of Napo to Mount Babag in the middle of an ongoing tropical depression! Just three has-beens so madly in love with these trails. The same three has-beens that would shame guys 25-30 years our junior in a test ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on July 1, 2009

THE FORTHCOMING TRIP to Mount Talinis in Negros Oriental on April 3 to 6, 2009 goaded the Cebu Mountaineering Society to consider training at the trails of Napo and Mount Babag, here in Cebu City's own backyard which they scheduled on March 8, 15 and 29. They tapped me and Boy Toledo to do the honors of preparing the itinerary of the training climb.


“Good morning Philippines! Wake up!” These words screamed ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on March 15, 2009

ONE WEEK PASSED by and here I am again this 11th day January 2009 on the trail to Mount Babag, 752 meters above sea level, to eagerly partake of a day-off and go training again with Boy Toledo, Sam Lim and Ernie Salomon. We are, what you call the regulars of this area, the early morning risers of every Sunday, the most committed and active individuals who loved what they're doing and who never cared about the politics of how ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on February 20, 2009

THE URGE TO SHED off the extra poundage I have accumulated in the short span of November 29, 2008 to January 3, 2009 pushed me to go backpacking again to the trails of Mount Babag on January 4. The food prepared on the eve of New Year's Day and after, I have eaten to my heart's delight like there was no tomorrow, were now taking its toll. Besides, I need to sweat out those firecracker smokes which I inadvertently inhaled ...