Warrior Pilgrimage

Featured in wwww.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on October 23, 2008

I WOKE UP FROM the incessant vibrations and alarms that my Nokia emitted. It was four at dawn, September 7, 2008. Looking beyond my window, I could see the somber sky developing gray overcast clouds that parlayed of an ominous rain coming. I have to rise from my warm bed, brave the the cold water from the pipe and take a quick shower and, from there, embrace the cold wind outside.

Ah, another round of trekking ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on September 6, 2008

IT WAS A PROMISING sunny Sunday and the clock fast ticking to six thirty in the morning. Already a Holy Mass at the Virgen de Guadalupe Parish is now past halfway to the “Amen” part as I passed by to take breakfast of two servings of sticky rice (puto maya) and a cup of hot steaming home-made chocolate at the back of the church here in Guadalupe, Cebu City.

Feeling refreshed, I went to the church parking ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on August 21, 2008.

I SAW TODAY, June 25, 2008, four agents of the Witness Protection Program of the Department of Justice (WPP-DOJ) escorting a government witness in their midst. They were armed each with 7.62 mm Galil assault rifles slung across their necks and 9 mm Jericho pistols inside their holsters complemented with enough ammo to hold to a standstill George Bush's boys in Iraq. Both fine firearms are made by the Israel Arms Industries ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on August 11, 2008.

THE YEARS 1992 TO 1998 were, without a doubt, my finest years as a mountaineer and an outdoor enthusiast. I was caught in a vortex of outdoor activities that my club, the Cebu Mountaineering Society (CeMS) have organized, starting from my initial climb at Mount Pangasugan in Leyte, which was very unforgettable, reaching a high crescendo with the ascent of the country’s highest peak in Mount Apo on 1994 and tapering ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on June 15, 2008

Hanging among the lime cliffs,
Beyond the copper-mine pits,
Found a hole upon a crack,
That stab through solid rock.

Barely squeezing myself into
This chimney from a cave below,
Battery-powered headlight on,
I slithered down a dark unknown.

Felt my adrenaline rush soar,
As I stood upon its rocky floor,
Hearing distant ripples of water, ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on July 1, 2008

WHEN I GO TO the trails that intruded into the jungle fastnesses of Cuernos de Negros Mountain Range I felt sheer excitement and my adrenalin rushes to a level that is way beyond my normal dose.

Ask me why?


It is simply because along its trails, there are many surprises lurking from within that you would not find in any other mountain range. You liked adventure, you'll find it there. I will ...

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on June 4, 2008

THE MOUNT DULANG-DULANG TO Mount Kitanglad traverse climb is still more than a month away yet it never escaped the attention of Doc Abe Manlawe, especially the physical conditioning of those who will compose the team that will assault the physically challenging trails of these two very high mountains located in Bukidnon Province in Mindanao.

Even as the Cebu Mountaineering Society (CeMS) is still in the middle ...