Foot and Fire

When one is past her infancy in travelling, she learns to choose her steps carefully because time has more meaning now than before. It is not about ticking off the number of items in the list anymore. It is more about retracing the steps taken and carefully trailing the steps to be taken because space takes on a different dimension now than before. April of last year, Osmena Peak of Dalaguete, Cebu colored my summer. The first thing you will learn while going up the Peak is that Dalaguete is not pronounced as Dumaguete. It is silent E as in palette. But of course, when you reach the peak, the first things you will experience are: Fresh air, summer breeze, ocean salt feel, grassy hills, rocky cliffs, pretty karsts, short and long climbs, provincial scenery all conspired to evoke country songs in my mind and the paintings of Amorsolo of fields and golden colors. While taking in everything, you will also think of a thousand enormous and tiny karsts of Halong Bay as well as Tam Coc ...

As part of our tour with Harold's Mansion, we went to Casaroro Falls located at Valencia town of Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. The hand-sketched map of our driver-guide says we have to descend 335 steps down the falls and have to hike for 35 minutes before we can see the falls. It is kind of manageable except, he did not say, we have to trail a moderately sloping way towards the entrance of the falls. We paid P10/pax for entrance. The boy did not warn us of the difficulty ahead; I just told him that three ladies, small-medium-and-large will be following us and I will already pay for their entrance fee. Then starts the 335 steps made of steel and some man-made steps which are quite manageable as there are handrails for safety. Upon our descent, the falls is nowhere to be seen yet. We changed into our bathing suits and continued to march on, clinging, jumping, skipping rocks of all imaginable sizes. We finished one stretch and made a turn to the left but we see no fal...

We took a jeep tour at Harold's Mansion to visit the placid twin lakes of Dumaguete called Balinsasayao and Danao. This is located in Sibulan town of Dumaguete. On our way from the signage below, we had an exciting roller coaster ride. The driver is such an expert and we had a four-wheel ride passing by the cliff and some almost one car at a time dirt road; most of the road we passed by is paved as a consolation. Some used habal habal or multi passenger motorcycle. Nevertheless, the experience is both breathtaking in positive sense that we have to watch coconut trees patterned in the mountains below us while the clouds dance in the skies of blue. Buth then, it was also a breathtaking experience in the sense that we were holding our breath as the jeep comes up and down in the sloping terrain. "The lakes are two small but deep crater freshwater lakes rising 1000 feet above sea level and separated by a narrow  mountain  ridge, situated in a hollow between fo...

The slight gush of wind,  the lush greeneries,  the white pebbles, the brownish rocks,  the bluish green shoreline and the blue waters. And my blue dress, picture perfect of me. Only in Apo Island, Dumaguete. From Dumaguete City, it is still a 30-minute ride going to another Dumaguete town called Zamboangita where the famed Malatapay market is located. Not far ahead from this market is the tourism office where one can rent boats to bring everyone to Apo Island. Crossing Apo Island is just a 10-minute boatride.  From shoreline to shoreline, the waters are at its best blue hue. To see is to believe, so here are the photos of the island waters.  This is not a watercolor painting. This is the waters ahead of us... Just one more shot of me. Thanks Anne. Free....... body and soul free. Anne, with the boatman.   The prime feature of Apo Island is its Coral Reefs Sanctuary where one can snorkel. I experienced that in 1999 and it...