Wall Climbing @ Centro Atletico

Original plan was to wall climb in Rockwell Power Plant mall only to find out that the wall has long been gone, good thing there's a back up plan, we ended up doing it here in Centro Atletico, in North Rd. Cubao.

          

                           

                                              

It's not easy as it may seem.

This is Daivey on top of the game. 

That's Noel belaying. Included on the fees paid is the Belay Card, which serves like a license to belay, and before getting on, participants must go thru a brief orientation on what are the DO's and DONT's for this kind of activity. Orientation includes 'short course' on how to use the Belay Device, pretty interesting stuff.

     

Mt. Daguldol -- MACRO Madness

First Team Pahinga's outdoor trip, Mt Daguldol, is located in Laiya, San Juan Batangas. (Dec 12,2009)

Almost one year in the making, the plan to climb this mountain started as early as February of 2009, but due to schedule conflicts, we kept on postponing the climb, until it was moved to December.

We don't intend going on a night trek because none of us climbed this mountain before, but since we reached the jump off 7pm, and we'll be getting a guide anyway, we don't have to worry about getting lost in the dark trail so we pushed thru with the climb.

Initially, we considered spending the night at the beach, then proceed w/ the climb the following day, but its gonna be a boring day hike (with required local guide) so we decided to move along and do a night trek, we're up for the challenge.

Good thing about this climb is that we were able to cool down after almost a 3 hour trek going down by having a refreshing dip on the beach.

The Beach

Team pics

Naambon falls

And did I say MACRO Madness . . . The following photos were taken from the camp site of Mt. Daguldol 

Photos were taken using a regular lens (18-55mm Kit lens) plus a reversed 50mm 1.8f lens, no special effects or expensive MACRO lens and MACRO lightings were used on these. It was an over cast day and the camp site was still almost engulfed in fog.

Borawan Island

‎"It's a dangerous business, - going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet...

There's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

-- Bilbo Baggins

Fellowship of the Ring

Borawan Island located in Padre Burgos, Quezon, some 4 or 5 hours drive from Manila.

Sunset on our way to the island via a fishing boat. We left Manila exactly 12 noon, and took us forever to reach Padre Burgos fish port where our boat man Mang Otoy was waiting for us to ferry us to the island.

As per our guide/boatman, the name Borawan was derived from Boracay having the same white sand and Palawan for the rock formations, and same pristine waters of both. Well I haven't been to Boracay, but as for me, i think the white sand part has been a bit of exaggeration. Its white sand, yes, but with shells and pebbles, not as fine as Boracay's I think.

Took us around 30mins to get to the island, from Padre Burgos fish port. 

Sunrise 

Rock walls and rock formations ideal for rock climbing and bouldering.

Luscious Green

Padre Burgos is a gateway to several islands to explore, like Dampalitan island which is like 30-45mins boat ride from Borawan. We went to Dampalitan Island 2 or 3 months after exploring Borawan Island, sadly, I think I lost the photos so I dont think I can include it on my blogs. You can also explore some other spots like Puting Buhangin (White Sand) and Kwebang Lampas.