The weather in Batanes is pretty hard to predict, owing largely to its remote location. It can be raining pretty heavily in Manila, but it’d be bright and sunny in Batanes. The typhoon that was ravaging the rest of the country that weekend was already on its way out when it entered the Philippine area of responsibility for the second time. It was too far to affect Batanes with heavy rains, but it still made an impact with the strong winds that blew through the town.
So what do you do when your vacation get rained in Batanes? You stay put and relax. Of course, you can try your luck to sightsee, but what’s the fun in doing that amidst the rain and the wind? And that’s how we spent the rest of Day 2 and the whole of Day 3 in Batanes. We caught up on sleep, and really rested — something we don’t really do when we go on our weekend jaunts. It was a refreshing change, and judging by the way everybody is snoring, it seems it was exactly what we needed.
The great thing about the rain and the drop in temperature though was that I was able to test how my Waypoint Softshell Jacket fared in the pouring rain. The wind was too strong, that I didn’t bother using my folding umbrella (it would just be a waste of a perfectly good brolly), so I settled to walking around the streets of Basco wearing my Columbia jacket to keep my upper body dry. My legs were another story though, and my shorts were soaked through. Luckily, it was my Clearlake Convertible Pants that I was wearing, so it wasn’t heavy even when wet and it dried quickly, thanks to the Omni-Dry technology.
We might have been rained out in Batanes, but thanks to it, we were able to enjoy the simple pleasures in life: great home cooked meals (courtesy of Melo and yours truly), sleeping in, running around in the rain, junk food, Cloud 9 and Big Bang chocolates.
My Columbia gear was given to me for the Mt. Daguldol hike. Since then, I have been wearing them whenever I travel (sometimes even when I just want to dress down). Now you too can give the gift of adventure! Log on to www.columbiaadventure.com, send out three postcards of either the Palawan Hornbill or the scenic Mayoyao. Doing so would help in educating the local Palawan and Mayoyao guides in the science of outdoor adventure and gearing up in Columbia Sportswear. As an added treat, you also get to bring home limited exclusive items from Columbia Sportswear.
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It was my first trip out of town with this group. It was even my first time to meet Phoebe and Ferdz, and my first time to really get to interact with AJ and Jayvee, whom I both met in previous events. It’s actually like a school field trip. You get to know the people you share your classes with outside of the classroom.
Also, just like field trips, there are those moments when you act really immature and take photos of people sleeping. XD (No, I’m not posting sleeping photos here because I’m not *that* evil. But you can see them over at my flickr or my multiply XD)
This was also my first real camping experience. The last time I slept inside a tent was the time my cousins and I stayed overnight at the cemetery during Halloween. We weren’t really roughing it because Halloween and All Saint’s Day in the Philippines is more like a huge outdoor party — there are long lines at the toilet and a Pizzahut kiosk right beside our tent. Prior to that was the camping we had for scouting back in grade school. We only camped inside the school grounds, and the school was only one street away from my house, so it wasn’t much of an experience. Though I think I did see a white lady in one of the classrooms… THIS was real camping though. With tents, camp stoves, peeing in the bushes. -_-
Dino’s Halo-halo
Then there’s the halo-halo. On the way back down to San Juan, we stopped by Mang Lizardo’s for halo-halo. One high-maintenance hiker who shall remain nameless ordered a high-maintenance halo-halo: no kamote, no munggo, no pinipig and only one scoop of sugar.
With Ricky, Columbia Sportswear’s Megamall branch manager
That started the teasing the high maintenance hiker got all the way back to Manila. Of course, this high maintenance hiker made things worse by commenting on the “local ice cream.” In fairness, masarap ang local ice cream! Remember, Creamline is the official ice cream of high maintenance hikers!
High maintenance hikers aside, there was one blogger who made a great display of his strenght during this climb. While everybody was huffing and puffing from the exertion, this blogger was huffing and puffing away on his cigarettes. Winner! He kept up a running commentary, even singing Broadway hits, which kept us entertained and kept our minds off from the strain of the hike. To further show off his manly prowess, this tough guy pulled our van out of the muddy ditch it got stuck in on the drive back to Laiya. It’s a shame nobody got a video of this amazing display of strength.
Another highlight for me was learning how to skip rocks! Though I still lack practice, I was able to get them to skip three times. Thanks for the lessons, Ferdz!
My 10,000th photo with the Ixus 75! (Pardon the cheesy poses)
It was also during this trip that I reached the 10,000th mark on my digital camera. It took me almost three years to reach 10,000 in my old A70, but with the Ixus 75, it only took seven months. I was initially planning some elaborate shoot to celebrate the 10K, but I’m glad that the 10,000th photo was a sort-of spontaneous happy shot. As my friend said, “at least it has someone wearing a shirt that says “I’m too horny.””
“Talaga? When?” I replied.
“April 4 -5. I’ll send you an invite tomorrow, I hope you’ll be able to join.” Joyce said in parting.
Hiking trip? Sounds interesting, I thought. But hiking? Up a mountain? I’ve hiked a couple of times before, but they’re mostly up a hill; nothing major. Should I try it again? I didn’t give Joyce my answer just yet — I had to think about this first.
How can you turn down an invite like this?
The following day, I came home to find a Columbia Wide Mouth water bottle on my desk. What a cute invite, I thought to myself. “We invite you to break away from the conundrum of routine and scale the heights of outdoor leisure in Mt. Daguldol, Batangas, considered as one fo the definitive climbs this side of the world. No, a strenous, extreme climb isn’t up ahead; but what we guarantee is excitement and exhilaration — in utmost leisure.” SOLD! I quickly text Joyce that I am accepting their invitation. She replied and tells me she’d text me again for the fitting and briefing schedule.
Fitting? :huh:
It turns out that Columbia Sportswear is providing five bloggers (AJ, Phoebe, Jayvee, Ferdz and me) with hiking apparel, including hiking shoes and backpacks. Sweet deal, I thought. And we only have to climb a mountain in exchange. AHAHAHAHAHAAA.
I love my Omni Dry convertible pants
I picked out items that I know I can also use when I travel: Clearlake Convertible Pants, Trailhead Master Tee, Masseuse on the Loose T-shirt, Waypoint Softshell Jacket, Graffiti Noshow Socks, Islander Print Water Shorts, Day Off Booney hat, Karasi hiking shoes, and the Wallowa Day Pack. Most of the items I picked out are from Columbia’s Titanium line, and advanced fabric and technologies like Omni-Dry (breathable quick dry fabric) and Omni-Shade (Ultraviolent Protection Factor clothing that blocks almost 97.5% of UV rays).
I was both excited and dreading this hike. I know it’s not going to be easy, but I know that I HAVE to do it. I know I have to conquer this mountain, because I know that I CAN do it — I can do whatever I set my mind to. And you know what? I did. Of course, not without much griping, complaining and bitching about the damned trail and ugh, the rain.
An orange insect with my
What I never complained about was the Columbia Sportswear items I have on. I’m not saying this because they sponsored me, but because they live up to their promise. The shirt and the pants I had on were really light and comfortable, even when soaked with sweat and rain. The hiking shoes has excellent traction, which made slipping and sliding down (or up, if you’re very talented) the mountain hard to do. Actually, even their hiking shoes are made of waterproof breatable material. Dino de Leon, Columbia’s brand manager, insisted I try dipping my Karasi clad foot in one of the streams we crossed. I was sceptical, but dipped my left foot anyway. I felt the coolness of the water, but there wasn’t that squishy feeling you get when your shoe is filled with water. Thanks to Columbia’s Omni-Tech, technology the shoe was able to keep the water from getting inside, while allowing perspiration to escape.
This breathable fabric is probably the reason why our clothes didn’t stink after the hike. All of us were amazed at how our sweat-stained Titanium shirts smelled like, well, fabric, when we changed out of them. Even our socks and feet didn’t stink at all! Wait, is this too much information already? 
Columbia Sportswear is exclusively distributed in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia by Kenrich International Distributor Corp. Columbia Sportswear have branches in Gateway Mall, SM Mall of Asia, SM Megamall, The Block at SM North, The Podium, Festival Mall, and Limketkai Mall Cagayan de Oro.
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