Be Careful When Climbing Coral Formations

I always thought of corals as beautiful mansions where the fishes and creatures of the sea live and thrive!

They can be deadly din pala!

Here are the blisters I got while climbing ahuge coral formation in Puerto Galera! They are very slippery pala so it's hard to get a solid footing, tapos they have numerous tinny-tiny sharp points which you can feel on you ass as you sit on the coral or in your hands when you touch them!

Since nakashorts ako, my legs were exposed so pag nadulas sa coral, ayun, sugat sugat ang peg!

So ingat ingat din pala when you want to climb on corals for that summer photo you want to show off to friends!

Exotic Summer Food: Halo-Halo with Breast Milk (only in Puerto Galera)

Mainit ba kamo ngayon sa labas? Gusto mo magpalamig?

The Beautiful Sun Sets in Puerto Galera!

A trip to the beach is not complete without the compulsory beach sunset photo!

Almost missed my chance but was just in time to snap this one!

Sunsets like these only happen in the Philippines!

A Picture Atop A Coral Formation in Puerto Galera!

This is my most favorite picture of the summer of 2015!

And just like many favorite pictures of ours, it wasn't particularly easy to get this one. Apparently, there was this huge coral about five meters from where our banca was anchored. Manong boatman suggested to us to swim to it and have our pictures taken there.

Well, easier said than done!

The coral was huge and its topmost part was almost jutting out. It was also big enough to accommodate the six of us. Problem is, nobody told genius me that corals are deceptively slippery and that on its crevices lived the sea urchins with their menacing long black spines! Also, marami syang sharp edges which sadly caused some blisters on my knees and hands.

Since I had my goggles on while swimming towards the coral, I could see the sea urchins (which added to me freakin out!). And I was really struggling to get my footing on the coral since it was just freaking slippery! Also, since I hadn't done yoga or Body Balance for months, my core strength and balance was very poor so what would have taken me 5 seconds in a more coordinated body took me almost a minute!

Butete me has many things to do in the gym!

Buti na lang, JR (our cute young boatboy), waited for all of us to settle down before he took a plethora of pictures. This though was the best amongst all of them!

Snorkeling and Beach Hopping at Puerto Galera

We Filipinos are spoiled for choice because every beach destination we go to has island hopping and snorkeling as their activities! The same is true at Puerto Galera.

However, I would have to go back to FF Aura and do some serious lapping before I go on another beach trip. As you can see from the pictures, all of my friends were having great fun in the sea, while I was barely struggling keeping myself afloat!

I think the last time I snorkeled was 7 years ago and I was like 40 pounds lighter! Anyhow, I tried first doing it without the life vest but I realized I haven't lapped for months so my endurance at floating was very poor!

I was shocked to find myself struggling to reenter the banca! Buti na lang, manong and his son, JR (more on him later) were very helpful to me because everytime I had to reenter the boat, they'd lift up my whole body since my upper body was very weak. Kainis! Now I know which part of my body to really work out when I go back to Manila!

I decided to wear my life vest para naman mas relaxed ako and since I haven't swam in months, my hand and feet coordination was very poor. So note to myself - if planning on going to beach destination - do laps in the pool the week before just to reawaken that part of my body and brain!

How To Get The Best Digs at Puerto Galera On Your Budget!

Our modest digs with a view of the blue horizon separating the Puerto Galera sky and the sea. If you're just traveling with friends and are patient enough to look for the most reasonably priced yet comfortable digs, you can get a tout as soon as you arrive there and he or she will show you around.

Rule of thumb is, the nearer the inn or hotel to the center, the more expensive it is. So that weekend, those at the center cost 3000 pesos (for 3 or 4 people) per night while those at the fringes (on the sides) cost 2000 pesos per night. We got the one near the leftmost part of the beach and at 600 plus per person per night, it was a good deal!

There's an aircon and cable TV (they have French and Spanish channels hurrah!) and the toilet was clean, sunlit and airy. The room we got was spacious as well, we can actually do our Body Jam there!

Also, the restos and the beach was just 10 meters away so it was perfect!

Never Too Old To Travel and Explore!

Thank you to my newfound friends (and old ones as well), I have begun to get out of my comfort zone ever so slowly this 2015. And the funny thing is, one can actually do it, even if one is getting more advanced with age!

Last week, I drove out of the gates of Metro Manila for the first time, and this week, I will ride again a bus to a point somewhere in Luzon. For other people, it might seem unremarkable, but the last time I did that was in 1990, for a Humanities school project, and we went to Floridablanca to interview some manghihilot.

Between 1990 and 2015, I never cared to ride a bus to any point in Luzon! Such was my apathy for this island even after living in Manila for 27 years! I felt like the characters I saw in Sex and the City who saw Manhattan as the center of the world and that going to Connecticut or New Jersey, was like going to outer space! Sadly, I was that person as well.

Don't get me wrong. I love the Philippines, and I have been lucky to have lived (not traveled lang!) in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Not many Filipinos can make a claim to that. It's just that my family and I had been traveling and moving around for so long that when we finally settled in Manila, even if I was at the prime of my youth then, I was too lazy to explore Luzon.

But I guess, it's never too late. It's not going to be easy since I have to work it around the school schedules and my work as well. Thanks to Facebook, I get the added inspiration to see all of your travel pictures, especially the ones in Luzon, since those are the places I would really love to see!

Amazed at How Big and Bustling Batangas Port Is

I've always had a love/hate relationship with ports. You'd have to remember that in the 70s and 80s, only the upper middle class and rich people could afford riding in planes. PAL was a virtual monopoly before so they could dictate any price they wanted.

So families like ours, who had to travel around Luzon, Cebu and Mindanao, took the boat. And my first recollection of a pier was a scary one! I was just five years old, and it was 1976, and I remember being afraid of falling into the cracks of this wooden pier! Papa was walking so fast kasi and I had to keep up with him!

That was in Kolambugan in Lanao del Norte and we had to take the boat to cross to Ozamiz. I even remember riding a boat to Iligan before where Muslims and Christians were segregated! And the food was terrible! It was stale pork and beans huhuhu

So when I saw the modern-day Batangas port, I was pretty impressed! I had so many bad memories of stinking and crowded ports that today's generation is so lucky not to experience anymore what I had to experience as a young person!

Well, a lot of improvements can still be done to make it safer and more convenient for everyone but at least, it doesn't look like the 1920s Chungking port!

They have to do something though with the boats going to Puerto Galera since it's not very PWD or elderly friendly!! It would be tough to bring Mama along because even if the weather is fine, the sea is not calm!! I think she'd have a hard time maintaining her balance as the boat sways from left to right!

The planks are too small, as well, so big people like me have to be very very careful, otherwise, man overboard!

A Banca Towing Another Banca: Only in the Philippines

Only in the Philippines would you experience a banca towing another banca! Sa dinami-dami ng bangkang pagpipilian going to Puerto Galera, we picked the one that was almost a dud!

Actually, Vic already warned me about these boats but just like any Pinoy who just throws caution to the wind, we just shrug off these concerns and think of them as hazards of living in the Philippines! Of course, being stranded in the middle of the sea in a boat with a dud engine is not really my idea of a good way to start a weekend on the beach!

But it did happen to us! You would hear the engine of the boat just straining itself too much to the point that it was exerting so much effort but you could feel that the boat was only moving at 1mm per hour. Yeah, that's millimeter - and the boat is at the mercy of the waves!

Of course, you can see in all the passengers faces that this was nothing alarming and the boat crew were really looking busy trying to make it appear that everything was ok. Well, around 5 kilometers from the beach of Puerto Galera, a boat from a rival company, mercifully towed us, yes that picture there is that boat towing us to the safe sands of Puerto Galera.

Nakakaloka talaga!

The Splendid Barasoain Church in Malolos Bulacan

I'm actually a bit jealous of kids today because traveling around the Philippines is much easier and much cheaper - so what they actually learn from their history books, they can actually see when they go on vacation!!!

Which brings me to our trip today to Malolos, Bulacan, a historical town barely an hour away from the Trinoma mall in Quezon City. Grabe, I have lived in Manila for almost 3 decades and this is the first time I've visited this town!

It's also the first time I've driven out of Manila! I've been spoiled rotten for years having a driver or Vic to drive me outside of Manila - because they won't let me drive - they call me narcoleptic! And that can be dangerous for long driving!

Anyway, I finally saw the Barasoain Church in Malolos! A place that played a very important role when our country was still young and trying to form some semblance of a government. That was shortlived, as we all know, and it would take almost another 50 years before we finally got our independence!

The picture below was probably the best from the several I took. We couldn't go down since the parking area was full (it was around 5:30PM on a Sunday!) and horror of horrors - they have no exit!! At least when there's still a mass!! No logic or reason as to how they allow traffic to move inside their church compound!

I would love to see the museum and the interior of the church at a more opportune time. They also have a bigger and more impressive Cathedral nearby. What I've noticed as well is that the roads of Malolos are well-cemented - in other words, wiz lubak!! Mother Ignacia, which I traverse everyday is a sorry comparison to how smooth my driving was in Malolos! At least we know that their taxes are really going where it should!

I Wish the Rest of the Peaceful Loving Muslims Weren't So Quiet

My friend Midler offered world peace and harmony as his intention for the fifth mystery of the rosary we were praying last night. I added, firepower to fight around 250 million militant Muslims who want to kill the rest of humanity and destroy our peaceful way of life. (This is based on estimates by different intelligence agencies around the world, who say that around 20% of the Muslim population of the world want to destroy the beauty of the human race and impose on everyone their demonic way of life - instead of respecting people for their unique individuality and diversity!)

I am actually waiting for the rest of the worldwide peaceful loving Muslim community to really take a stand and do something about it! How can they just do nothing while the rest of their fellow Muslims behead aide workers helping refugees in Syria, kill defenseless college students in Kenya, and kidnap young female high school students from their school in northern Nigeria to use as para-usan ng pagka-sex maniac nila! It's sickening talaga na there are people like that using the name of God or Allah as an excuse for murder and terror!

It's really about time the world takes a stand against these crazies and lunatics and send them to kingdom come.

I fear that if the peaceful loving people in the world will do nothing, the same situation in Germany in World War II will happen - and we all know what happened when the Nazis were swept to power, while the peaceful loving people of Germany (and the rest of Europe) just watched in silence.....