Medellin, luv at first sight

slept like a baby during my entire flight from Miami to Medellin. cuz it’s been more than 25+ hrs of planes, airports, and terminal exchanges. lucky not to be flying on coach this time or i’d seriously turn to a top-class whiner biatch. it’s been almost 3hrs and pilot has just announced plane’s final descent. and voila!!! woke up to an incredibly gorgeous view of rolling hills and charming city perched on a valley. wooow! had no idea about Colombia’s 2nd biggest city – Medellin. obvi, i didn’t do my homework and read nothing for this trip. just packed my stuff and took off. if you’d mention to me Colombia – i can only come up with 4Cs in my head – coffee(!), Cali Salsa, captivating Colombianas, and coke (!!!). but never had i imagined it to be such a beautiful city. it’s a shame that my knowledge of this city i’m about to explore is obviously as good as nothing. hopefully, my buddy, J, whom i’m visiting here, can introduce me to this beautiful city! ohmygawd!!! i haven’t even explored it yet, and i’m already luvin’ it from above <3 even my (apparently) cute seatmate who’s seated by the window didn’t manage to contain to himself and said, “nice, yeah?”. i let it slide cuz he’s american and it’s understandable if the only adjective he can afford is “nice”. “stunning!”, i replied. he’s nice though after few small talks and exchange of name cards and whatsapp numbers, he offered his seat to me so i can have a better view of the city. i gladly accepted the offer, of course! woooohooo!!! lush green hills some even kissing hovering low clouds, streaks of sunlight casting to the greater part of the valley, and seamless mix of old and new buildings sprawling from the foot of the valley to top. it’s so beautiful…so poetic! <3 can’t wait to land and explore the city, ahora!!! splendid times ahead! yay!   (drafted aboard Spirit)

leafing another page

wanna be cheeky last night and greet him, “happy annivs! thanks for givin’ me back my life!”. but I thought otherwise, cuz i remembered dry humour is not for everyone and he’s not proficient with my second language, sarcasm.

besides, after that bomb was dropped which i actually thought i won’t be able to survive or would leave me such an ugly scar, life has been nothing but beautiful adventures! made several bold grown-up decisions (i’m proud of), and gone through slow sweet steps of metamorphosis <3

is it really 17 mile drive?

it’s the beginning of Fall, and here in NorCal, temperature could drop us low as 50°F (10°C), not considering yet the wind chill. brrrrr. and the tropical specie me finds it hard to move my arse off the bed. but it’s a beautiful day, and driving to Monterey all the way to Big Sur looks sweet! sun is out and temperature is mild at 70°F (21°C). double-clad with pullover and warmer, braved the drive along Highway 1 with D.

17-mile Drive is a very scenic drive along the coast of Monterey Peninsula from Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach. A rugged coastline of granite and white sand beach, dotted with weathered Giant Kelps, Cypress and Ghost trees that add charm to the beauty of the restless sea. the entire stretch allows you to commune with nature to give you that requisite respite from the city’s chaotic jungle.

today’s drive to Big Sur

art of cairn, yeah gotta show it off

seated next to a Western Gull overlooking the seal and sea lion-covered Bird Rock

cabbie, music and me

arrived 2hrs late of my ETA in MNL and had to take an airport cab back to makati. it’s been a looong day of airport stuff, connecting flights and yes delayed flights and long queue in PI’s immigration, with a trace of hangover from my day-long cocktail drinking with friends in BKK for a quick catch up, so i’m a li’l pesky, to say the least, when i hopped on the cab.

but to my amusement, the cabie had a good taste for music and his set-up is actually neat for an airport cab. it’s Up Dharma Down’s “OO” playing, and i suddenly realized how i missed listening to real good local music. lead guitar, bass, percussion and the vocals complete the magic of UDD’s music! do you remember the last time when you got actually transcended away from all your cares by music? 

Cabbie’s playlist also included “sana”, “taya”, “thinker”, “tadhana” (oh boy!!! do i luv it?) and so on and so forth jumping from “fragmented” to “bipolar” to “capacities” albums in random order. 

it’s a good 20min drive and all i can think of is how i wanna be alone in my room and play in my itunes more lovely music like that. i miss those days when i would start and end my day with my Sennheiser HD 598 headphones on (had to drop what it is as it’s real steal for its power btw!) and just get lost with the richness and beauty of music of whatever genre. was so deep in it, i came to understand soundstage when a song plays. have you had that? that feeling when you can actually visualize the music coming through your headphone? :-) soooo good you can see it. sooo good, you can taste it :-)

“Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can’t.” 
― Johnny Depp

back from oblivion

hello!!!!

the past three and a half years have been a journey. and i know how delinquent i got in visiting my crib. it’s not fair cuz in the past years, i had soooo many beautiful adventures i can only wish now i have blogged right away.

but then again, hey! not that i have more time now in my hands, but i wish not to visit this again without anything to remind me how my week, or my month or my year of chasing dreams was.

so, let’s sit a spell once more and take the ride! <3 

what anomalous Php 10B Pork Barrel Fund can do

Project: Bonifacio Global City Stormwater Detention Tank
Location: Burgos Circle
Purpose: Detain Excess Stormwater underneath before it is pumped out to Pasig River to minimize if not prevent flooding on streets and overflowing of dams/ rivers.
Project Cost: Php 60-65M
Misused Pork Barrel: Php 10B
Project Duration: 8 mos.

With the Php 10B PDAF misused by numerous Legislators both in Upper & Lower Houses thru these hoax NGOs (particularly that of Napoles’ JLN), we could have had:

153 Stormwater Detention Tanks around Metro Manila!!!

Hello Pres. Noynoy Aquino (P-Noy)??!! Filipinos wanted to see your “tuwid na daan”. We demand these Legislators and their minions to be held accountable for misuse of taxpayers’ money! Please grab them by the balls, and ensure every single cent is accounted for!!! We are counting on you on this!

– screenshots from ANC (Abs-Cbn) vid clip

– orignally posted here:

Attempt to Helping Tarsier Conservation

One of Bohol’s tourist attractions is visiting tarsier in its natural habitat. Though it’s my 6^th time in Bohol, we’ve frequented that one in Loboc. And quite frankly, I wasn’t happy at all seeing this endangered specie removed from its natural habitat, altered its natural behavior and held captive in a cage. This does not actually help in the conservation measures of Tarsiers.

So this Easter, when P said he wanted to see the famed smallest primate, I proposed to go to Tarsier Sanctuary, in Corella. It’s a natural environment abounding with trees and bushes protected and managed by Tarsier Foundation. Their doors are open from 9AM to 4PM. They showed us an hour video first on how they carry-out their protection/ conservation program and taught us how to be a responsible Sanctuary guest. (Hop here for heaps of information).

We went inside the Sanctuary with 4 more people on a guided tour (they try to keep a very small group per guide). The tour guide alone can interact with the tarsier, it being territorial, solitary and extremely sensitive to noise, we were showed where the tarsiers are resting / sleeping. That day we were told they found 4 Maomag (tarsiers’ local name) among 88 others (if I remember it correctly). P and I respected their habitat and hardly spoke during the visit except for the occasional whispered woows and amazement =) He took only few photos as he was just happy to see how tiny they are, how enormous their eyes are compared to their body and how their tails are really long relative to their height. We even witnessed one that leaped from one branch to another and how it used its tail to balance itself after the jump. It was waaaay too cute =)

We would have stayed longer and just ogle to the little creatures but since it’s just the 1^st leg of our motobiking day, we took off and left the Sanctuary moved and with the understanding how we can help to keep it from extinction.

We were heading to our last stop of the day, Chocolate Hills Complex, right after the arch that welcomes all Carmen town visitors, P suddenly stopped and spoke to a woman carrying a green net with her. I sped past thru them until I realized P wasn’t following so I went back to see what was he up to on the side street.

Voila! The woman he was talking to was selling him a live tarsier captured in her tiny net basket. He was so perplexed to see that this woman was selling the tarsier on broad daylight, on the street, without a trace of shame on her face at measly Php 500. So he was talking to the woman that it’s illegal to sell it, and was telling her to return it to the wild. The woman even had the nerve to say that they didn’t steal it and that her son caught it in the forest to be taken care of by its buyer. He thought of buying it so he can return it to the wild but we talked about it that we don’t want to be caught by the authorities with it on our way to the wild and that we don’t want to patronize such practice. So we told her we will be back and immediately left the woman. We went straight to the foot of Chocolate Hill Observation Deck and reported what we saw to the men at the Barangay Outpost. We said the woman is just on the street about 500-800m away with the Tarsier. But to our surprise the men told us that it was a normal practice there to sell it and they added there was no harm done to us. Disappointed and frustrated, we went up the hill and saw a Tourist Police Outpost and narrated again what we saw downhill. Relieved to finally have somebody understood our concern and this the man in uniform took his bike right away and called one of his colleagues and went straight to where we said the woman is.

We really hoped, they’d be able to catch her and teach her that selling Tarsier is strictly prohibited. However, after we climbed up the 200+ steps to the Observation Deck, we were advised by the police officers that they didn’t find the woman anymore. Their efforts were futile as the woman maybe was able to sell it already or maybe she realized we will be reporting her to the Policemen and hid somewhere already.

Before we hopped on our motobikes again, we can’t relinquish the thought that maybe we should have dealt with it differently. We should have let the woman go with us on our motorbike and brought her to the Police Station to report her right away. Maybe just maybe, we’re able to save one tarsier right there and then.

I saw how disappointed he was specially, knowing that this illegal practice can go on right below the town residents’ very nose. We both agreed next time we would be more vigilant and more decisive.

How about you? Would you have done it differently? How can you help in Tarsier’s conservation? I don’t know about you, but one thing for sure, there’s Tarsier Foundation who began a good work somewhere in the small town of Corella, Bohol.

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Tarsier Sanctuary is only 28.6 km Northeast from Alona Beach, and 14km Northeast of Tagbilaran City.

Sanctuary’s entrance fee is P50/hd that is used to help fund conservation advocacy of the Foundation.