Ironwulf En Route
Ever since the workshop started we’ve been waking up earlier than the sun. We were joking most of the time that we’ve managed to accomplish a lot before 9am (when one of the participant’s alarm would start ringing) than on a usual day. Even on the last day of our workshop, we had to wake up a tad earlier. We noticed that the days are longer here in Batanes, by 5am we could already see the sky light up. So by 4:40am, our jeep was already rolling towards Valugan Bay.
Basco Lighthouse, Cliffs and Sea
Aside from finding the range of accommodations in Basco and also discovering places to eat, I spent a lot of my time in Batan Island just chilling out and wandering around. It was after a 4 day of assignment so I didn’t really want to pressure myself to produce as many photos as I needed. I decided to be experimental this time and set my camera to monotone mode and capture Batanes in monochrome hues. At different times of the day, I go to these places walking distances from Basco center and just sit there for at least an hour and just be amazed at this wondrous creation.
Basco Lighthouse Moonshine
Ironwulf.net and the SEAIR Adventure Club is giving away two round-trip SEAIR tickets to Basco, Batanes. All you have to do is leave a comment in here at SEAIR starts flights to Batanes telling us why you love Batanes by Sunday, 20 April 2008 at 8:00 p.m. Make sure you place your full name in the name field since you will need a valid ID to claim the tickets if you win. The winner will be drawn at random and will be notified by e-mail so make sure you double check your e-mail address before submitting your comment. Finally, one entry per IP address so only the first entry from each IP address will be counted. Tickets will be valid from now until 15 October 2008. Good luck!
UPDATED:
Our Batanes ticket raffle got 396 comments posted before the 8 p.m. deadline last Sunday, April 20, 2008. Members of the SEAIR Adventure Club met Tuesday to draw the winning comment. To do this, each comment was numbered 001 to 396. The draw was done lotto style. Three piles of numbers were made, the first pile had the numbers 0 to 3, while the second and third pile had the numbers 0 to 9. And the winning number is 190 which is the comment of William Gilbert Agravante. Congratulations, you just won two round-trip SEAIR tickets to Batanes!
But since we enjoyed reading your comments, we’ve decided to give one round-trip ticket to the best comment with the word “SEAIR” in it. And that comment belongs to Dorcas Juliette Ramos. Congratulations on your graduation! You win one round-trip ticket to Batanes! To both our winners, please wait for the notification e-mail on how to claim your tickets. And to all those who joined, don’t fret since we have another one! So watch out for it.
On the road to Chavayan
Ooops! I just realized I still have a lot of back log from my travels. So in between the China posts, I’ll be posting entries from those recent local travels as well. I thought it would add variety and hope not to cause confusion on continuity. This entry is another one of my favorite places in our country, Batanes. Same trip brought to you by the cool guys at Geiser Maclang and Epson Philippines. And probably one of the most memorable events as well.
Cape Bolinao Lighthouse in Patar. Taken with Nokia N82
I’ve always wanted to add a multimedia feature on my blog. In fact, I announced early last year that I would be doing an Ian Wright thing and present some of my travels in a video documentary feature. That may not be too far off the future. For now, here’s my very first video-log on our recent family outing in Bolinao, Pangasinan. Somehow this is also a bit sentimental since after more than 5 years, our whole family is together on this vacation since one of my sister in Canada and another from the USA decided to come home. Video after the jump.
I know a lot of people would ask, “Why the hell would you want to go to Basilan?” I mean, with all the bad publicity it’s getting because of the Abu Sayaff years back, the place had a negative notion of always being in a state of strife. I myself couldn’t believe stepping on this part of the country as it is the last place on my list. But since one of my travel buddy and fellow photography enthusiast wanted to visit this part of the region since he has seen most of the major areas in the Philippines, I thought, why not, so I tagged along with other 7 adventurous individuals and ventured where only the daring go.
May is already here and we only have a month left to enjoy the summer. Let’s go local this time, as I want to share another destination perfect for sun worshipers raring for a natural tan. I have been hearing about this place quite a lot lately especially from the mountaineering community. And when a fellow mountaineer from MFPI, Ruby, suggested to go to this place I immediately cleared the dates a month ahead. Just a few weeks before the actual trip, I was already excited. I haven’t been to a beach for quite a while. And last weekend, we finally got to explore the Cove of Anawangin in Zambales. Was it worth the hype?
