I read somewhere that once in your life, if you are lucky, you will meet that person who will forever divide your life into the time before you met him or her, and the time after. Such is the impact of that person in changing your life. This 2012, it was not a person for…
It was quiet, very quiet. All around me dark mahogany trees rose to the sky. I basked in the silence as I walked around and admired thick trunks and roots flowing like tiny rivers. The occasional patches of sunlight breaking through the canopy made the silent forest all the more magical. It was so beautiful…
It was my first official day of traveling solo in my 7-week backpacking adventure. Feeling excited and just a little scared, I bade goodbye to my friends bound for Manila while I headed to the port in Ubay, Bohol, with boat trips to Hilongos, Leyte. From Hilongos I would be taking a van to Tacloban…
Before my recent trip to Bohol, I only knew of Jagna as the location of the port in Bohol for boats from Camiguin and Cagayan de Oro (CDO). Now I have come to know Jagna as a place of beautiful beaches and mountains, and of course, delicious calamay made with lots of love. Just a…
I watch as strong, sure arms stir the sweet-smelling, sticky, dark brown mixture in a kawa, a cookware resembling a wok but almost one meter in diameter. The arms belong to a young man named Ruben, who has been preparing calamay (pronounced ka-la-MAhY) almost daily for three years now. Sweat is trickling down his face,…
Tomorrow I am going off on a seven-week backpacking trip all over Visayas. To say that I am bursting with excitement mixed with just a little fear at my first long and mostly solo travel is an understatement. In every trip I took, the longest of which was nine days so far, there was always…
Traveling Light 