Video of Taal Volcano Dayhike

While rummaging through old files I found footage of our hike in Taal Volcano. I pieced the clips together using Youtube's Video Editor which I found to be useful and intuitive. Forgive the background music, Youtube only allows the use of stock audio; you might as well just turn the volume down.

There are 101 reasons why this video is awful and I don't know why I'm even posting it here. EDIT: Because it took me an hour to make the video, haha. There are no labels except the title, and I left all but one of the original clips untrimmed.

Uber Fun Taal Volcano Dayhike

Here's a bit of fact you probably do not know: that volcano looking thing at the back side of the P50 bill isn't Taal Volcano itself - it's technically part of the volcano but it's not where the main crater is. It's called Binintiang Malaki (Big Leg), a dormant crater which was the center of the 1707 and 1715 eruptions. It sits on the edge of Volcano Island, and at present, no established trail leads to its crater because of its steep slopes. The main attraction in the island, the main crater which has a lake in the middle is further inward. An small island sits in the middle of the crater lake - and this is what our tourism ads refer to as an island within a lake (the crater lake), within an island (the Volcano Island) within a lake (Taal Lake), which is within an island (Luzon).

The Heartache that was Bulusan

Team Bulusan: Pau, Adel, John, Ruth, Aris, Sir Frank, Analene, Gen, Me, JB

This was perhaps, the longest, continuous travel I ever took on a single vehicle. I crouched on a cramped bus seat, feeling a plethora of unpleasant sensations - hunger, boredom, numbness. We have already reached the province of Sorsogon - a butt-aching ride of 14 hours, but Irosin was still two hours away. I couldn't count how many times I uttered, "Ang tagal naman!" I was so relieved when we finally arrived in Irosin that I wanted to kiss the ground.

Journey to Mt. HibokHibok, Camiguin: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Uh oh, dark clouds.

We were supposed to climb Mt. Apo on December 26, 2012. Everything seemed to have been set, I‘ve arranged a guide and two other hikers have responded to my facebook invite. Then an unwanted guest named "tropical depression Quinta" came and it was but prudent to cancel the climb. There’s no way, I thought, that I’m leaving Mindanao without scaling a single summit. After New Year the skies appear to have cleared up so I eagerly scheduled a trip to Camiguin to climb the famed Mt. HibokHibok. Again, everything was set – guides and all. Then typhoon Auring came, a little too early. I started to feel that my buttocks are one huge Mongolian blue spot [haha, Google that!].