checking in!

I think this is the by-product of not having a major trip, i.e. a long and expensive trip abroad, for the year: I’m constantly looking for mini-trips during weekends LOL. Or maybe these are just signs of aging, like you want to do more “extra-curricular” stuff if possible. So as part of that, my friends and I went to Batangas last month to eat at my friend’s new restaurant (I ate like there’s no tomorrow).

Since we’re already in Lipa, might as well stay the night and snorkel in our go-to house reef, Dive and Trek in Bauan. It was my best snorkeling trip in the marine sanctuary to date! I don’t know what happened since last year that changed the layout of the reef, but dang, to see that many big-eyed jacks blew my mind. And there are a lot of clown fish this time around. So happy! Sadly my new gear (Tribord mask and my own fins that I have yet to baptize) did not arrive before this trip. And I forgot my underwater camera, geez. Good think my friend (who's a better swimmer than I) brought hers.

Early this month we also trekked at Tinipak river in Tanay, Rizal. We went on a weekday because this is a pretty popular destination (apparently they register around 300 hikers per day on weekends O_O). The river trek can be done within one hour but obviously in our case we took more than that because we took a lot pictures and chatted a lot along the way. And I finally was able to go spelunking again! And swim inside the cave! The trek usually comes at the tailend of a hike to the summit of Mt. Daraitan but uh, I do not climb mountains (unless there's a waterfall on the way?). And apparently it's already an assault at the beginning according to our guide so...pass.

I brought my GoPro this time around but it acted up, so ugh maybe it's time to buy a new action camera.