First Hike!

Let me just start off that last Feb 10 we almost died. Kidding aside I had my first major hike in a day. Mt. Mariveles was quite challenging yet so rewarding. Never thought I'll push through with something like this. Thanks to my good friend Mico for pushing me though.

Yes, I'm definitely one of those people who are amazed by my friends' IG photos in the mountains and all but never would imagined I'll be able to actually go up and be so game to risk my life. It wasn't all smiles and IG feed goals up there!

For some of us it was our very first hike. And maybe our last? Jk. Anyway, we left Manila at around 12-1 and set our journey to Bataan. Arrived around 3-4am to start our day hike. So took us 3-4 hours travel time to get there.

It was freezing cold when we got off our Van. Shaking and all we then prep up by turning on our flashlights and had our 'lil prayer before heading out to the wild. While walking, we were accompanied by ocean wave like sounds caused by the blowing of the tree leaves. This helped us to be at ease as we went by. (More like it was good distraction of all the other weird noises and creepy darkness.)


Really dunno what time we arrived to the campsite. As long as the sun shining though, it was a start of a new day


We then arrived to Aling Cording's house at the jump off where we have to register our names, do some photo ops and prepare ourselves for the long walk a.k.a drinking lots of water and stretching. #Let's do this!


I think what really helped us push through our day hike was that we were all smiling and still joking around in spite of the heat and exhaustion. The bond and inside jokes we shared really made our hike bearable. Never forget to bring your optimistic attitude for sure!


One of my favorite spots there when we were in the fields. This gave out an African Safari vibe. Caption be like, "Just went to Africa for the Weekend! Haha!" Forgive my Selfies I just have to!! Lols Can't help falling in love with the golden rays. Such a moment for us haha


Tarak Ridge Girl Squad. Present! Jk. But we were unconsciously divided into two groups. Maybe because of our pacing. Anyway, I'm really glad to get to know some of them. Like what I said this made the trip bearable. We really showed also how we can be strong as a group as we support each other. Even telling lies to one another that our hike will end soon and stuffs. Well we have to keep our hopes up that pain will end soon Haha! #StrongGirls


We finally had our lunch just before the Summit. Of course we ate like crazy. But still managed to share our food to our fellow hiker. By the way, love these twins!! Ugh they're definitely gave life to our trip such a dynamic duo.


Oh this one was taken when we were going down the mountain already. We had such a funny story with that rock behind us *wink* Girls gotta stick out for each other you know!


The beautiful scenery and mountain! Breathless. We're just all in awe of how Nature can remind us that there's beauty after all the pain we went though. After the bruises and cuts we managed to see the Mother Nature's prize for us.

I noticed while having our thousands of steps that day that it was great reminder that sometimes in life we have to take more than one step in order to reach our destination. And we have to be okay with it and accept that it's not gonna be easy but it'll be worth it when you finally achieve it.


Shoutout to Mico for inviting me to this day hike and really putting up with me when I tried to reach the Summit. Couldn't do it without you bruh!


Just before the Summit. Yep it was just two of us girls who volunteered to go reach for the sky. I decided to do so coz I might not be able to do this again so why not? YOLO. (Do people still use that tho?) haha!

It wasn't only the strong wind and rocky path that challenged us but also our will to power. We decided go all out and just keep pushing.


Finally, Summit. 1,130 MASL


After all the laughter, pain and dead toe nail (yep that stone really got me haha) It was all worth it in the end. These guys really made my first hike one for the books! XOXO

Just this last week of January, my high school besties and I decided to have a Weekend Getaway. Just to relieve some stress from work, life and generally from adulting. We wanted somewhere near but not per say in the metro. Another requirement it has to have a beach! So Batangas fits perfectly for our short break shenanigan.

There are a lot of resorts with beach front in Batangas and choosing which one to stay or at least just have a day trip was a challenge. As we don't really have to stay overnight since a friend, Francine will let us stay in their Tagaytay Condo. We then went to my brother's recommendation, Canyon Cove. Wasn't able to use our car so we took a Grab Car from QC to Batangas. Yes. Why not? Tho, I'm still game taking the bus as it would be my first time commuting to a province if ever.



Arriving in Canyon Cove wasn't a breeze as I had a problem with our booked tickets for the Day Trip. After sorting that out, we got really hungry. Using our consumable 300php each from our 1,000 day trip fee, we headed to their main restaurant.



They serve classic Pinoy dishes there. I dunno if we were just hungry from the trip but we definitely enjoyed our meal. After filling our tummies it was time to put on our swimsuits. Yep, right timing after lunch haha! Sun was beating down on us real hard and the pool calling us to take a dip already.


Canyon Cove's Pool was pretty amazing. So huge you don't have to worry bumpin' with anyone there. Tho it wasn't jam packed still we really appreciated the size and the "little islands in between where you can sit and rest after practicing our Michael Phelps moves. Riiight.


Can I just put it out there how much I love these girls? We couldn't hide our childish side all through out our trip. I guess we all unconsciously decided to be carefree and just leave all the work stuff in Manila and submerge into complete fun and relaxing getaway. Been good friends with them since High school and all our kakalogan then were pretty much still there after all these years. Some things don't really change.



Batangas' beaches never fail to impress. I like how their sand is a mixture not super fine nor too rough. I remember too since it was the last week of January, water was kinda cold. But refreshingly cold. Just perfect enough to soothe our stress away. Plus there weren't much people so basically we had a part of the beach all to ourselves. So renting a Cabana isn't really necessary anymore as our stuffs were safe enough to be left in the sand and pool area. Another thing. Canyon' Cove's staffs well not all tho, were very much accommodating. They even asked someone to look after our bags while we were in the beach.
After our beach escapade we headed to Tagaytay to rest up at Fran's family condo. Took a bus for the first time yay at least now I know which routes to take from Batangas to Tagaytay. Not much photos were taken tho as it was freezing cold. Let me tell you it was just too much for this lil body to take in. Even after some wine, the cold ended up caressing us to a deep sleep right away and it was pretty much a tiring day.

Overall our weekend getaway was fun and exciting . In a way that we were able to go home safely with just using the public transportation for the first time. It was kind of an adventure for the three of us. Not only we enjoyed and even tolerated each other (yes thank you Kezia for putting up with us) haha it really refreshed our friendship.

Taking some time to be with long time friends wasn't so easy as we have to coordinate well our schedules even on a weekend. However all was worth it. Not only we had fun but it was also an opportunity for all of us to do some adulting stuffs. Like finding our own way and make all the decisions in between our shenanigans. I guess that's how it works when in your early twenties already, having the courage to do things on your own and make things happen.