Wrath of Daragang Magayon

by Maria Eleanor E. Valeros, #citizenmedia

caption: This blogger joins specks of dust near the Cagsaua Ruins, a belfry that serves as memorial of a past eruption of Mount Mayon that buried scores of Bicolanos alive.

ALBAY, BICOL REGION, PHILIPPINES — What force attracted me to Albay is the very same force that obliterated rice fields and homes in Guinobatan and Daraga.

Mount Mayon was ablaze almost every night from July 18 of 2006 with the number and size of incandescent rockfalls from the active lava dome increasing. And while volcanologists warned on August 10 of a major explosion as Mayon continued to eject lava down its slope, which spelled disaster, there I was gaping at the TV in our old newsroom admiring at the beauty and power of her activity.

As Albay was prepared to escape from magma buildup, typhoon Durian instead lashed, triggering deadly landslides. Mud, rocks and volcanic ash swallowed vast rice farms and inundated towns throughout Albay that were once subjects of postcards for their panoramic and charming rural life. Lahar flow killed scores and covered large portions of the village of Padang in mud up to houses’ roofs.

The wrath of Daragang Magayon (or “Magandang Dalaga”/Beautiful Maiden, believed guardian of Mount Mayon) spilled lahar flows from the roof of the mountain in Guinobatan to the town of Daraga. Amazingly, the floodhead spread to form two rivers upon reaching a good distance from the Cagsaua Ruins. Yes, the Cagsaua church which became a refuge to some 1,200 people two centuries ago. When lava flowed on February 1, 1814, the most destructive eruption of Mayon, it buried the town of Cagsaua, the church and the townsfolk. Only the belfry remained above the new surface. It stands anew today as a memorial after nature spared it from being smashed by tumbling, rumbling boulders.

It stands here today, beautiful but still haunting to serve, perhaps, as a living testimony as to how alive fire-spewing mountains and towering fountains are. And on how helpless we are before nature’s fury.

If there was one very bad experience in coming to Legazpi City, at a time when it was recovering from a series of disasters, had nothing to do with mocha-colored water pouring out of the tap. It was the overcharging of fare rates that hurt me most. For somebody unaware of actual rates here, most drivers asked double to triple the real rate.

“Kanya-kanyang diskarte talaga. Sa hirap ng buhay ngayon dito pagkatapos ng Durian, kelangan talaga mag-survive ang mga drivers,” a trike driver explained things. But was kind enough to charge me fairly when I directed him to bring me to a cheap hotel where my partner and I could wash up. We were “caking up with ashfall” as earlier that day we passed by Irosin in Sorsogon on our way to Legazpi. Irosin was on zero visibility because another volcano, Mount Bulusan, was spewing columns of ash.

The hotel, across a mall, was indeed for travelers on shoestring budget. Since the mall is nearby, my partner and I shopped for chocolate-coated and caramelized pili nuts (all-time favorites!). Its proximity to the city terminal allowed us to walk from the hotel in going there for our next trip.

At that time farm managers turned to nurturing not grains anymore but making hollow blocks out of volcanic materials deposited in rivers, as well as artstone pieces carved from volcanic rocks.

Mang Jun, 42, for example, sees a new livelihood in sculpturing Santo Nino icons from the volcanic rock deposits. He also carved designs taking on inspiration from Atlas (that piece with globe on shoulder), Madonna and Child, and the Pieta.

While volcanoes fascinate us, they frighten us at the same time. Volcanic mountains burst into flames as glowing rocks fly from the depths of the earth and cause enormously devastating lava flows.

But volcanic activity never stops to fascinate me. This adulation had drawn me to Mayon – this admiration for something inanimate, yet so full of life and power it is able to direct the course of some Bicolanos’ destiny.###

Skimmer wherever, whenever

by Maria Eleanor E. Valeros, #newmedia specialist

AGUSAN DEL NORTE, NORTHERN MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES — Lanky Mark is obviously obsessed with his skimboard (skiffle to Americans, skidboard to Aussies and Kiwis). He is in love with the offshore wind that playfully tousled his unkempt hair before he headed out to sea. His eyes were admiring the frothy seashore, lapped endlessly by the waves he had fallen head over heels with. And then he ran to pick up the right wave – the very secret of skimming.

To have good wave judgment, say, employing some spectral profile to decipher the contents of the sea’s brains, would lead to a successful flip or a headstand. Using such technique, Mark amazed me with an “Ollie” bringing his body to a turnaround with skimboard magically glued to his soles like iron filings attached to a magnet. I was left there, some distance from him, shaking my head and clapping like another Chapman wild over Lennon, my eyes deep ocean green with envy.

I happened to bump into lanky, bubbly Mark and his crowd of skimmers at the remaining minutes of my stay in Agusan. I was walking from Trianggulo in Nasipit to the port to catch the boat back to Cebu after a successful climb on Mount Magdiwata (San Francisco town), a caving activity, and a side trip to the Agusan Marshland in line with the Naliyagan festivity of Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur, when a guy named Rich called my attention.

“Miss, climber ka?” he asked. He was there sitting on this bench in a carenderia (eatery). I was slowing down my pace some minutes before he had thrown at me the question. I was hoping to feast on adobong dabong (bamboo shoots in soy sauce) for lunch at the eatery.

Rich ushered me to his motorbike and we sped away to their office in Talisay, close to the Nasipit wharf. I met the rest of the gang – fellow nature freaks I would say – skimmers Bryan, Ronky, and Mark: members of a Nasipit climbing society.

It was so easy to connect with them as we shared the same passion and love for the great outdoors. We easily jibed except that though I love the surf, sand, sun and froth at the breaking of seawaters, I’m a total stranger to skimboarding.

Mark was the most talkative. Oh well, they all talked loads of “nature stuff” but Mark had the most stories. I spent the rest of the afternoon with him, while waiting for the Cebu-bound ship. He did an “aerial” to begin with, catching the air off a wave.

After that, we exchanged tokens. The cordial rite of tying around my right ankle a piece of his life and culture — his Manobo tribal necklace — had embossed dignity of an indigenous people’s community. I am always one with IPs having traced paternal roots in Cordillera.

And yep – real skimming may alienate me but I think I’m really into skimming long before I could ever demo my first ollie. I have been beautifully skimming through my journey’s waters all these years. There’s always a new trick where there’s about an inch of water. ###

Higher learning on Mt. Hibok-hibok

by Maria Eleanor E. Valeros, #newmedia specialist

:for#microadventurism

Caption: Mount Hibok-hibok is a stratovolcano. It is one of active volcanoes in the country. Photo from topicalphilippines.com

CAMIGUIN, NORTHERN MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES — Two professional mountaineers fuel my passion for climbing. They are German national Erik Weihenmayer and Batangueno, Regie Pablo.

Sightless since he was 13 years old caused by a hereditary disease of the retina, Erik conquered Mount Everest with all of his awakened guts and his blindness to failure.

He carried this fervent conviction that no killer peak can ever become an obstacle for a man who believes he can do away with adversity.

Meanwhile, Regie, the vice president for Luzon of the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines, Inc. and an honorary member of the Batangas Backpackers, climbed Razdelnaya Peak of Kyrgyztan with a spirit that’s all thumbs up to nature’s law: “those that go up must also go down.”

What is it in mountains that entice individuals to subject themselves to physical torture or expose themselves to the harshness of the elements? What drives men and women to indulge in such a strenuous activity?

“Climbs are always rewarded with a kind of high.” This is the usual reply.

The euphoria of accomplishment can never be understood by any individual unless he or she learns to climb, explore, experience, and enjoy the mountain summit. There is no education better than the lessons of climbing. Mountains provide the best syllabus and perfect setting for a course on “higher education.”

Let me cite my first major climb. It happened on Mount Hibok-hibok on the occasion of Camiguin’s Lanzones Festival on October 17, 2002 where and when persistence and endurance were put to the test so to prove how “peak performers” must deal with the mountain setting.

Using the entry point through the base of Barangay Tagdo in the town capital of Mambajao, my companion and I did a night trek through the woods. As soon as the sun was up, we were halfway done with the course.

The road to the summit of one of the country’s active volcanoes, placed at approximately 4,200 feet, is a challenge even to professional climbers. The trail entails skillful maneuvers on loose rocks and boulders. Big on charm with all of its jagged peaks that loom from afar and a romantic vista of both the lovely Bohol sea and azure Mindanao waters, it would be very hard to imagine that in the early 50’s, an avalanche of glowing rocks and molten lava reaching 800 deg C burnt down trees and houses, leaving behind charred remains of both people and animals.

At almost high noon, my heart was racing when I realized I was less than two hundred meters from the summit. A red banner dangling from a pole sticking out of a cliffside became very visible. Up above towered serrated rocky ridges randomly splashed with ash gray, coal black, and verdant coats of hues.

I glanced back where the forest lay far, far below as tall cogon grasses thrashed wildly in the wind in salutation perhaps of that glorious day I had shared with flooding across Mambajao.

Blue surrounded nearby White Island which appeared to be single open and close quotation marks from up there. The sun spangled on the surface of the royal blue sea. A Thursday sun highlighted a patchwork of green fields, resplendent in the brightness of their color.

After the ritual of tying around what-have-yous to the pole sticking out of the ravine, I joined the rest of those who came before us and saved the experience and personal feat within the borders of photographs. Then some kind of quiet followed. One that finds a niche in the heart and there only.

Every climb is accompanied by this deafening peace that washes away vanity and pretensions. The tracks we left behind on Hibok-hibok will narrate the story of hope, faith and optimism. Footprints may illustrate how everything can be within reach through sheer determination, commitment, and personal courage – strong points that made Eric Weihenmayer pursue his purpose with dead earnestness.

Meanwhile, Regie takes climbing like managing life. Climbing doesn’t involve steady assaults every time. It is also knowing when you should go down.

Such are the essence of higher education.###

Return to Lake Balinsasayaw

by Maria Eleanor E. Valeros, #newmedia specialist

:for#microadventurism

Photo by Aldo Nelbert A. Banaynal

SIBULAN, ORIENTAL NEGROS, PHILIPPINES — The itch to return to Sibulan is connected to this lust I have never ever learned to tame for Lake Balinsasayaw.

Serene. Reserved. Cool. Placid. These are all overused terms to describe her. These, which all the more underrate her, because such also mean measuring her in terms perceptible.

Truth be told: Lake Balinsasayaw will forever be a mystery.

***

A furious Mount Guintabon blew its top, believed thousands of years ago, creating a caldera which served as catch basin for rainwater. The caldera was said to be discovered by a certain Don Miguel Patero in 1885. Now, with a surface area of 76 hectares and a depth of 90 meters, it serves as natural playground for those wanting to go boating and kayaking or do hiking/trekking on trails at the bank of the lake.

Twin Lakes Natural Park is said to be the home of 180 species of dipterocarp and non-dipterocarp trees, 113 species of birds including serpent eagles and swifts (balinsasayaw) from which one of the lakes was named after, 27 mammals, and 49 amphibians and reptiles. Age-old trees, giant ferns, and other exotic plants and orchids are among her natural inhabitants. Wild rare vines also freely cling to the barks of trees.

The Almaciga tree, said to be the tallest tree in the Philippines, which grows up to 60 meters tall, can still be found here.

Sad to note (but I do understand) swimming which entails risk and pollution has already been prohibited. So I failed to make my “return flip” from out of the boat to the waters somewhere near the center of the lake.

However, my motorcycle crashes did a repeat. On my way up there last time onboard a Honda Wave motorcycle, my driver and I crashed two times because of the potholes and the rocks scattered all over the road. Last Friday, on our way home, my companion (on his “first time” out there) maneuvered a bend and got pretty jittery at the sight of an oncoming, speeding “habal-habal” that his reflexes sent him manipulating both hand-foot brakes. We sealed the adventure with scratch marks and aching bones.

I definitely won’t recommend this destination via motorcycle, sans the expertise for the terrain, the faint-hearted, or those who design their ITs like their study skeds or household chores. However, because the road to the Twin Lakes is for those who have deep admiration on how nature changes the landscape with all of her fury and glory, I think that this would motivate you to go for the kill (lol)!

The view from up there – and a dash of soul searching – more than compensates for the bumpy, risky ride.

Further, it was learned that the Twin Lakes Natural Park is part of the 133,000-hectare geothermal reserve managed by the Philippine National Oil Company. The 8,016.50 hectares belonging to the natural park straddles the three municipalities of Sibulan, Valencia and San Jose in the Province of Oriental Negros (yes, this is how the words are politically arranged!)

By the way, the lakes are contained in adjacent calderas 1,000 meters – and not feet – above sea level and are separated by a ridge more than 20 meters in width. The lakes are completely surrounded by thick forests and lush vegetation of about 3,462 hectares spread over the Guintabon, Kabalin-an, ang Guinsayawan mountain ranges which serve as protection dikes to the lakes.

Mount Guintabon is 1,262 meters above sea level while Mount Guinsayawan is 1,788 MASL. While Lake Balinsasayaw has a surface area of 76 hectares, Lake Danao has only 30.

————————————————————————————————————————————–Don’t forget to drop by Jo’s Chicken Inato By The Sea in Sibulan for their yummilicious “tinolang manok sa buko” with pepper leaves. I find the place worth marking, most especially as they have cute outrigger-inspired meal tables under the canopy of century-old rain trees. Check Gina’s Kabayo-an in Dumaguete City for a variety of dishes like lechon kawali, crispy pata and horse meat. We stayed at La Moriah Pension Inn which offers barkada package.

The pack spent nearly P4,000 for the two-day trip to Sibulan and Valencia towns and Dumaguete City, including overnight accommodation and a visit to the Cataal War Museum in Valencia managed by war memorabilia collector Felix Constantino “Tantin” Cataal. (First published in The FREEMAN Lifestyle Section, 2012)