When life doesnt seem to be adding up… Blame math.

The nice thing abut driving in Batangas is that the roads are oober nice. The asphalt hugs the tires of the cars and there is barely a sound the reverburates with the car. You can actually hear the engine humm instead of hearing the buzzing cement running under you.

The Batangas outback provides scenic views of dozens of mountains. One awesome view was that of Mt. Maculot. Famed for it’s rockies (the mountain’s shoulder with a rock formation to the delight of adventurers and thrill seekers)Mt. Maculot musters all respect being in the middle of the Batangas province. For a hundred kilometers around, this relativeley easy mountain to climb offers a sight for sore eyes. The rock face that rivals El Capitan in Yosamite in the States is like melted icing off of the face of a green cake.

Not to be outdone is Mt. Makiling. It’s stature requires respect and reverence. Mt. Nasugbu and a host of other mountains on the western seaboard of Batangas provides breathtaking backdrops for those on the side of the road shots. Another odd looking piece of nature is Mt. Batulao. It’s jagged peaks makes it unique. Note to those who wanna climb it. It’s easy.

Back to the road.

One thing that pisses me off sometimes are tricycles. Tricycles and National Highways can never mix. When driving behind a tricycle, the tricycle always seems to drive with a speed thats irritatingly slow which makes you want to overtake it naturally. But, once you engage on overtake mode, the tricycle always seems to speed up. Whatsup Manong? And the size. The size of the tricycle is just right for it to occupy 2/3s of the lane. Two friggin thirds of the road. Not enough for you to squeeze by it. What makes it worse? They come in packs. Just when you thought you just passed one and your ready to have the wind blow through your hair and have tha MTV moment on the road, another one is right in front of you.

Arriving in Nasugbu, the group wanted to see Punta Fuego. Well, Punta Fuego was crossed out of the list becuase it’s expensive. And going there is only for the the v6’s and v8 engines of them rich people. I stopped at a local tindahan and asked the most reliable people I could see. A group of 5 men without T-shirts drinking bilogs and lapads at 10am in the morning. Being the omnipotent all kowing lasenggeros that they are, the pointed me to a place where it is not too expensive and is in the vicinity. A place they called, "Kay Enrile" (the senator that has plotting coup de etets as a hobby).

We payed 50 pesos to get in and 400 for a hut for the whole day. Not bad for a beach near punta fuego. The water was clear, although not as prestine as Zambales or Bohol, and the cove protected the swimmers from too much waves. (sorry wahines) At the end of the cove is what seemed to be a hill made up of limestone. With our rappelling equipment in hand, camera’s and guts, we walked towards the end of the cove. There, we did a crash course in rappelling. It was enjoyed by the BAdgers and the Photos members. Tapos we walked along the side of the huge rock hill to discover a hidden area with small quiet caves and hideaways - hard to describe.

After the bout with the heat, we all settled down to eat what was left of our provisions. Like good brothers and sisters, we shared the loaves of bread with peanut butter, one glass, ice and coke. Tapos, since there was a difficulty in getting fresh water, we went in the car without ligo. Hehe tapos starbucks tagaytay!

Then, home…

We did find a beach that we could only have imagined. We saw landscape that we didnt think existed. But, above all of that, we as friends enjoyed the journey. Up till the end, the destination didnt really matter. We sang together, awwed together, joked and picked on each other, we didnt mind if showering was the last thing on each others minds, we didnt mind sharing one drinking glass, we didnt mind eating peanut butter sandwich.

The roadtrip was the best ever for us - the group. If we had more or less people, could we have enjoyed it? If we had more money or a better car, would it have been more fun? We will never know.

Journey to an unknown place, discover, realize - do it with friends you love and enjoy spending time with. It’s a short life -

Up next? Lucban, Quezon - the Pahiyas Festival…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 4th, 2005 at 10:16 pm and is filed under - my brain pooped - shiyet -. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.