Mountain Climbing in Mariveles Bataan

"It's not difficult, its very VERY difficult" said Lester Susi, our Group Leader during the briefing on mountain climbing in Mariveles Bataan. I was having serious doubts of going last Friday, August 27 especially since I had a flu relapse two days prior and was only on my 2nd day of the 3-day zithromax. Kuya Kim's twit didn't help, he said "trop depression Florita 330k W of Dagupan 55 kph to move Northwest, rains in luzon..."

Despite the internal grumblings, I took off with 81 AMCI trainees and members at 11:30pm from Makati to Alas-asin, Mariveles in Bataan. The 81 was divided into smaller groups. I belonged to Group 5- with my twentysomething climbmates Ging Valencia (left in photo), Mot Maramot (with hand waving), Mike Ella, Mai Pudol (in red bandana) and Ian Villar, led by veteran climber Lester (on top of the boulder).

We arrived an hour early at the jump-off point at 2:30am. After a quick breakfast, we started trekking at 3am and arrived at the DENR oupost (370m in elevation) to register and luckily, coffee, hot steaming saba and some sticky rice delicacy were served.

With our head lamps on and gloves in place, we left the outpost at 3:30am. "The Gate" (590m) gave us a preview of the trail condition which was muddy, slippery and with the downpour, almost eroded. Papaya River (515m, right photo), our first water source gave a preview of the upcoming river treks which was wet, cold, slimy with rocks of varying heights. My new Columbia storm surge pants didn't help. It was difficult for me to balance 40-45 pounds load on my back and watch each step. I kept slipping and falling waist deep.

'Gilbert's Ascent' (805m), our first deep gully was a preview of the wall climbing condition which was almost vertical where we had to climb on all fours - meaning using both hands and feet and jokingly, even using the chin.

There was a bottleneck at "Nat's Landing" (715m, left photo), a steep climb down. We had to wait two hours for our turn on the ropes. Lester taught us how to triangulate using a compass to while away the time. We had time to eat our pack lunch and chatted with the group of Ail, Weng and Kurt. When it was our turn on the slope, we slowly inched down, and hanged on to whatever we can grasp - vines, rocks or branch - in between yelling, bato, bato, bato as loose rocks were falling down. Poor Mot. He got hit on the face and knee with one of the rocks.

At SCAJJ waterfalls, our last water source, we crossed our second river and made our way up the steep trail to Tarak Ridge (1004m, right photo). It was extremely windy and foggy.  I was bending all the time to duck the wind and clutching the tall cogon grass covering the side of the mountain. Mai kept groaning with each step since she was afraid that she'd fall off the cliff.  I felt like the trek was an eco-challenge of some sort because when we got to the summit "Bintana" (1121m), lo and behold, the other side was an entirely different terrain. This time, we were staring at boulders.


The trail was aptly called the "Japanese Garden" (900m, left photo) because of the sculpture-like rock formations. We had to make our way down the slimy stones under the pouring rain, with the aid of the ropes in place. Thank god the lead pack (Sky Biscocho who by the way, created the trail for us) placed orange reflector stickers on some boulders as trail signs. After the rocky area, it took us over an hour to negotiate the almost impassable, muddy "Magellan Ridge" to the campsite. We arrived exhausted at 7pm and the next task at hand was to find a suitable place to set camp.

Most of the area was already taken and my tent-mate, Mai found a relatively flat but slightly sloping area to pitch tent. It took us some time to figure out how to set-up the three tent poles. By the time the tent was up, water seeped in my leaky flysheet and left a pool of water inside the tent. I was too pooped to eat dinner and more anxious to rainproof our tent with spare tarps and our raincoats. Around 830pm, we settled in and made used of our kermantle as a clothesline to hang our wet clothes to dry. By 9pm, I was already tucked in my sleeping bag and could hear late climbers trickling in, looking for their groupmates.

When my alarm went off at 4am,   I found my whole body on the side of the tent with Mai leaning on my left side. I guess since it rained all night, the ground eroded, creating a 40-45 degree slope. After donning our damp clothes from the day before, we headed to the cooking area where Mot with the help of Lester was already preparing our breakfast. I don't normally eat rice in the morning; but surprisingly, I wolfed two platefuls down including the pink-colored corned beef.  After breakfast, we prepared our pack lunch and started to break camp. 

The trek down got going an hour late at 8am. There was a bottleneck at "Magellan Trailhead" (886m) where climbers, like Nat's held on to ropes to descend.  It was very slippery in fact, Mike tore his shirt sleeve when he extended his arm to save me from slipping down the gully. 

We got to Loree-Jen Stream (886m, right photo) at 9:30am or 1.5 hours behind the scheduled itinterary. Before noon, we were at SLAJJ waterfalls (792m)- named after Sky, Lester and ...sorry I don't remember the last three founders. The waterfall was amazing and we took our time here to enjoy our lunch, chatted with fellow climbers and went swimming. Actually, it was more like dunking  to remove the mud and dirt from our face, body and clothes. I also took the time to attend to the pesky teka teka bites on my legs by peeling it off using duct tape.

After monkeying around and taking pictures, we started our trek along Paniqui River (658m, me on the left photo).

I was hoping that the trail would lead us to flatter terrain. Alas, at the end of the river, Lester paused and asked if we wanted to take a rest. He described the next trail, as pretty 'intense'.

"Lasbal Trail", I'm sure it's another acronym for Lester, A..Sky..., was a steep, muddy vertical ascent.  I will never forget this day as I almost tasted the kiss of death. Somewhere in the middle, as I was trying to reach for the vine with my left hand, I slipped and lost both my foothold and the rock I was hanging onto with my right hand came off the wall. I started sliding down the ravine with my left side grazing the rocks, vines, twigs, you name it.  Instead of thinking of dying, I was more hassled with the thought of scaling the trail back up again so I quickly grabbed on to whatever I can grasp and made my way up. This was my second major slip  and decided to be more vigilant and mindful of footholds and handholds.

"Loggers Trail" was fairly even and easy on the legs but a long, long way down, almost three hours trek. We were joking around with Ian scoring each of our fall "Mountain 0: Group 5, 9" was the last tally.  It was 6pm when we reached Mariveles River and based on the itinerary, it will take us at least another two hours to get to the pick-up point. It was getting dark and we could hear the river roaring.  The current was picking up as we crossed the first point. We caught up with Bosing and Bert, who were sweeping Kathleen Almonte and warned us at the second crossing that the river was dangerous and to look for another path. At the last river crossing, all ten of us formed a human line by holding on to each other to make it to the other side. The trail to the pick up point was again muddy and slippery.  At this point, I was already praying to guide the rest of the climbers behind us and to keep them safe.

At 8pm, we arrived at Crusher, Barangay Kamaya, Santa Monica where we were met by the team leader Jepay and Francis. We washed up in the stream. The ice cold water was good for our tired, aching body. At 9pm, we boarded the jeepney to take us to Seashore Resort for dinner. At 12 midnight, we boarded the first bus back to Manila.

Fortunately, our Group was always intact, no one went ahead or was left behind. We moved as one unit. It took us a total of 15 hours up and 12 hours down to traverse the mountains of Mariveles. We survived three assaults, four rivers and countless gullies. The trek was indeed very difficult and required physical and mental preparation. I am deeply grateful that everyone came back in one piece.

Here's something to ponder on from mountaineering author A. Alvarez:  Climbing in particular, is a parodoxically intellectual pastime, but with this difference: you have to think with your body. Every move has to be worked out in terms of playing chess with you body. If I make a mistake the consequences are immediate, obvious, embarrassing, and possibly painful. For a brief period I am directly responsible for my actions. In that beautiful, silent, world of mountains, it seems to me worth a little risk.
 
And five tips I learned from the legendary Lester:
1. Don't just look for one trail sign. Like chess, anticipate the next move. Look also for the second and third trail sign all the time. Also check the path for footsteps.
2. Don't over take the lead. Let him/her lead and decide which path to take.
3. Don't slide. Be courteous and mindful of other climbers all the time. Keep the trail intact by standing, using quick baby steps and walking sideways.
4. Do face the current in crossing rivers and walk sideways.
5. Do keep the group intact all the time. Compress by pulling the group (lead) and pushing (sweeper).

The last tip reminds me of a Confucius  saying "It does not matter how slow you go, as long as you don't stop" which encapsulates our Group's trek song...  I like to move it move it, I like to move it move it... MOVE IT!

Photo credit: action shots c/o Lester Susi's Bring it on TC2 album.

Going Raw, raw food that is..

Since I got into raw food, I've been besieged with questions why. I'm not asking to go completely 100% raw, but at least take more greens and fruits. Sharing top three reasons why:

First, did you know that cooking destroys nutrients found in food? Well, this depends on how you cook your food - you lose 25% if you steam and 100% if you microwave, fry or bake. According to Dr. Bernarr of God Healing, Inc and the Natural Hygiene Society of California, cooking food above 118 degrees F kills all the nutrients and enzymes in food. Natural Hygienist Dr. Virginia Vetrano affirms this and says that “heating any food, destroys much of its vitamin, mineral, and protein content, AND poisonous inorganic acids are formed.” So, what the two good doctors are essentially saying is when you eat cooked food, you are actually ingesting “dead” food, no nutrients and taking in instead toxins.

This leads to my second reason, do you know how our body adjusts to cooked food? According to raw food advocate and author of "12 Steps to Raw Food" Victoria Butenko, the body creates mucus. Mucus is actually good, it is a thick, viscous, gel-like material that functions to moisten and protect the body from toxins. The average human body produces about a liter of mucus per day.

Butenko however postulates that the more cooked food we consume, the more toxins we ingest and thus, the more mucus the body produces.  We accumulate so much mucus in our body that problems prop up. Headache is caused by the mucus stored in the forehead close to the brain and if you absolutely don't have mucus coming out of your nose after running, well, you have clean lungs.

To check for mucus in your intestines, stick out your tongue and check the color. If its color white, this means thick mucus is coating your intestines. Naturopaths call this mucoid plaque. It looks like a green rubbery hose that can extend to about 20 feet long. The trouble is once the mucoid plaque is created, it lodges in the numerous folds and crevices of the intestines and over time, it grows longer and thicker. Ironically, while mucus protects our body from absorbing toxins, it also prevents the body from absorbing nutrients. So, the thicker the mucoid plaque is, the more our body craves for more nutrients, the more we become hungry and consequently, the more we eat.

The third and last reason is for super health. Longevity and nutrition expert David Wolfe, says that “raw food returns to you lost power and abilities. It gives super human abilities – especially in physical endurance, clarity of thought and sixth sense perception.”  This means, no ailments, no acne, no asthma, no body odors, skin becomes soft and smooth, hair grows thick and wild and good news for women - - PMS will be a thing of the past and monthly periods will dwindle down to one day. Women have reported experiencing no menopausal symptoms and only discover having gone through menopause, only after undergoing blood tests to check their hormone levels. And here in the Philippines, the wife of inner dance Pi Villaraza, Daniw who was (and still is) on 100% raw food gave birth in less than ten minutes. She said that it was painless and effortless.

In the three months I was on 100% raw (yes Pinky, cheated on coffee and occasional wine), I experienced super health. My eyesight and hearing improved, my skin smooth, my hair thick, I’ve lost 10 pounds and stopped popping vitamins, supplements or medications. I must admit that going raw is quite daunting and requires commitment. Again, you don't have to go 100%. Start by eating more salads, adding raw vegetables in your meals like more tomato and lettuce in your sandwiches, drinking fresh juices especially my fav coconut juice, and snacking on nuts and seeds. If you want recipes, email me. :-)

GPRS users beware

I'm just sharing my plight here since Boo wrote about it in his column on July 26. This serves as a warning to unfortunate smart phone users who are not enrolled in an unlimited data plan. I am a heavy blackberry user for texts, emails, FB and twitter. I wrote this letter to Ms. Grace Plata of Smart on July 5:

I’ve been a loyal infinity client since 2008 and my average bill would be PhP 5-6,000 a month. Last year, I was traveling frequently twice to Europe and once to the United States and my bill would only cost P7-8,000 or at the most, P9,000 only with roaming, data charges and even voice calls.

I was upset last month when I received my phone bill amounting to PhP 27, 958.72 which is an increase by 386% from last month’s bill. 53% was data charges and 31% roaming charges. I was in Beijing for four (4) days and I assumed that the charges were becaue of China. However, I received this month’s bill and shocked that my bill is PhP 21,166.69. this time 78% was due to data charges amounting to PhP 16,493.61.

This is absolutely absurd since I haven’t changed my data activity and I wasn’t even abroad. My average data charges would only be PhP 4-5,000 monthly so this is a 286% hike from my regular usage.

There may either be something wrong with your system or my phone has been compromised. I would appreciate if you can reverse the data charges because I did not accumulate and rack up that amount. This is for BOTH last month’s bill of PhP 27,958.72 and also this month’s PhP 21,166.69. Otherwise, I would appreciate if you can terminate my account immediately.

I followed up twice through email and repeteadly sent follow-up texts to my assigned account officer Jeffrey. I guess it was only after meeting the Smart Public Affairs head on July 20 that my account was attended to because the next day, within 24 hours, I was informed that the data charges will be reversed.

I found out that the erroneous billing started when Smart issued a replacement unit for my broken unit (repair of my Storm's touchscreen). My colleague Carla also experienced erroneous data charges after her broken phone was replaced with a new unit, the Nokia E72.

The problem may be on the new smart phones. Tony A. whose staff racked in a total of PHp 125,000 worth of GPRS data says "The problem is that Blackberry’s are always attached to the network. Hence if you are connected using time based billing, you will definitely be charged such a huge sum. Blackberry devices should be billed separately – this is normally via the amount of packets the Blackberry device downloads."

What's the solution to this faulty GPRS charges? Unfortunately, unlike the iphones, I can't turn off the network on my blackberry unit. If I turn off the 3G or EDGE, I won't be able to send a text or even email. I can't even put a cap on my credit limit because Smart doesn't provide the courtesy of informing clients (mind you - I am an Infinity client) once they reach and/or exceed their credit limit. I'm now experimenting with Smart's unlimited data plan which is an additional P300 per week.

I am glad though that my GPRS problem is being resolved (and hopefully resolved soon). I found out that a certain Nikki G has yet to be attended to. She wrote : "When I got my bill for March, April, and May, my bill was at it's highest. In May it reached a total of P365,513.84. I asked Smart to provide me a copy of the breakdown of the data charges, but they never replied to my request. They only gave me a summary. Last week, I reviewed all my statements of account and saw that my bill did get higher and higher as the months went by. I exceeded my limit 7 times in 7 months. Not a single warning was received by me." Oh wow!

on my 27th day on Raw Food

Since my creatinine level indicated beyond normal in my recent annual physical exam, I've been advised to refrain from eating meat. I've decided to go back to being vegetarian and in fact, I've taken it a notch higher by going raw. This means, not eating cooked, processed foods. So far so good, I'm on my 27th day and surviving.

It wasn't easy at first since there was hardly anything to eat at most restaurants and all I know how to prepare is salads. My first attempt in making a vegetable smoothie ended tasting like wasabi juice. I blended pechay (local spinach) with pineapple and banana.

Also since I didn't stop running or doing workouts, my strength and endurance suffered. I started panting at 6-km or would be out of breath which I seldom experienced. I guess my body was relying on my stored fats for energy and the last few days, I had no stored fat left.

Its not easy to go raw. This even includes boiling water which means no soups, teas and coffee. Apparently, cooking destroys 25% to 100% of the nutrients depending on the how its cooked - steaming 25% and up to 100% for microwave, frying and baking. In fact, cooked food produces carcinogens such as acrilamide.

According to Dr. Bernarr, "When food is cooked above 118 degrees F for three minutes or longer, its protein has become coagulated, its sugar has become caramelized, its natural fibers have been broken down, which means it will take longer to move through the intestinal tract, 30% to 50% of its vitamins and minerals have been destroyed and 100% of its enzymes have been destroyed. Cooked food depletes our body's enzyme potential and drains the energy we need to maintain and repair our tissues and organ systems and shortens our lifespan."

The good news is aside from Alive! restaurant in The Farm in San Benito, I found a raw food restaurant in Manila called Rawvolution in Kamuning, Quezon City. The owner and chef, Cheloy Ignacio, who was previously sickly turned to raw food in 2006 and since then never got sick. In fact, she lost 20 lbs in ten days. Check her website here. I joined her 'healing' class which consisted of a lecture by naturopathist Dr. Samuel Dizon and raw food preparation by Cheloy where she shared two recipes - green smoothie and asian salad. I learned how to make almond milk in her class - 1/4 cup of raw almonds soak overnight and 1 cup water, blended which i use for my daily morning smoothie.


I also joined the live food preparation of another raw food chef Aileen de Guzman who learned from Michelin award-winning Chef Felix Schoener at The Farm at San Benito years ago. Aileen taught us how to prepare - a breakfast smoothie, asparagus bundles, thai pomelo salad, vegan sushi and tiramisu.

Well, so far i can see the benefits - literally my eyesight has improved, my hearing good, skin better and alas, I've yet to lose weight. I've invested in a vitamin blender, food processor, ceramic knife (food won't oxide when sliced) and will have to save for an ozonator and pasta maker. Being a food lover and gourmand, going raw is quite a challenge. The recommendation is actually 30% cooked and 70% raw. If I keep this up longer, I may just join the ranks of raw food advocates - -the likes of actor Woody Harrelson, author Anthony Robbins , Tri-athlete Brendan Brazier and even Apple CEO Steve Job.