Before I begin, no, the Canyon Ranch is not a tourist destination. Yet, a lot of OFWs and foreigners with Filipina wives are trooping to these hills just north of Tagaytay. The Canyon Ranch is one of the newer posh village subdivisions down south in Carmona, Cavite. The area is elevated, sprawling in the hills that could be mistaken as part of the cool-breezed Tagaytay.

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Pagsanjan Falls is believed to be the best water falls in the Philippines, or so I thought. About 2 hours drive to the south in Laguna via the South Super Highway (SSH), you’ll just have to turn right at the end of the Calamba junction. Go straight until you reach Bo. Pinagsanhan in Sta. Cruz, then turn right until you find some of the nearby lodges where you can stay overnight.

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In the spirit of the new year and to celebrate 2007, we’d like to thank all our avid readers and fellow bloggers a Happy New Year. We were too busy during the recent holidays that we haven’t really came up with some promos so we’d like to catch up, if it’s okay with you.

We’re giving away free tickets to the 2nd World Pyro Olympics 2006. Here are the simple mechanics:
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On my over-the-weekend trip to Legazpi City in Albay for a talk, we were able to visit a few historical spots and one of them was the sunken Church of Cagsaua.

Although the weather wasn’t really cooperating with us, I was able to take several pictures of the place. A steel plaque was affixed by the Philippine Historical Committee on the outer wall of the church tower in 1954. It says…
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If you happen to visit Baguio City one of these days, don’t forget to include the Lourdes Grotto in your itenerary. Located on a fairly steep hill in the western part of Baguio City, the image of the Lady of Lourdes perches 252 steps above the ground.

Just got this travel package from the Inbox yesterday:

Come and join us! We still have slots available for the Donsol Trip on April 20-23, 2006.
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Haven’t flown for quite a while now. Much of my recent travels involved land trips because I feel that I could get much more out of it. While taking an airplane is definitely more convenient, I get to take a lot of pictures of people and places along the way when on the road.

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One of the few yet popular bakeshop and pasalubong stores in Iloilo City is the Biscocho Haus. Over half a dozen branches spread all over Iloilo catering to travellers and tourists, the Original Biscocho Haus has survived the test and taste of time.

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My longest road trip ever was the one I had way back in 1998. I was here in Manila still studying in college at the Ateneo. The sem break is up ahead so me and some of my friends planned a road trip over the vacation week.

The itenerary — Manila -> Naga City -> Samar -> Tacloban & Ormoc City, Leyte -> Cebu City -> Iloilo City.

I had about Php5,000 as pocket money and we talked to a lot of our friends and dorm mates who lived along our route. It was just the three of us and we took a bus (Highway Express) from Cubao to Naga City. It was an 8 to 10 hour drive which costs us around Php350 a seat. The Highway Express is probably the best bus you could ever get for a long drive. Its interior is more like that of the jumbo jet with two aisles separating 3 individual seats (no seatmates) and it has an onboard CR and videoke. We spent about 3 days in Naga City and stayed at one of our friend’s house there.

Then, we were off to Matnog which is on the southermost tip of Luzon. From Matnog, our bus waited for the barge to carry it across to the port of Samar. From Samar pier, our bus went straight to Leyte, cruising along the San Juanico Bridge. The second stop was Tacloban. Since we didn’t know anyone in that town, we went straight to Ormoc City where one of my friends lived. He didn’t live in Ormoc City actually but a neighboring town called Isabela which is about 30 minutes by car.

In Isabela, Leyte, we spent another 4 days doing some rapelling and range shooting. One of my friend’s dad was a senior executive of a fertilizer company based there. We had a great time since we had access to all ameneties and stuff. We went on night-outs in Ormoc where I saw the small church where Richard and Lucy got married.

On the fourth day, we took a ferry boat to Cebu City and meet some more friends. We had a blast in Cebu – the Highlands, Waterfront hotel and even more night outs.

It was supposed to be an overnight stay for me so I bought a plane ticket to Iloilo for the following day. Since there’s only 1 daily trip from Cebu to Iloilo and flight’s at 5:00AM, I had no choice but to take it. My other option was to take a ferry but it would take about half a day since the boat would have to go around Negros Island to reach Iloilo.

Anyway, I opted for the plane which will only be 15 minutes in the air so good for me. The ticket then was roughly Php999 only but it was already expensive. Since we were out the whole night, I never got the chance to catch a nap. I had to leave for the airport by 4AM but unfortunately I overslept and woke up about 4:45 already. I rushed out of the house without saying goodbye to my hosts and even had to climbed over their gate.

About 10 minutes before my plane is scheduled to leave, I was still in the cab rushing for Mactan Airport. Just as I arrive at the airport, a couple of their personnel were already escorting me straight to the tarmac. It was so close that the moment I step into the cabin of the plane, the stewardess closed the doors. Yeah, I was the last one in and people were all staring at me.

Fifteen minutes later, I was back in Iloilo and went straight home to Guimaras.

I didn’t really have concrete plans of going anywhere for the Holiday weekend. I was thinking of going home to Guimaras but the 4 day-long weekend wasn’t enough and worth it. Plane tickets are skyrocketing and the timing is just not good; besides, I couldn’t get any plane reservations.

And there was I, hoping to get a good rest and stay home to catch up with cleaning my pad and do some reading or maybe play Battle Realms up to sawa. Then, my office phone rang and an old friend asked me if I wanted to go to Vigan for the Holy Week. Vigan, I ask? Well, yeah, I nodded.

Next thing I knew, I was travelling with my friend and her high school barkada to Vigan City, Ilocos Sur. There were just the six of us so they brought a car for the trip. I must admit, it is the longest trip I ever had – 13 hours on the road stretching over 390 kilometers of asphalt and cement-covered highways. Manila to Bulacan to Pampanga to Tarlac to Panggasinan then La Union and Vigan, Ilocos Sur. We left at 7 in the morning and arrived at the heart of the city just a few minutes past 8 in the evening.

The town was full of people, most of them were tourists roaming the plazas, bazaars, and cafes and stalls along the streets. Dozens of horse-drawn calesas pass by. When is this place?, I asked myself in amazement. It really looks like colonial Spanish – everything from the brick roads, adobe walls and capiz shells of the centuries old villas.

We scouted around for possible vacancies in nearby inns. Nothing, zilch, nada – not a single room available to comfort our aching body and sullied eyes. The place was just full of visitors and foreigners from everywhere. We resorted to looking for some other place in the outskirts of the town proper but to no avail. Just our luck, an old relative of one of our companions was just in the nearby barrio but we still had to ask around to look for it.

It was around 10 in the evening when we had a good rest sharing a papag provided for us by a long lost relative. Alas, a good night sleep after the grueling hours of traveling across five provinces.

We woke up early the next day to get a good bath – well, a decent bath in the open deep-well was all I had but it was cool and refreshing. The rest of the day was spent around the antiquated yet beautiful city of Vigan. Such marvel of Spanish colonial houses, villas, churches and assortments – I just couldn’t believe my eyes! Pictures taken here and there, eating empanadas and chichacorn and buying all sorts of antique goods took most of our day but most of all I enjoyed the calesa ride!

We visited some of the notable spots around town – the Crisologo Museum, the old church and bell tower (shown in the movie, Ang Panday), the pot factory, Plaza Burgos, the Heritage Village (a seen in the movie Jose Rizal) and many more.

We’re supposed to proceed to Pagudpod the next day. It’s a 110-km or so ride from Vigan but we incidentally bumped into somebody we knew who just came from there. They told us that Pagudpod was too crowded and they had to knock on the baranggay captain’s house to spend the night. Worried and disappointed that we’ll end up like them, we decided to stay in town and look for another beach nearby.

The beaches at San Esteban, an hour’s ride from Vigan, was the closest and nicest we could find. Nice white sandy beach, scorching sun and salty wind greeted us in the early morning breeze. The place was full too; just our luck we arrived earlier that day. I also had the chance to get a crack on the portable videoke system installed right there on the sand! And the halo-halo was just as great for just 10 bucks a serving!

On our way back to town, we passed by a grotto situated on the beach front facing China Sea. It was windy and the trek to the statue was hard and slippery considering the strong gust of wind and the moss-laden rocks that we had to traverse. Right on top of it, I marveled at the golden sunset as I watch it being swallowed by the sea.

The four days seemed to pass by so fast. We left Vigan city at mid noon of Sunday and arrived back to Manila past 2:30 in the early morning of Monday.

It was a sweet and exciting escape!

Welcome to the Pinoy Travel Blog. This is just one of the collective group blogs we are launching within the year. We aim to create the largest and most organized blog network in the Philippines.

Our current list of blogs in the network includes:

• Pinoyblog.com
• PinoyTechBlog.com
• PinoySportsBlog.com
• PinoyTravelBlog.com