Otherworldly

I may not blog as often, but I always make sure to have a blog up at the time of my birthday, whether a reflection, a recap, or just something to remember. No excuses!

1. My birthday weekend was jampacked to say the least because I was in Manila for one of my best friend’s wedding on Saturday the 20th, and my birthday was on the 21st. That meant friends from Jakarta flew home to Manila. Double happies.
2. I didn’t really have anything planned in terms of a celebration and just went with the waves. I had so much fun because I didn’t expect anything. I always have to remember that.
3. My birthday was a celebration in itself because a good friend whom I met through twitter years ago got me tickets to ABS-CBN’s noontime show ASAP but even grander as it was Star Magic’s 25th Anniversary! Needless to say, I saw most of the local celebrities. Giddy and totally fangirl-ed!
4. The weekend felt long and that was a great feeling because it meant I could treasure time with friends but at the same time when it was over it felt too short. Nevertheless whatever time we can get when we’re complete is a blessing in itself.
5. Do I feel any different turning a year older? Definitely not. Whoever said that age is just a number needs to get a Pulitzer Award for phrases, if there was any.
6. It’s my last year as a 20-something! I don’t feel any different. Maybe 30 finally will? We’ll have to see next year.

There it is, short and sweet. What will my 29th year bring in store for me? Will things be different next year or more or less the same? This year started on a good note with a new and a much more disciplined job which meant a bigger professional responsibility. I promise to learn and to always try my best to be happy, regardless of how old I am.

So today, we went up up and away to Osmeña Peak in the South of Cebu. Summertime dates should mean summer weather, right? Well we were wrong. In defense of that short but gruesome trek, now that I’m at home it wasn’t pretty bad. But this morning while I was struggling through the muddy trek soaking wet in rain, it was pretty damn bad.

We left the house a little after 4am and arrived Dalaguete around 7 after a pit stop at Jollibee Carcar for breakfast. Weather was still bright and sunny and because it was summer, I had thought it was going to be all clear skies. I’ve been dying to go to Osmeña Peak for ages but just never found the perfect time, and I thought (we all thought) that today would be it. Mother Nature did not agree. Once we left Carcar and proceeded to Sibonga all the way to Argao and Dalaguete, rains had already started to pour—not much, but consistent enough to keep the grounds wet and for sure soften the soil.

The ride up from Mantalongon Market to the entrance of Osmeña Peak was fairly easy because we had family cars and the roads were nice and very accessible for any 4×4’s. I was already starting to get wary because on the way up I could already see lots of fog encompassing the surrounding mountains, not letting us see the full view of the surrounding hills. My wariness was confirmed when we reached the top and the view above me was full of fog. It reminded me of the time we weren’t allowed to go up the One World Observatory and Empire State Building in NYC because there was no view due to the fog. Sigh. We soldiered on anyway! Locals around us urged us to switch from our shoes to rain boots and while others happily obliged, I wanted to keep my own because they were incredibly comfy. Once we started the trek, I saw the soil was completely wet and runny I decided to finally just rent those boots—this proved to be the best decision made today.

We hadn’t even reached the entrance yet and it was already a struggle because of the muddy soil and completely wet ground. The boots provided good grip, but it didn’t help that at every step of the way you had to make sure you didn’t slip and fall on your ass, or worse, your face. We took our own sweet time and probably honestly cursed the world for deciding to go on this trip that we knew wouldn’t give us stellar results. When we reached the top, there was no view but fog, we could hardly see anything except the rocks of the peak we were standing on and other people doing the same trek. Even coming back down was much worse because the rain started to get stronger and we were all dripping from hair to clothes. But with every travel near or far, it’s always an experience worth taking. Today’s experience didn’t completely swear me off Osmeña Peak, I will definitely come back at a dryer day because I already how it is and I’m sure it will be a much kinder trek the next time.

Looking back at it now, the short trek would have been really friendly without the wet land. It was less than 1km! It can be done by anyone. It was just a shame we went under less than favorable circumstances.