egrets of CandabaThe wetlands of Candaba in Pampanga is (2nd) home to a variety of migratory birds during the months of November to February (late autumn - winter in the northern hemisphere). The birds are plentiful during those months.I revisited the bird sanctuary last weekend on a mountain bike (68km one way, whew!). Biking to a wildlife/bird sanctuary seemed like a good "clean and green" statement to start the year :).The fields around the sanctuary were being prepare for planting. During the rainy season these fields are underwater so the...

Time to stretch those muscles and shed off that holiday fat. Last weekend I headed with an MTB buddy to the wildlife reserve in Candaba, Pampanga. Its time to promote a clean and green environment, so going to a wildlife reserve on a bike seemed like a nice "clean and green" statement (for my first ride for 2009). It was 68km (one way) of non stop pedalling along highways passing through several towns (Meycauayan, Marilao, Balagtas, Guiguinto, Pulilan, Plaridel, and Baliuag) of the province of Bulacan, no trails this time. We practically ...

A real moody RealIt's one of those unplanned "let's go somewhere this weekend" trips with my housemates. Our destination: Real in Quezon on the eastern side of Luzon, facing the Pacific Ocean. Several points had been raised just hours before the trip like: its constantly raining in Real nowadays, wasn't there a typhoid outbreak in Real several weeks back. These were met with a nonchallant "So?". The final decision: strap two bikes at the back of the car, pack lightly, and head to Real at 10PM.By midnight we were sipping hot "goto-Batangas" (a ...

Another Lantaw photo made it to Outdoor Photographer's web gallery. A huge part of the credit goes to my wife, who was my assistant and "wave spotter" when I took the photo :).

Read more of our Gumasa trip here.

fish landingPart of the reason why we stayed at the fishing village rather than the resorts in Gumasa was to be near the small-scale fish landings in the area. Thats where you can get the freshest of catches at a bargain, before they bring the bounty to the city (General Santos City) where the price doubles.The boats started coming in at 2AM in the morning. These outrigger boats went out to sea the previous day and they fish close to shore using spear guns and small nets (and hopefully not with dynamites!).The waves were still lulling me to sl...