After summer, and when the rainy season would be here, I plan to go inland – go mountain climbing or spelunking.

I am making myself a list of things that I must have:

Flashlights – can’t do without them, especially when it is dark (duh). I would need to have those water resistant ones, in case we would go spelunking in half-submerged in water caves.

Tent – my sis Jiji recommended me either a Coleman brand or North Face tent, she said it is durable. I should be picking the frog-type. I do not know what she meant exactly but I guess it must be for people who sleep like a frog.

Habagat water-proof bag – I am very fond of the Habagat brand, as its products are of quality and very durable. In the picture it is not actually the water proof bag, but my own bag. It is just for display purposes.

Merrell shoes – they are cheaper than North Face or Timberland, but it is durable as well. Well I have this already so might as well cross this out.

What else have I missed? Well, I plan to stash it in my dream car that would transport me to the places of adventure, so I should have them all ready when the need arises.

I am taking mental note that bat always exit out of the cave to the left. Or is it a fallacy? I may soon find out. Caves, I am coming!

I had the opportunity to go with my distant relatives to the beautiful inland mountains in Santander, Cebu. One of my cousins was getting married. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera at that time so I wasn’t able to capture it’s beauty. I only had Ayn Rand’s Virtue of Selfishness to accompany me during those dull moments.

The place we were staying was really inland, about 3 kilometers from the coastal highway, but the road going up the mountain was probably 10 kilometers, winding up and sometimes down until we reached near the summit where one of my relatives was residing. What surprised me was that as we were going up, there were bungalow houses, modern houses, two-three storey houses, and some had a garage with ford escort, Honda CRVs and SUVs. Most of them have really loud sound systems like each of them was a disco house. Apparently there were lots of people there who were rich.

On top of Santander was a really good view of Cebu’s southern tip, and the neighboring island, Negros. It was cold there too. Midday’s hotness is like a 6 am breezy dawn.

I had a good time until we were about to go home. We were on two vehicles for we brought like the whole baranggay on this occasion, and one of them broke down. While it was revving up and changed gear, it made a sound. But my uncle who was a mechanic said it could only be the timing belt loose and we can fix that when we reach Cebu. But the worse part was that as we went downhill, the front of the jeep suddenly hissed with smoke, and apparently for some reason it overheat. My uncle tried to fix it but he said they need to replace the water pump. There was a hole leaking the water out and he didn’t know why.

We were forced to stay another night and I missed class because of that. But of course who wouldn’t be happy getting stranded in a cool beautiful place, escape the monotony of school, and really have a good reason?