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when i checked my email at work this morning i opened a message sent by a former german colleague of mine who is now based in brussels, and the subject of his email was: First ever baby-butanding discovered in the Philippines. it was a very cute title, i thought, and i assumed that maybe it was going to be a joke, but i was absolutely floored when ( Read more... )

for people such as myself, the news on the extension of mt. banahaw's closure for another 3 years is a huge disappointment. i have joined a total of 67 climbs since i took up the sport in 2003, and count as among my achievements my ascents to such glorious peaks as those of mount apo (twice), mount pulag (seven times), mount halcon, mount kinabalu ( Read more... )

as an outdoorsman, i have had a keen, if not feverish, interest in the ongoing online poll for the search of the new 7 wonders of nature. i myself have cast my choices at least 3 times. of course, i've added votes for our very own natural wonders -- not because i have this blind belief that we have the absolute best nature sites in the world, bar ( Read more... )

i spent a day and a half in the towns of real, infanta, and general nakar in quezon, and there were fewer times when i felt so amazingly and helplessly useless. as i unabashedly reported previously, SMTD has changed our ETD at least three times already, and i was last informed that 6am would be our assembly time. at way past 10am, we were still at ( Read more... )