The following schedule of activities were arrived at during the meeting on 07 December 2008.  In attendance were Rey Cuyugan, Jon Rivera, Jigz Pabale and Ian Santos (this is Ian’s first attendance for over a year):

 

27 - 28 December 2008  - Mt. San Cristobal, Dolores, Quezon
	Category:	Minor B (less than 10 hrs. total trekking time)
	Budget:	P700 (estimate only), jeep rental - San Pablo to Mt. San Cristobal - to be shared by participants
		P300 (estimate) round trip fare Pasay/San Pablo
		P80/100/120 - climb fee (regular/proby/others)
		P50/75/100  - surcharge for non-attendance in pre-Climb  meeting
	Restrictions:
		1.	Mandatory for those intending to join the coming Mt. Banahaw traverse
		2.	Open to non-members.
		3.	Intending participants must contact Rey or Jon on  or before 1700H 24 December 2008
04 January 2009 - General Meeting, post-climb/pre-climb
	Time:	1600H - 1900H
	Venue:	VFP, Arroceros, Ermita, Manila
10 - 14 January 2009  - Mt. Banahaw traverse (Kinabuhayan - Guis-guis - Sariaya)
	Category:	Major A (more than 20 hrs. total trekking time)
	Budget:	P700 (estimate only), jeep rental - San Pablo to Kinabuhayan - to be shared by participants
		P350 (estimate) round trip fare Pasay/San Pablo/Sariaya
		P100/120/150 - climb fee (regular/proby/others)
		P75/100/150  - surcharge for non-attendance in pre-Climb meeting
		P50 - miscellaneous
	Restriction:	Open only to those who joined the Mt. San Cristobal preparatory climb (except for expected balikbayan guests who requested this climb)
17 - 18 and 24 - 25 January 2009  - First Aid/AR/CPR/AED Sessions
	Time:	1000 - 1700H
	Venue:	VFP, Arroceros, Ermita, Manila
	Fee per day attended:
		P25 for repeat attendees - FA Sessions only
		P50 for first timers - FA Sessions only
		P50/75/100 - CPR Session - regular/proby/others
	Restriction:    Open to non-members.
01 February 2009 - General Meeting
7 - 8 February 2009 - BTC-A - Trekking, General
	Time:	1000 - 1700H
	Venue:	VFP, Arroceros, Ermita, Manila
	Fee:	P50 - repeat attendee, non-member
		P200 - first timer, proby
		P250 - first timer, non-member
		FOC - repeat attendee regular & proby
14 - 15 February 2009 - Mt. Manabo Anniversary Climb, Lipa City
	Category:	Fun (less than 5 hrs. total trekking  time)
	Budget:	P300 (estimate only)transportation - Pasay to jump-off point, round trip
		P60/80/100 - climb fee (regular/proby/others)
		P25/50/75  - surcharge for non-attendance in pre-Climb meeting
		P50 - miscellaneous
	Restriction:	Open to non-members who attended the pre-climb meeting
	Note:	Planned overnight swimming session to be arranged with Dra. Lenn.  If swimming doesn’t push through, then overnight stay in Mt. Manabo
22 February 2009 - BTC-B - Knot Tying
	Time:	1000 - 1700H
	Venue:	VFP, Arroceros, Ermita, Manila
	Fee:	P100 - first timer, proby
		P150 - first timer, non-member
		FOC - repeat attendee regular & proby
01 March 2009 - BTC-C - Orienteering
	Time:	1000 - 1700H
	Venue:	VFP, Arroceros, Ermita, Manila
	Fee:	P100 - first timer, proby
		P150 - first timer, non-member
		FOC - repeat attendee regular & proby
01 March 2009 - General Meeting
	Time:	1700 - 1900H
14- 15 March 2009 - Mt. Makiling - Dr. Ray Pimentel Memorial Climb
	Category:	Minor A (less than 15 hrs. total trekking  time)
	Route:	Via San Bartolome, Sto. Tomas, Batangas
	Budget:	P200 (estimate) round trip fare Pasay/Santo Tomas
		P80/100/120 - climb fee (regular/proby/others)
		P50/75/100  - surcharge for non-attendance in pre-Climb meeting
	Restriction:	Open to non-members who attended the pre-climb meeting
28- 29 March 2009 - BRC
	Time:	0900 - 1700H
	Venue:	Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig, M.M.
	Fee:	P600 - first timer, non-member
		P500 - first timer, proby
		P350 - repeat attendee non-member
		P300 - repeat attendee proby
		P250 - repeat attendee regular member
	Restriction:	Open to non-members
05 April 2009 - General Meeting
08 - 11 April 2009 - Mt. Halcon or Corregidor
	Note:	To be finalized later.
25 - 26 April 2009 - Rock Rappelling - DRT, Bulacan
	Note:	To be finalized later.
03 May 2009 - General Meeting
23 - 25 May 2009 - Isla Verde Outing
	Category:	Fun (no trekking involved; snorkeling and swimming only)
	Budget:	P600 transportation - Pasay to site - round trip
		P60/80/100 - club fee (regular/proby/others)
		P25/50/75  - surcharge for non-attendance in pre-Climb meeting
		P50 - miscellaneous
	Restriction:	Full open to non-members
07 Jun 2009 - General Meeting
05 July 2009 - General Meeting
02 August 2009 - General Meeting
06 September 2009 - General Meeting
04 October 2009 - General Meeting
03 - 04 November 2009 - FA/AR/CPR - Kabayan, Benguet
05 - 08 November 2009 - Mt. Pulag, Akiki-akiki or Mt. Timbac
	Note:	To be finalized later.
28 -30 November 2009 - Christmas Outing
	Note:	To be finalized later.
06 December 2009 - General Meeting

First, there were around 15 prospective participants.  As the date neared, the drop-outs increased for various reasons.  Finally, there were four adults and one child left.  The adults were prexy Rey Cuyugan and his wife Jo, probies Lhei Pineda and Jen Chan.  The child was Andrea ‘Dia’ Viray, a neighbor of the prexy.  Both Lhei and Jen were first-timers, while Dia was on her second trip to the island.  She was with her family when they were invited to join the trip last May, this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, the trip pushed through Saturday, November 29th to Sunday, the 30th. The planned lechon (spit roasted pig) and Kalderetang Kambing (goat meat cooked a particular way with sauce) were cancelled earlier.  Luckily, the prexy had not made any firm arrangements during his earlier trips to the island, otherwise, the five of them would have had lechon and kaldereta running out of their ears.  Of course, the neighborhood friends would have liked it.

As usual, the group had packed-lunch on day one, soon after arriving on the island just after 1100H.  Rey, Jo and Dia set up a summer-type gazebo-tent at the still roofless extension to the future ‘clinic’ and vacation house owned by the couple, while Lhei and Jen set up their shared dome-type tent at the open space between the room and the breakwater.  At the time, these seemed like good moves: the sound of the waves, the cool breeze, and the open sky.

After lunch, the ladies went to the beach area accompanied by local friends Linda and Lita.  Rey had arranged for Lita to provide kitchen services for the group.  Rey stayed behind to putter around.

For dinner, they had pork adobo prepared at home by Jo, and charcoal broiled eggplants with sauteed bagoong (tiny krills in fermented paste form).  The adobo, two kilos of it, were meant only for D-1 dinner.  It lasted well until breakfast the next day, with enough to share with the families of Linda and Lita.

Bedtime in the island, as in all rural areas in the country, comes early.  What with the barangay operated generator providing electricity only from 1800H to 2100H.  When the club first started visiting, the only power came from solar panels for those lucky enough to have afforded these (P14K back in the early 90’s, now at least P60K for the bare system).

The first night started out real cozy, with the stars showing and the strong breeze refreshing.  By midnight, occasional wind-driven shower fell and the roar of the breakers came louder.  By 0200H, the shower had changed into a continuous drizzle, the winds had grown stronger, and splash of the breakers were forcing seawater into Lhei and Jen’s tent.  Amazingly, Jen managed to stay asleep until woken up by Lhei.  Rey, Jo and Dia were getting wet under the flimsy summer-gazebo.  By 0300H, succor came.  Couples Luteng and Linda came to ask the group to move over to their place, thinking, correctly, that the group must be getting wet.  Only Dia and Jen managed to sleep through till daybreak.  Lhei, Jo and Rey waited it out conversing with Linda.

 

 

Day-two, Sunday, was overcast and drizzly, but the ladies managed to go into water, go paddling,  and, later in the day, visit inner parts of the island. Jen and Lhei went into a spending spree, buying local products: buri woven mats and bags, and pakaskas. 

The last item is a sweet product made from the cooked sap of the buri palm.  Isla Verde is one of the few places where the product is still made. Children love to eat this by scrapping off the sweet (’kaskas’ means to scrape off) from the container using their teeth.  Except for the bit of plastic twine used to secure the cylinder-shaped container, everything in the product comes from the buri palm tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch was rice with tinolang manok-Tagalog.  This is native chicken cooked in broth with green papaya cubes.  Since Rey had long arranged for two native chickens, there was enough to last till dinner-time again and still give portions to the same families.  For merienda (afternoon snacks) they had tamales (local version of the Mexican tamales) and suman-sa-lihiya (glutinous rice soaked in water with lye extracted from wood ash, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled in water for four to five hours) sweetend with latik (syrup made from coconut milk and brown sugar, or preferably muscovado).  The tamales came from the Batangas City public market, while the suman were earlier ordered by Rey and made by Linda and Lita.

After a day of swimming, snorkeling and looking around, the group had fried, freshly caught alumahan (a variety of mackerel) and more of the tinola for dinner.  Since the sun never really showed up the whole day, the group decided to break ’camp’ and spend the last night at Luteng and Linda’s place.

Early Monday, 1st of December, the group was up by 0320H, had early breakfast of bread, cheese and coffee (except Dia who had choco-drink). By 0430H, they were at Mahabang Buhangin (literally ‘long stretch of sand’) waiting for the motor boat St. Paul which arrived at around 0510H.  By 0610H, they were back at the docking area in Tabangao, and were soon on the way home.  Rey, Jo and Dia were home before 1000H.  Lhei reported getting home before 1030H. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Despite the early morning evacuation, the group enjoyed their stay in the island.

 Note:  All photos were taken by Rey Cuyugan which explains why he is not in any of the pictures.