It's been 3 YEARS since everything in this post happened. I couldn't even locate the photos of this trip in my hard drive. 😅 Thank goodness there's Google Photos. I was able to retrieve all the photos I took using my Nexus 5 smartphone.
This is our first ever out-of-town trip with the team including the bosses (who flew in from the US) so it was a big deal for us to actually join this trip. It would be our first time to interact with them in a non-work setting which was really cool. It was our chance to get to know our team better and to build rapport with each other.
Our chosen destination: Cebu City!
Hello Cebu! 😀 |
Cebu is very popular among Koreans (alongside Boracay). They always mention that they want to go here. Good thing is that I had the chance to see what all the fuss what about, and to think that I had to hear the greatness of this city from foreigners! They knew something more about the Philippines than I do. 😅
The city is very well developed already. It's like Manila, but cleaner and less populated. You'd think you are somewhere in Korea because there are a lot of of establishments with Hangul signages.
From Mactan airport, we had to travel by land for more than 5 hours to go to Tipolo Resort which was in Moalboal.
During our stay, there were actually more foreigners than local visitors there. Hey fellow Pinoys! Where are you at?
Wale sharks in Oslob
Of course we can't go to Cebu without visiting the gentle whale sharks of Oslob, right? This is a very popular tourist attraction in Cebu. I've never seen one in real life so this was my chance.
Because I still don't know how to swim during this time (fast forward to now - I can now tread in water and actually enjoy cliff diving! Hah!), I couldn't get close to the whales. I just stayed floating beside the boat, holding for dear life to one of the bamboo sides because the current was strong. I actually only saw glimpses of the sharks underwater. 🦈
Snorkeling
We also did some bit of snorkeling in some parts of the ocean. I was really so not used to the water that even though I was wearing a life vest, I panicked because I coudn't reach anything below with my feet.
I remember we tried to search for turtles. Some of my colleagues were able to see one, but unfortunately it swam further away and most of us weren't able to see them. 😶
Canyoneering
This was the best part of our trip. All of us signed up for the canyoneering adventure, wherein the route ends at the infamous Kawasan Falls. This activity involved hiking on rocks and jumping off to the running waters of lagoons below. Before the trip, we were actually already watching videos online about this activity, and we were worried the most on how we would jump to the waters because there were rocks beside the water. Well we learned it ourselves during the actual canyoneering activity, and fortunately no one got injured! The activity was a success!
I have no footages of our adventure (because I don't have an action camera, or a waterproof one) but I remember everything like it was yesterday. The start of our trail was a jump off from a ~10ft rock cliff, and once we started, there was no turning back. Until now, this experience proved to be one of the best outdoor activities I've done in my life so far. I didn't know how to swim back then but I was surprised myself that I wasn't really afraid to jump. I get nervous when walking near the cliff but the technique, as I have learned during a recent cliff diving activity I did, was to not stay too long at the edge of the cliff contemplating about the jump. Just walk there, look at the waters below, plan how you'd jump and estimate where you'll land, and just take the leap of faith and JUMP! I found out that the longer you stay at the edge, the more paranoid you'll be, and the scarier it would feel.
Every jump I made gave me a wild rush of adrenaline. I super loved it! The water was really cool and refreshing and it washed away the tiredness that we were feeling after a few minutes of hiking.
Here's a footage of our trip (made by my colleagues) with shots mostly from the canyoneering part.
(📹: Ino S. & Erik R.)
I'd return in a heartbeat to Cebu to experience these all over again. I'ts so nice recalling these happy memories. Thank you friends, and hope we could do something like this in the future again!
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