Surfing in La Union

I am a surf chick! I'm riding the waves on my pink and orange surf board like a pro. The beach photographers just can't get enough of me...

Glenn always says one should have goals! Admittedly, my fantasy might have gone overboard with me when coloring my surfboard. A five-hour bus ride in the middle of the night, from Manila to La Union, has these effects.

The goals for our surf weekend in La Union with our friends from Planet Zips were set for an unreachable high. From all the way up there they dropped deep when the first wave sent me and my (plain white) board crushing to the sandy bottom of the ocean. Oh, I just hope no photographer saw me!

Climbing back on my board I readjusted to a more humble goal: try not to kill myself. What I finally achieved (after an exhausting hour paddling in the waves) were a few well-balanced short surfs to shore.

La Union is a great place to surf or even to learn. The beach is clean and there are noticeable few vendors. The place has great waves (according to real surfers) yet is not flooded with tourists. For 400Pesos an hour, you can rent a surfboard and an instructor. For beginners I’d highly recommend an instructor. For half the price you can struggle the waves on your own, given the instructor believes you can handle the waves.

At night we fire danced on the beach to the live Samba tunes! We watched Chinese lanterns take off and chatted on the beach. Whoever got out of bed early joined the 7am yoga (guess who did and guess who did not ;-) ). What a great weekend on the beach with the Zippers! Thank you, friends!

Credit where credit is due

I do give the Pope a lot of credit for his bold step to endorse the use of condoms to fight the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, specifically HIV/Aids. This 'seismic shift', as local newspapers call the Pope's stand that “condoms are the lesser of two evils”, is monumental.

In my opinion, promoting the use of condoms acknowledges that modern day diseases have a tremendous impact on our lives, societies, economies and even religions. An impact which we cannot neglect but need to address.

When talking about HIV/Aids fingers quickly point to “sub-Saharan Africa” where the virus is spreading at the speed of light, killing people, paralyzing economies and whole countries. But, HIV/Aids is not an African disease! It’s not the problem “of the others”. Asia with its prospering sex-tourism and human trafficking is just a step away (if not there yet, looking at Cambodia and Thailand for example) from following down Africa’s path.

A total of 5,729 HIV/Aids incidents have been listed in the Philippines ever since the virus was detected here in 1984. Last year, 835 new cases of HIV/Aids have been reported in the Philippines. In 2010, the number rose to 1,305 new infections from January to October alone. The trend is going up. Quickly!

One individual out of this anonymous statistic is a friend of mine. If he could turn back time, I wonder if he'd choose death again. What would be more 'pro-life' than empowering people to protect themselves from contracting the deadly HI-Virus?

I very much welcome this 'seismic shift' within the Catholic Church!

Saturday Night Fever

Seeing "The Wedding Singer" was just the start to a great Saturday with the Zippers.

After the show we had dinner at this awesome burrito place "Ristas" near Greenhills! OMGosh, the burritos there are HUGE! "Man vs Godzilla" is their signature 2.5kg (5 pounds) meat loaded burrito. The name pretty much says it all! Whoever finishes the monster burrito in less than 90 minutes gets it for free! And, your name will appear on the winner's board. One dude managed to chow a Godzilla in 29 minutes. Despite being a vegetarian, I'd say "Respect!".

I've never seen such fast food, literally spoken! The resto is set up like "Subways". After choosing the default dish you want (naked or wet burrito etc.) you can choose the ingredients. Pretty neat, indeed!

After stuffing our faces with nachos, burritos, hot sauce, and other Mexican delights we moved on to "Dezato". This cute little and well hidden coffee shop impressed me with its unique board game concept. While sipping your coffee you can play various games, from Monopoly to Tabu, from Jenga to Guesstures. We all had a great time watching Reg (alias Sam) gesture a dress by wildly swinging his arms behind his back (salsa queen?) and Jamie mimicking a duck by walking like an Egyptian.

Great fun with great people! I can't wait for our next night out!

Punta Fuego Regatta - TS 3

Sailing is a great sport! Especially if there is wind. Without wind sailing becomes a excruciating and sweaty social experiment. How many hours can you endure with your skipper, trapped on a 1.5 x 1.5 meter trampoline, before one of you either drowns himself, or strangles the other with one of the many sheets on the boat, or before both of you capsize the boat fighting over the last drop of mineral water?

Luckily, none of the above happened during the latest Regatta of this year's Traveler Series. Despite the lack of wind the mood on the 18 Hobie Cats, two Getaways, 12 Optimists and six 30+ feet mono hull boats was surprisingly good.

On day one of the two day event we managed to sail three races. The word "race" might give a wrong impression of the action on the water. Colorful sails were propped by tired arms and legs just to keep them from collapsing. Instead of racing we snailed around the race course.

In light wind conditions a light crew is definitely a benefit. "Light" in Hobie Cat language means 285 pounds. Glenn and I are just 2 pounds above the minimum weight requirement! Perfect for last weekend's wind conditions.
I'm sure the skippers of the heavier boats (I'm talking 400 pounds!) toyed with the idea to get rid of their heavy counterparts just to keep the boat afloat and moving at all!

Although we were able to maneuver the boat around the course on race day number two, the race committee canceled the race due to insufficient wind. After sitting out on the water and experimenting again on human behavior in distress (heat stroke, dehydration, boredom just to name a few) we snailed our boats back into the marina. At least I got two hours of light wind sailing practice in!

All in all we ended 8th place (out of 18 - not too bad). Since we didn't get to race 5 races, the minimum number of races to call this event a race, the Punta Fuego Regatta will not be counted in the Traveler Series. Which keeps team "Tiger Gambas" in 3rd place for now.

Advanced Diver!

Yes, that's what we are after successfully completing our course book and five cool dives!

Initially a bit disappointed with the "shallow course" work we eventually enjoyed the fact of learning a few new facts about diving. Most interesting of the five topics were the navigation, nitrox and deep dives!

I was surprised about my submerged navigational skills! Yes, you may laugh about women and directions. But I did swim a square and ended up at the point of origin. Square one, so to speak. Quite unexpected was the audience during that dive. A big fat octopus came crawling out his hide out. These creatures are far more yummy than pretty. Anyway, he was cool.

Our deep dive experience brought us to a 30 meter long wreck just a stone throw off the shore. 30 meters underwater we went into this very accessible and open wreck. Just enough to whet my appetite for more wreck diving!

Nitrox (or enriched / mixed air) was the most informative lesson to read up on. While this gas mix doesn't give you nitrogen narcosis you might suffer oxygen toxicity. I guess there is no hiding the fact, that we are simply not designed to live 30 meters below liquid surface. With 32% oxygen in our tanks we had around 40 minutes of air at an average depth of 21 meters.

And, best of all, we have (partially) figured out our camera case (30m) for our underwater camera (10m). At least we got some good snapshots!