Mt. Daraitan x Tinipak River

Had my first experience of Mt. Daraitan (one of the mountains in my bucket list) last March 17, 2016 with my workmates. It was my first time to hike with my officemates and so with others from our group. That's why I got really excited about it! Hihi.

We left at past 4AM from Makati City and we arrived at the jump off at around 7AM. 😬

Here are my hike/workmates having their cup of Taho before heading to the jump off. Mmm.. Rapbeh!  😂

Then it was followed by a selfie upon the start of our hike. (Hi, Jonabels!)

First picture from the mountain. Yay!

Then, a short break in Camp 1.

And oh, I haven't mentioned that a dog was following us during the hike. How cute, right?! Hihihi. (Hi, boss!)

We were calling him "Brownie" and this guy right here became his master that day. Lels. Brownie's been getting a lot of food from him, btw. 😇

Here we are during our "snack time". 🐷

Then another time for break. And see? Master Jayson is giving Brownie a food again. 😬

More hike and another snapshot from the mountain. 

Into the woods. Hehe.

Then we reached Camp 3, where food & drinks were being sold, as well as these pretty souvenirs with real butterflies which were all bought by our international companion slash team visitor. Mehehe. Thanks, Mike! You're so kind! 💚

Just a couple of minutes more, then ta-da! We already reached the summit. WUHOOO! Congrats to us, guys! 

Sharing this cute boomerang of us. Hehehe.

Some more pictures at the summit. ☺️ Hayyy. How breathtaking! 

And look, Brownie was still with us. He was just a little tired though. LOL.

More pictures.. pictures..

Spot our lady tour guide who was all effort taking a picture of us. DIBAAA?!

Meanwhile, here are some of my favorite pictures that day. 😬

Ako kasi yung photographer nung mga yan kaya favorite ko. Mehehe!

Kidding aside, after our super sulit na kodakan at the summit, here we were during our lunch. Kain tayo, guyzzz! 🍴

Tapos, ayun.. ito na naman po ang "dog whisperer" ng grupo. 😂

We rested for some time after eating. Then off we go, traversing our way back from Mt. Daraitan. 

Suskopo yung sikip sa mga bato na yan. Talaga naman! The struggle is real! Haha. 😋

Until we we're finally here! On a flat surface! (Eh bakit tubig yang nasa pic? Hahaha.) Labo!

 You can drink and refill water from here actually. Hihi.

More walk until we reached the camp site where our workmates a.ka. #TeamChillax were waiting for us. 😎 Hehehe.

And oh, thank you, Trustwave for our string bags! 💚

 We had our lunch here at the camp site and there was our colleagues busy cooking for our food and waiting for us. Thanks, #TeamChillax! We appreciate all of you and your efforts gazillion times! I know that those efforts meant carrying super heavy stuff just for our food, drinks and all. Hihi. 💚💚💚 That's why, THANK YOU AGAIN! 😬 Labyu, guys! 😙

Moving on, after we fed our hungry tummies, we proceeded with our next itinerary which is going to the cave and Tinipak River. 

Here's a sneak peek of it, people. 😬

I don't know why, but I love this stairs going down the river. And oh, hello there, Mike!

More more pictures of the beautiful Tinipak River. 😍

Was it captivating enough? Hehe.

Bridge going to the cave.

 And here's my one and only matinong picture inside the cave that day. Haha. Nakakainis sa sobrang ganda, candid pa. LOLLL.

The cave wasn't that big though. It was dark inside and was slippery as what I expected it to be. One of the highlights going there though is the "mini pool". Just refer to the picture above of what I was talking about. 😬

We all had so much fun dipping in this "mini pool" that I actually didn't have any plans of swimming there but my dear colleagues were too inviting. Haha. That's why I gave in. No pictures anymore because all of us were so busy in the "mini pool" that we enjoyed very muchhh! 💦

Fast forward to the happenings that day, when we went out of the cave, look what we saw:

Yes! It was a photoshoot! 📷 A pre-nup to be exact.

Pak na pak, dibaaa? 

So yeah, here's a couple more pictures of the Tinipak River and what activities we did during our remaining hours there. ☺️

We just enjoyed the view and took a few more pictures.

Then.. CLIFF DIVING. Yayyy!

And some refilling of Spring water near the river.

These aren't ours, btw. Haha. Ours were in the huge rocks that you saw previously. 😉

Here are the "DB peeps" getting ready for another cliff diving. Hehe.

And before going home, we finally had our team picture that day. Yeyyy!

It was surprisingly beautiful! (Though it wasn't in a perfect angle. Hehe.)

So, there was my Mt. Daraitan x Tinipak River experience. 😬

THANK YOU SO MUCH, TEAM AND THE MANAGEMENT FOR ANOTHER FUN EXPERIENCE OUTDOORS! 💚💚💚 I was in a cloud 9 feeling the whole day because I got to experience another moment like this with such an amazing bunch of people like you guys. I feel really really grateful for being in a team like this - so accommodating, so kind, so generous and yes, also, so COOL that I couldn't ask for more. 😁

You might not know this, but in my previous company, I didn't really got to experience much activities like this because we work on different schedules and most of us tend not to attend activities like this because attending one means that every expense would come from your own pocket. Unlike here in my current company that everything's almost free, that your management is really exerting an effort to reward you with things like this. And I'd like to believe that not everyone is privileged enough to have this kind of experience, right? That's why, thank You, thank You also so much, Lord for this! YOU ARE THE BEST!

And to end this blog.. I can say that legitimately, I am really.. #BLESSED. 😇

That's it for now.

 Until then,

Dona