Author: Kara Santos

Game Review: The Last of Us

The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog (the same team behind the hit Uncharted series) and published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 3. Released just last June 2013, the video game has already reached critical acclaim, with many gaming publications giving it a perfect score.

Having finished playing it a couple of weeks ago, I totally agree. This is just one mind-blowingly amazing game. Playing it was such an intensely riveting experience. Yes, it may have been brutal and violent, but in between all that blood and gore was a powerful story and flawed characters that I cared about.

As author Karl who I lent the game to said in this awesome 8 List article on life lessons we can learn from The Last of Us said: “If you are at all interested in video games and the narrative power they possess and the fuzzy feeling of happy happy joy joy they can imbue, then you must (YOU MUST) play this.”

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Kawil Tours: A Meaningful Journey Awaits

I have long been intrigued by the island of Culion. I’ve heard of stories from intrepid travelers who have gone there of how amazingly beautiful the islands and the waters are and how warmly the people welcome them wherever they go. It’s not a surprise, since many of its inhabitants were cast off by their own families onto the island. Visitors are rare so they are warmly welcomed by all the locals.

Unlike more well-known destinations in Palawan like Puerto Princesa, Coron, and El Nido, Culion, on the northernmost tip of Palawan in the Calamian Archipelago, is mostly known for being a former leper colony. While the cure for leprosy was developed in the 1980’s and the island has been declared leprosy-free by the World Health Organization (WHO), the stigma has somewhat remained. Its isolation for more than a century has kept the island understandably off the tourist radar.   Continue reading “Kawil Tours: A Meaningful Journey Awaits”

Travel Gear I Use

To be honest, I don’t really like shopping. I find department stores overwhelming and tend to go there only if there’s something I really need to buy. My closet is filled mostly with multipurpose cargo pants, dry-fit sports jerseys and souvenir shirts from different provinces. Not exactly your typical fashionista fare. But there are times when I do head to the mall to buy travel gear and accessories. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the travel gear I frequently use. Click here to see my previous posts on travel gear.

MULTI-PURPOSE HEADWARE

This is the only travel accessory I really tend to splurge on. I’ve been a fan of multi-functional headwear ever since the early days of reality show Survivor. I use these mostly as a bandanna, motorcycle dustmask and a blindfold for sleeping on buses and planes. It’s also pretty useful as a wristband for trekking (and wiping off sweat), headband & tube top for swimming.

I really love the Marvel limited edition series from Headware and currently own 5 out of 21 designs. The Spiderman mask (which is pretty hard to find in stores) is a favorite. Including the Buffs from Buffwear & cheaper variety multi-purpose headwear that you can get in department stores, I own about 20 pieces of this and counting (couldn’t find the other pieces for the photo) :p

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Collectible Items IRL (In Real Life) Travel

Updated February 2016

In the latest edition of video game Tomb Raider, Lara Croft can choose to deviate from the main quest and search for relics and GPS caches hidden off the beaten path. In Arkham Asylum, Batman can opt to track down the Riddler’s trophies while trying to foil the Joker’s plot.

Many video games, especially the role-playing/adventure types, usually have sidequests where the goal is to collect certain items. Usually these items are not really essential to finishing the overall game. Most of the time it’s just for bragging rights. Among the memorable collectible items in games I have played are those rare cards from the Triple Triad card mini-game in Final Fantasy VIII, the insanely hard to complete 100 stray beads from the game Okami, and memories and bottles in Alice: The Madness Returns.

Credit: The Last of Us meme

The latest game I played, The Last of Us, had me searching for Firefly pendants, training manuals and comic books while trying to fight off the infected and survive in a brutal post-apocalyptic world. Continue reading “Collectible Items IRL (In Real Life) Travel”

Zamboanga’s Pink Sand Beach

Pink sand beaches are quite rare. There are a only a few of them around the world, the most famous of which can be found in Bahamas & Bermuda. Thankfully, we don’t have to travel abroad to set foot on one. The Greater Santa Cruz Island in Zamboanga City, in the southern region of the Philippines, is famed for having pink coralline sand.

This small inhabited island located in the Basilan Strait is just 4 km south of the downtown area of Zamboanga City. It can be reached within 20 minutes by motorized boats. In recent years, the beach has gained popularity as a tourist attraction in the city. I’m really glad to have visited this bucket-list worthy beach prior to my trip to Tawi-Tawi. Continue reading “Zamboanga’s Pink Sand Beach”

Touring with Travel Experts

A lot of people dream of exotic vacations in off-the beaten-path destinations. But more often than not, people who work in 8 to 5 jobs rarely have the time to do the research and legwork needed to realize these dream escapes.

The easiest solution is to sign up for package tours–pre-arranged trips with travel companies that promise to take the guesswork out of traveling. Food, accommodations, tickets, and even guides are all taken care of, so all you need to do is fork up some money and show up.

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Paragliding Lessons in Rizal

In retrospect, driving a motorcycle to take paragliding lessons wasn’t such a good idea. The steep, dusty, gravel-riddled mess of a dirt road leading up to Antenna Hill in Binangonan, Rizal, was not exactly ideal terrain for my scooter.

I muttered silent prayers to myself as I drove by the different stations of the cross perched on the edge of the cliffside roads. It took a lot of focus to maneuver my scooter while balancing an ice cooler with drinks strapped to the front of my bike near my feet. Art’s cruiser sputtered as he drove up with our paragliding guide Habu riding pillion, who himself was carrying a huge bag of paragliding gear. And by huge, I mean a full grown person could easily curl up in the bag and hide there.

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Chill out at The Circle Hostel, La Union

It’s always refreshing to stay in a place that makes you feel like a kid again. A place where you can find wooden treehouses and swings instead of the usual cold steel, leather couches and glass windows in most hotels. A place where anyone can take a nap in a hammock any time you want and the only walls dividing your bunk bed from your neighbors’ are see-through mosquito nets. A place that’s just walking distance from the beach, where you can just fall asleep on the sand while stargazing if the electricity unexpectedly goes out.

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5 Weird Pinoy Fiestas

Most festivals in the Philippines take inspiration from a distinct product or industry of the town. This product usually dictates the theme for the activities, decor and street-dancing costumes, which seem to be a staple of every Pinoy fiesta. In the official Tourism AVP, it’s pointed out that, “we have rice fiestas, flower fiestas, giant fiestas, mask fiestas. We have one every day of the year. And everyone’s invited.” And because the country is blessed with so many products and industries, this has resulted in some rather out-of-the-ordinary fiestas as well. Here are five of the weirder inspirations for Pinoy festivals I’ve come across.

BAGOONG (SHRIMP PASTE)
Where: Lingayen, Pangasinan Continue reading “5 Weird Pinoy Fiestas”

Sunsets and Stargazing in Ilocos Norte

Sometimes trips don’t always go as planned. A cancelled boat trip meant time to kill, and I unexpectedly found myself shooting a serene sunset and stargazing in Ilocos Norte. While waiting for a boat to Calayan in Cagayan during our trip last April, we exhausted the tourist spots in the jump-off point Claveria, got wasted on Red Horse Beer, and even got to go sightseeing around beaches and waterfalls in Pagudpud. Our last two stops were to the towns of Burgos and Bangui in Ilocos Norte for some sunset/night photography.

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