A travel & adventure blog by Kara Santos
With its quirky details, classy decor and homey vibe, Islands Leisure Boutique Hotel is a great place to stay in Dumaguete City. This boutique hotel in the capital city of Negros Oriental offers a peaceful oasis right in the heart of the city. After motorcycling all over Siquijor the previous day, checking in here felt like a treat.
Continue reading “Islands Leisure Boutique Hotel, Dumaguete”
A couple of weeks ago, I had a work-sponsored assignment to write about schools affected by typhoon Yolanda around Kalibo and Capiz. It just so happened that one of the days in the scheduled trip fell on a local holiday with no schools open and the people I needed to interview not available. Aside from the direct flights to Caticlan, Kalibo is a known gateway to Boracay, the most popular island destination in the Philippines. Boracay is not a place I am really drawn to, but the free time was too good to pass up. So, without any concrete plans, I made my way there to see how much the place has changed since I had last been there.
The Circle Hostel is a chain of eco-hostels in the Philippines catering to surfers and backpackers looking for a community atmosphere and budget-friendly lodging. They aim to be a “sanctuary for the artsy and the adventurous” where people can express themselves freely.
With its refreshing view of the mountains and cool breeze, the Sierra Madre Hotel & Resort in Tanay, Rizal is a favorite stopover for motorcycling and mountain biking enthusiasts.
This homey resort is very easy to get to from Quezon City. Just take the Katipunan road heading towards Marcos Highway, straight on past Cogeo market, through the twisty mountain roads, and you’ll eventually find yourself at the hotel located along the highway. The road is very well maintained and not a lot of cars pass here, which makes the drive a very pleasant one. Continue reading “The Sierra Madre Hotel & Resort, Tanay”
One of the most memorable trips I took this year was to Tawi-Tawi. This island province located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is the southernmost province of the Philippines. Often misunderstood by the outside world and the rest of the Philippines, Tawi-Tawi is not your typical tourist destination. The concerns about the peace and order situation in the surrounding areas have kept the place relatively off the tourist radar. I know only a handful of travelers who have ventured to this part of the country for a vacation. That’s probably the main reason why I wanted to go there in the first place. Thanks to a trip to Zamboanga City earlier this year, I got to tick Tawi-Tawi off my bucket list.
Prado Farms in Pampanga is pretty much a photographer’s wonderland. From the brightly colored walls to the art pieces made from recycled materials, every nook and cranny of this place breathes pure artistry.
A jumble of rusty LPG tanks stacked on top of each other form puzzle pieces that make the farm’s distinctive gate. Floors are a patchwork of tile mosaics, and stained glass windows peek out from beneath hanging vines. Formerly a warehouse for LPG tanks, Prado Farms is a showcase of creativity. Old junk like steel grates and discarded pieces of wood are re-purposed into aesthetically pleasing works of art that decorate the farm.
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.
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”
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.
My trip to the Calayan group of islands in Cagayan was an unexpected surprise. I’m really thankful for the invitation of Lakad Pilipinas to visit the elusive island along with other bloggers Juanderful Pinoy, Blissful Guro and the family of photographers we traveled along with.
“The main entrance and exit is only accessible during low tide” said our guide as our pump boat glided through the water in the dark cave half-submerged in water. The hard hats we had been issued shielded us from the stalactites that hung precariously above our heads. The boatmen expertly maneuvered through the cave entrance towards a pinprick of light that slowly opened up into a vast lagoon. I stared in awe at the stunning landscape I saw before me.
We had just entered Sohoton Cove, a natural haven that is the pride of Bucas Grande Island in Surigao del Norte. Continue reading “Secrets of Sohoton, Bucas Grande Island”
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