Beach, Falls And Bats For Summer

We had our employees summer outing in Samal City, it gave us the opportunity to visit some of the famous tourist spots there, particularly Monfort Bat Colony, Hagimit Falls and Pearl Farm Beach Resort.  Our company provided buses for our transportation.  The buses were then transported using barges in a ferryboat located at Km. 11, Barangay Sasa  here in Davao.  As we reached Samal, we immediately proceeded to our first destination... to the bat cave!!!

One of the tour guides overheard my question, the reason why bats don't cluster
 in the exposed portion of the cave is to protect themselves from predators like the raven.

By the way, they are a record holder.

Upon arrival, the site in-charge gave us a short background about Monfort Bat Colony, the importance and significant contributions of bats to our environment and rules to follow in bat watching.  The rule is simple, don't disturb the bats in any way since they have sensitive senses and a lot of them have babies which when dropped will die, and don't over crowd in one place, the surface above the caves can only carry a couple of people (safe to say, 30 max).

Here are some important facts about bats that was shared during the event:

• Bats are mammals that give birth to 1 baby a year and they do this hanging upside down;
• They control parasite (i.e. mosquitoes), crop pest and other insects being their major predator;
• They love nectar, making them a big contributor to cross pollination of wide array of tropical fruits (i.e. durians, mangoes, bananas, etc.) found in our place; and,
• They play an important role in the dispersal of seeds they get from trees to our forests, thus helping rebuild our damaged environment.

After being overwhelmed seeing millions of bats in the place,   we moved to another equally breathtaking (literally) place, Hagimit Falls.  Since our buses can only drive us up to the highway (due to narrow road towards the place), we needed to walk a bit long way, not to mention the couple of steps down the walkway to the falls.  Well, you know what, it's worth it.  The beauty of the place, just took my breath away (now, I'm figuratively speaking).

It may seem everything is blurry and starting
to lose colors but I'm almost there... LOL.

In as much as we wanted to stay long and take even just a short dip, due to time constraint, we needed to go and face the uphill trek towards our rides.  It wasn't a joke, especially to those who haven't stretched their muscles for a long time.  But hey, it's a good stop, a great prospect and something to recommend to everyone who wants to visit Samal.

Along the way to our last stop, our bus experienced a mechanical damage.  So we needed to transfer to one of the other buses.  We had to fit passengers good for 2 buses into 1 bus (since the other buses were already ahead of us.  I really couldn't think that moment if we were lucky or not.  Well, what's important was we somehow arrived to Pearl Farm safe and sound.

Upon arrival, we had a short program, picture taking and prayer, then we had our bountiful lunch.  The food, just wowed me, one of the many things I like about the place.  Then, we roamed around the Malipano Island (still part of Pearl Farm where our outing was held).  A couple decided to simply take a swim by the beach, while others took opportunity of the discounted rates for use of facilities (banana boat, kayak, and JetSki rides) given to employees just for that day.

Prepared for lunch... me.

Then we called it a day.  We took a 45 minutes boat ride from Pearl Farm on our way back home.  It was fun, but I just wish that I can also share such experience with my family.  I hope and pray that I will, someday.  Yahweh bless.

Caught Unprepared for the Summer Outing

Last Saturday, I was confident in thinking its a normal working routine day.  Upon finishing logging in to our biometrics, I scanned the items posted in the bulletin board (which I  seldom do, having myself in the field most of the time).  I was reading this memo issued by our HR concerning the employees summer outing... and guess what... the date of the outing is on May 28, 2011 and the time of departure is 6:00 am.  The outing was scheduled at that very day.  No wonder there were just a couple of employees in the company vicinity... and I thought I was just early.  Not having that much options, I called my colleague and asked him if they were already in Samal... thank Yahweh, I was so blessed that they were still waiting for the food to arrive.  He then asked me to go directly to the departure area, so I was not able to changed to a more suitable attire or at least brought some swimming stuff.

Proud to belong to green team...

As we arrived in Playa Azalea, a private residential resort owned by our company, the parlor games started immediately after eating our merienda to be able to catch up with the program.  Yahweh again blessed us by making it possible for me to enjoy the games (most of the time cheering... lol) and the pool.  Good thing an office mate brought with him an extra shorts and let me borrow it.

Beauties and gorgeous smiles by the pool (way mupalag...lol)

It was astonishingly a great day.  Our group won first place overall and I got to enjoy swimming in the pool under the cloudy skies.  It's really amazing how Yahweh makes everything well even in the most unexpected situation... to Yahweh be the glory.

Enjoying a dip in the pool with an excellent weather