Wow, I am dead tired. My legs feel like jelly and the muscles in my body are aching — a good kind of ache. The dull kind of ache that lingers to remind you of the exhausting yet tremendously enjoyable experience you had just recently.
Today I went caving with my best buddy and boyfriend, my baby Gimmi. Along with us were Gim’s thesis partner Marvin and the Ateneo Research Center staff Liezl and Lot and selected ARC student assistants. This event was funded by the ARC since they wanted to personally survey the caves in Gim’s and Marvin’s thesis, so we had a free ride and a free lunch. Yay!
Last time I went caving with Gim and Marvin was a year ago! Back then I knew how to climb up a flight of stairs. Today I can barely comprehend walking from Ateneo to City Hall (ya all know we gov people sit on our bums all day!). So you could just imagine the humongous effort it took for me to climb a mountain!!! I had to make frequent stops along the way to catch my breath (and regain feeling in my lower limbs). Poor Gim had to worry about me and stay beside me as the rest of the pack went forward, which resulted in us getting *lost* from the pack. Yes, Gimmi and I ended up in another cave. Fortunately, the cave we were supposed to visit wasn’t too far from where we had landed, and after trying out a few alternative routes (without a guide, mind you, since the locals were with the main group) we finally chanced upon them eating lunch at the entrance of the cave… whereupon we greeted them with relief and joined them for lunch. Unfortunately they were just finishing up, and dismayed were we, because, um, the utensils were with us!!! Our fellow spelunkers were forced to eat with their dirtied hands!!! Sheepishly we asked if anyone needed any napkins.
Oh well! It was good for their immunity anyway.
We haven’t developed the film yet so I’ll just post pics from last year’s escapades. (These are the same caves we visited today.)
The only difference is that Gim and Marvin have graduated and I’m much fatter. Sigh.
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wow, i sure wish i could go spelunking in a cave, too. i wish you and gim could take me there too, though i don’t know if we can squeeze it in during christmas break. could you? please check if you can. hehe.
i miss you, too, fli. pero na christmas pa yo pwede bolbe. so plan ahead ya what we’re doing when i get there. these are among the few things i want you to include in the list: explore caves, visit donnel’s monte, go to sta. cruz island. ok? see ya then! 😉
*chuckles* that’s ok, lovedoo. you’ll get the hang of it after a couple more caving trips. at least this time around, you only sustained a single scratch on your arm unlike the numerous bumps and bruises you got on your very first caving trip. *more chuckles*. oh, i remember that like it was yesterday. that was like what- a year ago,right? we (me, marv, and jess), heard a bump at five minute intervals when we were going through manicahan cave and the source of the sound was you falling flat on your bottom. hehehe. but now you emerged with just that single scratch. congrats and keep up the good work! we’ll have more and more trips to go and lots and lots of caves and hills to conquer. 😉