Sunday Social

Linking up today at:

1. Favorite type of work out to do?

I like doing Tae Bo. I know that's old school, but I love it. It's a good mix of cardio and muscle toning. And it's helped me lose more than 20 pounds in 2.5 months!

2. Favorite guilty pleasure candy or sweet?

Anything and everything red velvet-- cake, cupcakes, pancakes, fudge, cheesecake etc. etc. etc. YUMMMM!

3. What is one thing you continuously forget to do?

Take my multi-vitamin every day.

4. Posts its or phone reminders? Why?

Post-its because with phone reminders you can easily dismiss them, but with post-its, those things can stay up in your face until you handle it.

5. Favorite picture currently on your phone that always makes you smile:

My BFF & I in the sweetest Caddy ever.

On the move again (& Holy Friday in the Philippines)

On Wednesday, some opportunities arose that we couldn't pass up, so we left Borongan Thursday (yesterday).

It was such a quick and spontaneous decision, I wasn't mentally and emotionally ready to go yet. We weren't planning to leave Borongan until April 17th, so that's where my mind was set. But then something came up, and it quickly became March 28th-- about 3 weeks earlier than scheduled.

I can't believe we fit our whole lives into 4 backpacks.

It was an emotional Wednesday night for me when I was saying bye to all my dogs I had come to love and that had become part of our little jungle family. It saddens me every time I think about them. All I can do is hope that they'll be ok... I mean, they are gangster jungle dogs and I'm hoping they can get back to their jungle ways.

It was really difficult to say goodbye to them. And yes, I cried. I cried hard.

Right now we're in Tacloban. Today is Holy Friday. Philippines is mainly a Catholic country, so it's kind of a big deal here. Tacloban on any other day would be buzzing with people, jeepneys and tricycles. But the streets are quiet and pretty empty right now.

Jason and I went walking around trying to find a place to grab some lunch. We walked a few blocks and saw a lot of people and tents up ahead. We figured something must be going on, so we went to check it out. As we were following the crowds, we turned a corner and I looked up and saw a giant Jesus statue on top of a hill and a lot of people climbing up stairs. Apparently it was Calvary Hill and the Stations of the Cross. Many people were offering us candles to light at the stations, but we refused (since I'm not Catholic and J's not a practicing one). We just went up the hill for some exercise and the view.

Adventure Time: Talubagnan Cave

We live on the island of Samar in the Philippines. This island is known for its caves.

Jason and I hosted a couple from Australia through Couchsurfing, Paul and Leiset, for a couple of nights. They heard that Samar (Borongan specifically-- the city we live in) is especially known for its caves, so they wanted to check one out. I hadn't been yet, but Jason had the last time he was here. So he contacted some people the night before and set it all up.

We non-Filipino sized people packed into a tricycle and headed to Catian,  the barangay (village/district within a city) where the cave was located.

Cute Catian kids.

This kid had an awesome homemade kite made from a plastic bag & sticks.

We met up with our tour guides, got our headlights and headed out. It was about a 45-minute trek through muddy fields and the jungle.

We finally got to the cave and got ready to go in. 

Photobombed.

Our tour guides.

I've been in caves before in the U.S. where the paths are nice and easy to walk on, sometimes made out of concrete or other material. But this cave was not like that. At all. The entire floor was extra muddy and super slippery. I even slipped a couple of times {I have many bruises and scrapes to prove it}. We had to climb up and down slippery rocks. I give major props to Jason and our tour guides who were just wearing flipflops, but handled the cave like pros.

But the cave was really amazing, filled with a lot of stalactites and stalagmites {and bats!}. They've done a good job preserving the cave and letting people know where you can touch and not touch the walls as you climb through so people don't damage anything.

Can you see the face?

This one looked like a jellyfish.

After an hour trek, we made it to our destination- a nice pool. It was perfect for swimming. We even lit candles and put them all around. It looked awesome. We ate lunch and swam around a bit. It felt good after getting muddy and sweaty!

After enjoying the pool and the relaxing ambiance, we packed up and headed back so we could catch our tricycle ride back home.

We made it back out!

Nice & muddy.

We met these cool little dudes on our way back:

Talubagnan Cave is definitely a must-see when you're in Borongan, but it's definitely for those who are more adventurous. There is a lot of climbing and slipping around. There's a high probability you will fall on your butt {like me}. I am definitely sore from all the climbing and tensing my muscles the whole time so I wouldn't slip. And I came out with several bruises. 

But it was all totally worth it. It was indeed an awesome adventure.