Our City Fiesta festivities this year may have been cut back due to damages suffered from Yolanda (Typhoon Haiyan) and the city is still recovering from it but, nevertheless, we continued to show resilience in line with this year's theme: "We prayed, We survived, One city, Moving on."


Thus, the 1st Lake Danao Festival was materialized. We have been waiting for this moment because as an Ormocanon, I feel proud that we have this beautiful lake that we can take our guests and visitors to. I mean, why not bring them here instead of other places? Shouldn't this be our #1 tourist spot when they come over? Unfortunately, politics and other factors have been playing tug of war for the longest time so projects for the lake have always been put aside (if not totally ignored), but now thanks to the private sector, headed by the Ormoc City Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with the Ormoc LGU and the DENR's  Protected Area Management Board, the 1st Lake Danao Festival turned out a successful event.


Friends and visitors from different parts of the Philippines came to participate in the events, namely, the Half-Marathon, Mountain Bike Challenge, 6K Trail Run, Kayak Race, and Stand Up Paddle. There were more participants than anticipated actually but there could have been more if the event was advertised earlier. Some already registered to other races happening at nearby towns. But for a beginning event, the 1st Lake Danao Festival was already very good. And that didn't come from just me but many participants said it themselves.

Half-Marathon

MTB Challenge

6K Trail Run

Kayak Race

Stand Up Paddle

Congratulations to the winners as well as all the finishers! It was a really cool sportsfest where sports enthusiasts as well as nature lovers came to celebrate the 1st Lake Danao Festival. Thank you everyone for joining us. We hope to see you all next year for a bigger and better 2nd Lake Danao Festival!




About Lake Danao:
Lake Danao is a guitar-shaped lake on the island of Leyte, Philippines in the province of Leyte.

The lake is covering an area of 148 hectares (370 acres). It is situated in the 2,193 hectares (5,420 acres) Lake Danao National Park, which also includes the Amandiwin mountain range. The lake is 18 kilometres (11 mi) northeast of Ormoc City, half an hour drive along the San Pablo - Tongonan and Milagro - Lake Danao roads.

It was originally named "Lake Imelda" and was declared a national park on June 2, 1972 by virtue of presidential memorandum issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos. Later it was renamed and declared as Lake Danao National Park on February 3, 1998 through Proclamation No. 1155 and is now protected by Republic Act No. 7586 otherwise known as the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS) Act of 1992.[1] The lake supplies potable water to at least seven towns in Eastern Leyte including Tacloban City[2] as well as the source of irrigation for ricelands in some municipalities like Dagami, Burauen, Pastrana and Tabon-tabon.

At 650 metres (2,130 ft) above sea level, Lake Danao lies on an altitude similar to Tagaytay, making the area cooler than the average Philippine temperature.

(info taken from Wiki)



If you remember back in 2010, Noodle Boy and I went on a trip to Lake Danao to take some pics and just marvel at nature. You can read that post HERE.

And now here's my VLOG about the event as well as interviews of the winners. Please watch it below or visit my YouTube channel at http://youtu.be/7tVhZp4NiYI.





This photo was taken 5 hours after I put on my #FOTD and my #makeup has not budged a bit! ✨ I used @shuuemuraph OB UV Under Base brightening mousse and @benefitbeautyph porefessional pro balm under my MAC studio fix powder plus foundation. Also used Benefit Hoola for contouring. My face is, however, dewy (not shiny) after 5 hrs from doing documentation for today's 1st Lake Danao Festival but I'm happy it held up until 8 hours later when I finally had to retouch my T-zone since we've been running all over the place covering the different sports events. Even my brows drawn and filled in with @anastasiabeverlyhills dipbrow in blonde stayed put for 12 hours! 👍👍 But more on that in a blog post soon! 



 

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Right now I should be here...



Photos by Nelson Petilla. 

I should be in Jasmin Resort in Marabut, Samar at this very moment getting wasted lying in the sand and gazing up at the summer night sky looking for constellations and counting shooting stars. Instead I am here at work.

I feel so bad not being able to take pictures on this particular trip that I'm missing. Due to:
a) car trouble
b) duty calls
c) a voice told me not to go

Okay, maybe the last reason sounds far-fetched but it doesn't mean I'm crazy. I went to church yesterday because naturally, it was a First Friday (of the month) and I needed some answers. A voice told me, "Sometimes you have to give up. It doesn't mean you're a quitter, it only means something greater is coming your way." I swear, man! It was kinda creepy... in a good way. So I listened.

With all the time I have this weekend, I am able to attend to some business (ka-ching!!!) and even re-designed my blog! How awesome is that!? So is this the silver lining? I'm not sure yet... but I feel there's a lot more coming my way.

I see Biri Island in the near future. Hmm.



Pictures by Riz. 

Well, anything's possible. ;) I just need to have a little more faith.

After all, all work and no play makes Maria a dumb gal. It may not be to fabulous Brazil... but still I can't wait for my next vacation... of course, with my Noodle Boy! :)

Morning has broken like the first morning... 



It was the first time in a looooong time that I saw the sun rise again. Pretty sure it still shines in the east. Took the photo on our way to Tacloban last Monday. I was supposed to do a photo blog about this trip but of all things I left behind for our 2-hour drive to the capital city, I forgot to pop in the memory card of my camera. So... boohoo! I had to make do with the iphone's camera to capture the memories. (It's not the pana, it's the Indian!) Alas, I didn't get enough to make sure this blog post  rock your socks!

Anyways, for the sake of blogging and preserving this memory forever in the blogosphere, I'm writing about our journey from Ormoc to Tacloban and back that lasted an entire day -- approximately 12 hours.

So why did we go on this trip? For one sole purpose. To buy cheese. HAHAHA! As if that ain't cheesy enough... that and we wanted to watch a movie in Robinson's. LOL! The provincial life is not too far behind with all the modernization and urbanization of the world, but when the whole city suddenly runs out of an ingredient, you'll feel like you're done for. Alright, maybe I'm exaggerating but hey, it's an excuse to travel!



We left quite early, just before the sun shone with all its glory and with just the right temperature to drive off with the windows down and feel the refreshing pollution-free air of the countryside. Can you picture it? I ought to kick myself just for leaving the memory card behind as I'm not sure I can accurately describe everything I had seen, felt, and experienced.



Tip: Don't camwhore if you're running on more than 100kph. Especially if your camera doesn't come with shutter speed controls.

We arrived an hour before the mall opened so we hit Andok's for some breakfast. Yes, we drove 2 hours to eat chicken. HAHAHA! Too bad I was too famished to even take some pics of our heavy fried chicken & liempo meal. But as soon as our tummies were satisfied, the idea of walking around the airconditioned mall was perfect. Of course, I would have wanted to catch some Zzzz's but there was too much (window) shopping to do!

After going to the groceries, we loaded the stuffs back to the car, stretched our muscles and got ready for some real action. By that I meant, hitting National Bookstore (my favorite store ever!) to feast our eyes on books and those cute, perfumed, and fancy office and school supplies. Is it just me or does anyone else feel like being on a bookstore is like being on Disneyland? There's just too many things to discover in there. Like a whole new world... ^_^

We got the supplies we needed including a 12-inch cashbox. However, who can resist a book when it's 40% off?! Even though I've already read the PDF version almost a year ago, Noodle Boy gave the nod, whipped out his card, and got it. *twirls in front of the cashier like a kid on Christmas eve!*



Again, it was on sale. And it's hardbound! Umm, I really don't have to justify anything here. Tee hee!

Since the movie we decided to watch wasn't going to be shown for another hour or so, I asked Noodle Boy if he wanted to grab some lunch. Just a little so we don't have to buy food and eat at the theatre, which btw smelled gross with a mixture of sweet/sour scent. How can I eat with that? He entertained that notion and so off we made our way to The Gustavian and... voila!



The teeny weeny fillet mignon steak for my lunch! Honestly, I think the serving was enough for me, but the boif wasn't too happy when he saw it. Well, for the price... yep, I think it was pretty overrated. They didn't even have wifi connection there. Tsk!

After the movie, we decided to go home... but only after Noodle Boy and I grabbed some Twister and Funshots at KFC. LOL! Yep, this was pretty much a FOOD TRIP slash ROAD TRIP!

The drive home was anything but boring. I didn't even sleep on the way home, thanks to the crazy playlist we had. Took random photos of motorists, too.



See that guy with all the gallons on his bike? Those are, ummm, I think the ones they store tuba in. You know, the sweet coconut wine that's quite famous in this part of the region. My dad drinks that a lot, but I don't like it a bit. It reminds me of vinegar... Well, that's where vinegar comes from, too, I think.



And here's a modern day knight in shining armor... errr, shining bike and shining helmet, riding off into the sunset. Again, I imagined kicking myself in the head when I saw the sunset as we were heading home.







FML! Is it beautiful or what?!?!? It doesn't get any more splendid than that. I tell you, man. Anywhere in the 7,107 islands in the Philippines, you're sure to get one helluva an amazing sunset! That's precisely why I love living here. I mean, I really cannot, for the life of me, even begin to think of having to live in a place where I cannot see a shoreline... or smell the ocean breeze. Yeah, well, you get the picture.



Cheese. Check. Ramen Girl + Noodle Boy cheesiness. Check.

All in all a great trip. :)