Location: Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines

Sav: This mornings wake up was quite a bit quieter, since it’s the construction workers’ day off. (No angle grinders today!) It was a slow start but we didn’t have much to do other than grab our to-go lunch from the landlord and hike up Chocolate Mountain to the crag. It was super sunny and the mud had dried out, so Serina, Max and I had a way easier time getting there along the tiny trail. I’m feeling a bit under the weather and didn’t sleep super well because of it – so I opted to just belay today instead of climb. Plus the area we went to was more technical (my skills are sorely lacking in that department!) We met up with Benny and Kristina who had already been there a little while, and set up our gear.

Max: As soon as we got to the crag, Serina recommended a few climbs that immediately destroyed my forearms. The climbs here are much higher than what we have back home and I was not prepared! Chocolate Mountain now has over 50 routes in every style you could ask for. My favourite climb of the day started vertical, turned into a balance-based route on a forward leaning wall, and ended with an overhung crux (the hardest part). All in one climb. It was nuts! We all took turns belaying, while we joked around and enjoyed our lunches (once again all locally sourced). Near the end of my third climb, my fingers finally gave up on me just as I was about to clip the rope and I ended up taking a 15 foot fall, at which point I figured I should probably call it a day. We hiked back to the bungalow to pack up and have much needed showers… and then accidentally fell asleep for a quick nap.

When we woke up, it was time to go. We said our goodbyes and Al drove us back down to Danao City. During the drive, he explained the surprising history of Togonon and the surrounding mountains. Turns out, many of the houses in the neighbourhood have little gun workshops hidden in plain sight. (S: this isn’t a joke). The folks in this neighbourhood are fifth generation gunsmiths and this is apparently the place to go if you’re looking for unregistered ghost guns with fake serial numbers. As you can imagine, that leads to a pretty complicated economy (S: and a lot of questions from us!). Now on top of all this, Al is trying to open the area up to climbers which is a big deal to the local barangay (neighbourhood captains/leaders). It’s quite the mission, but after seeing how much Al has managed to accomplish in the past six years, I think he’s on the right track.

Sav: Al dropped us off at the bus terminal, and it turns out the cheapest and fastest way home was a tour van. This also happened to be the least comfortable as they put NINETEEN PEOPLE IN A TWELVE SEATER VAN. WITH LUGGAGE.

NINETEEN.

It was. So squishy. So hot. So ridiculous.

I now understand why the ticket was only $3 CAD.

It was like a clown car when we arrived back in Cebu, with everyone basically falling out of the van. We were so pleased to be back at Mad Monkey, on the grid. We were instantly greeted by Carly and Nathalie who had been partying already for a few hours, so we joined in for a couple of beers and some dinner. Both of us were pretty exhausted from all the climbing, travel and sunshine so we didn’t make it very long before ducking out to go to sleep. We ended up chatting with an Australian guy in our room for quite sometime, which was lovely, but we have a super early flight tomorrow so I have a feeling it’s going to be rough!

Sav