ENJOYING THE SARDINE RUN AT MOALBOAL, CEBU… A SCUBA DIVING ADVENTURE

August 23, 2021Leave a comment

Yey! We’ve now come to the 3rd part of our scuba diving adventure. Whew! It really took me a while, huh? So sorry about that. Aside from being so busy the past several weeks (which I told you about on my previous blog post), my mental and emotional health haven’t been so good the past couple of months. So whatever strength and joy I still have in me, I just divert them to my priorities which are my work, Tuz, and our family.

Anyway, I’m so happy to be publishing another blog post today and I hope to do it more frequently (Daily perhaps? Before I start my day at work like now? Hihihi! ) Writing about anything and everything about my life continue to be cathartic for me especially during these uncertain times and I’m happy to share whatever I can with you, my dear readers. Thank you for always checking me out!

So again, let’s dive in!

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Discover Scuba Diving: DAY 2 at CEBU SEAVIEW DIVE RESORT in MOALBOAL

August 22, 20212 Comments

Oh hi there! I know it’s been a while but I haven’t forgotten you. 😉 Work has just been so overwhelming (I just recently got another new client so yay for me!) but I don’t want to complain considering that we are on the 2nd year of this Covid-19 pandemic. Having multiple work, being able to pay the bills, and being able to buy stuff we need and want at this time is very much a blessing so I can’t complain. I must not complain! How about you? I hope you’re all still doing okay wherever you are.

Me, I would just like to give myself a little more pat on the back than usual because I also take care of our home (a.k.a. chores); I take care of Tuz and his home school activities; I take care of Mahal and his needs… I’m a superwoman! Lol! The important thing is we are all still fine, healthy, and thriving. Just recently, a few of our neighbors have died from Covid so we are just really thankful that we are all still okay. Thank you, God! Of course I am worried all the time which adds to my energy getting depleted a lot faster than usual that I’d resort to watching Netflix (currently addicted to Grace and Frankie) to relax and chill after work is done instead of blogging, vlogging, and finishing all those online courses I bought (which was my original plan but all this anxiety is getting me bogged down). So today, I am ending my inertia (of blogging laziness) by updating my blog and hopefully getting started with Marie Forleo’s B-School (after I finish her book Everything is Figureoutable). Mondays and Tuesdays were supposed to be my blogging/vlogging days that got replaced by beach days. Yes, you can find us at Mahal’s sister’s private beach every Monday and Tuesday, swimming, snorkeling and picnicking (and soon paddle boarding once I decide to buy a paddle board online). Saturdays and Sundays have become our chore days (laundry, doing groceries, cooking big batches of dishes for the whole week, Mahal doing his hobbies like bonsai-making, and me planting herb seeds and taking care of our little herb garden if I’m not playing with my guitar or reading. I also plan to add painting to my weekend repertoire). Then Monday-Tuesday we’re off to the beach, then Wednesday-Friday is where I focus on finishing my work deadlines. It’s a simple but good life (for me at least coz being productive and busy with so many different things makes me worry less). I’ll blog about our Oslob life once I’m done getting you updated with our scuba diving adventure.

So let’s dive in!

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Cebu SeaView Dive Resort Review: Day 1 of our Scuba Diving Adventure in Panagsama Beach, Moalboal

July 11, 2021August 22, 20212 Comments

OMG! A scuba diving adventure! Finally! I’ve been urging Mahal to try scuba diving since he has been looking at posters when we were in Malapascua last May for Mother’s Day. He likes doing adventurous stuff like me. I’ve tried scuba diving a few times before in my 20s and 30s and after my last stint in Batangas more than 10 years ago, I didn’t dare scuba dive again because though I like going into adventures, my heart sometimes couldn’t take the suspense of it all due to my hypertension. So, I’m happy to just let Mahal do it this time while I take take pictures and videos of him. 🙂

Anyway, before Mahal took his scuba diving lessons last month during Father’s Day, we first enjoyed the dive resort where we stayed — Cebu SeaView Dive Resort which is in Panagsama Beach in Moalboal, a place famous for the sardine run. I joined my diver friends back in 2010-2011 for a sardine run in Pescador Island, also in Moalboal and it has been fun! I wanted Mahal to experience it too and Tuz and I will just enjoy it from above by snorkeling. So that was the plan.

In the meantime, we enjoyed this little dive resort first off the coast of Panagsama, Moalboal in Southwestern Cebu.

Here’s our HONEST and DETAILED review about Cebu SeaView Dive Resort :

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How We Transferred to Oslob, Cebu During the Pandemic

March 13, 2021March 13, 20214 Comments

Hello Summer! It’s been a busy 2.5 months as we started our new beach life here in Oslob, Cebu and I promise, I will be catching up on my blog posts and vlogs until I get more current with what’s happening with us. I may still insert some throwback travel posts from the past since I’ve collected a ton all these years. But for now, here is a vlog on how our transfer from Cagayan de Oro (where we lived, half the time, the other half was in Claveria) from Sept. 1, 2017 to Jan. 7, 2021) to Oslob, Cebu happened, how we got quarantined for 14 days when we got here, and what we did while in quarantine (Jan. 9-22, 2021).

For those who are considering transferring to their respective provinces in this time of the pandemic, you can check out this related blog post:

BOAT TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS DURING A PANDEMIC IN THE PHILIPPINES (FROM CAGAYAN DE ORO TO CEBU

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Covid-19: How It’s Affecting My Mental and Emotional Health

April 13, 2020May 9, 202018 Comments

OVERVIEW

While most of you have probably been in quarantine / lockdown for about a month or so now, I’ve been imposing it on and off upon myself and my family since I first heard about the coronavirus in the news the last week of January. We were preparing for another batch of Hands-On Mushroom Training at that time when the Coronavirus Outbreak began circulating in the media. My “prepper” instinct tingled and I started having worst-case scenario visions in my head. (“prepper” is a person who believes a catastrophic disaster or emergency is likely to occur in the future and makes active preparations for it, typically by stockpiling food, ammunition, and other supplies.) That was the time I started buying a little bit more than the usual number of masks and alcohol bottles we use for mushroom training just in case the outbreak becomes an epidemic, or worse, a pandemic. And because we had plans of going back to Cebu to set up another Mushroom farm, I almost decided not to go for fear of contracting the virus during our travel. This was around Jan. 25-28 when the rest of the world didn’t care much about the Coronavirus yet, and much less about preparing for it.

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Updates in the Midst of Covid-19: My Health, Tuscany Highlands, Training Workshops CDO, BuQid, Travels and Celebrations

March 8, 2020May 10, 20205 Comments

This is probably the longest I haven’t blogged. It’s been so long that I have to read what I wrote last time coz I don’t remember anymore, lol. And it made me cringe a bit that my last post before this was about my health and my suspicion of having Dengue which happened before all this Novel Corona Virus, now called Covid-19, started hitting the news.

Anyway, as an OC person, I want to have some semblance of chronology about what has been happening to me the past several months so this long overdue blog update might be a bit long. Just bear with me. I’ll try to only give you the summaries and I’ll just write more about them, one topic at a time, on my next blog posts. For now, here are the abridged versions:
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Reminiscing My First Time at Oslob New Village Lodge – Cebu Accommodation and Things to Do

July 9, 2019July 21, 201913 Comments

It has always been on my mind to blog about Oslob, a quaint and beautiful municipality in southern Cebu. After all, that’s where I met the current love of my life back in March 2012 (check our love story) and which I now consider as one of my second homes because I can no longer count how many times I’ve been to this charming place known for its whale sharks and beautiful falls. I’ve also mentioned it quite a few times on my blog, particularly when I’d do my yearly How to Travel and Look Back posts, but I’ve never really come up with a detailed blog post about it yet, until now. And this is just the first. More coming as I continue with my daily blogging.

I was also reminded of it once again when I got interviewed recently by BlogMeter Top (the article hasn’t been published yet, I will share once it’s out) and one of their questions was what is my favorite blog post here in MomTraNeur and I mentioned that it was the story of my current love life. I’m a mushy kind of person after all (in case you haven’t noticed yet), hihihi!

You see, I’ve been married for so long before (2002-2012) and it crumbled in 2013. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I will find love again. I never dated. My ex was my first and last. I never had any other sexual encounters aside from my ex. Despite my being “Sexy Nomad” at that time, I really am a naive and conservative girl deep down. Everything that happened after, with my now current life partner, is nothing but miraculous. And the more I look back how it all came to be, the more I cherish our love and the life we have now. And little did I know at that time that it all started in OSLOB.

So back to Oslob…

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Cokaliong Shipping Lines – a Review

July 4, 2019July 5, 20191 Comment

I’m on my 11th consecutive day of blogging which started last June 24 when I wrote that post about being a sleep-deprived mom, and the pressure is getting real, lol! I’ve actually started working on a post about Boracay more than two hours ago. I’ve already published 2 Boracay posts before…

BORACAY 2019 – WHAT’S NEW? HERE ARE THE DOS’ AND DON’TS, UPDATED LIST OF AUTHORIZED AND ACCREDITED HOTELS, GOVERNMENT FEES, AND MORE!

EXPERIENCE THE NEW BORACAY – A VLOG – CHECK IT OUT!

…and there are still at least two more about our summer vacation I want to share with you. But until now, I’m not even halfway through my draft yet! There are just so many photos and videos to sift through and I would need 24 hours of focus to do it which I can’t afford right now since Mahal is asleep and Tuz is being his hyperactive self. I still have deadlines I set for myself at work because I’ll be going to the farm this weekend to take care of our vegetable beds and to do another round of cleanup and redecoration for our bedroom and lounge area in the old farmhouse.

So, I went back and forth for a few minutes between finishing my next Boracay blog post to doing a totally different one when I just decided to tell you about this shipping line we rode on our way to Boracay — COKALIONG SHIPPING LINE. The pictures I took here were the first ones that came up as I was reviewing this trip of ours to paradise. So why not just focus on Cokaliong, right? You might be someone in the Philippines or planning to do boat trips in the Philippines, you might be wondering what shipping line is best to take.

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How to Travel with a 3-Year-Old Kid (A 2018 Travel Recap)

March 1, 2019July 10, 20196 Comments

It’s March 1 already? How time really flies when you’re oh so busy and enjoying life’s ups and downs! I can’t believe that summer is here (despite the cool weather we’ve been having, which I’m grateful for, less use of air conditioning at home, lol) and it’s again time to head to the beach and travel some more! Actually, we’ve been heading to the beach since the start of the year (you can read a bit of background here): but of course, it’s a lot more fun when done during summer. Weather’s about to get hot (hopefully!) and perfect for the beach; Vacation from school is coming up for many students; and the Holy Week (April 14-21) seems to be just around the corner which means more holiday break for Filipino working parents. Whether you spend it at home, or visit churches, or explore places you’ve always dreamed of, summer is really the peak of travel activities in the Philippines and for some, it starts today. As I look back at the places we’ve traveled to in 2018, you might also get some ideas on where to go next.

Writing about how to travel with a baby / how to travel with a toddler has now become my tradition since I started this Momtraneur blog. It makes me look back with fondness at the previous year’s travel adventures we’ve had as a family and it makes me all the more excited to explore some more places we’ve never been to before or go back to our favorite destinations because they’ve simply become our second and third homes. It’s also a reminder for me to blog about those places we visited so expect more travel posts from me soon. I’m serious this time. This is also the 3rd gratitude post I was talking about in my Jan. 6 blog post – A LOOK BACK AT 2018… GRATEFUL FOR THE YEAR THAT WAS.

Moreover, it’s been different every year since our son, Tuz, was born. Traveling with a 0-1-year-old baby has been a little different from traveling with a 1-2-year-old baby, more so now that he’s three years old! Tuz has always been a hyperactive child and he just gets more and more hyperactive every single year! God help us! (Lol)

So without further ado, here’s how you can travel peacefully and happily with a three year-old-kid in tow: Continue reading →

Lambug Beach in Badian Cebu Day Trip Guide

October 11, 2016October 16, 201610 Comments

This is the continuation of my previous post, Kawasan Falls Cebu Day Trip Guide.

As mentioned, I was coming from Manila and was heading to Siargao with one day of stopover at Cebu. Since I wanted to explore a place in its southwestern part that I’ve never been to before, I did a day trip to Kawasan Falls and Lambug Beach before I headed back to Mactan Airport to catch my flight to Siargao.

So if ever you have a day to spare in Cebu and you’d like to explore it’s southwestern part, you can also do the same. Check out my Kawasan Falls Day Trip Guide followed by this post on Lambug Beach Day Trip Guide. Continue reading →

Kawasan Falls Cebu Day Trip Guide

October 10, 2016November 30, 20162 Comments

BACKGROUND:

Every year, I always tell myself that I will blog more. But I kept putting it off because of other more seemingly important things (like traveling some more… [I was out of the house every month visiting exotic places in the country!], accepting more online work assignments [so I can support my travels] and watching hours and hours of reruns of my favorite TV series and movies [yep, that’s about the only energy I have left after a long day of traveling and working]) and before I knew it, years have passed, unpublished travel photos and videos got buried in my “baul” (musty old trunk..lol!) and the rest, as they say, is history. Teehee.

Well, on my MOMTRANEUR blog, I will be a better blogger, a better time manager, a better me. I am following the lessons I learned from my previous blog post How to Attain Higher Productivity at Home and Work and I will do more things that make me happier like what I mentioned in Random Thoughts This Rainy Night. So on this post I will start my long overdue travel diaries.

And because Cebu is probably my most visited place in the Philippines aside from Boracay (where I vacayed for long periods of time from 2002 to 2015), I’ll particularly start here my lone trip to the breathtaking Kawasan Falls in Badian. This was 2 weeks before I officially met my now bestest friend, soulmate and love of my life, Mahal. He knew me since high school but I didn’t really know him (well, I was popular, what can I say? Hahaha!) However, that time I was on the way to Cebu, we were already texting because he invited me before to like his resort’s FB page and I was already hearing good things about Oslob (another place in Southern Cebu) that I wanted to go and visit that place. I ended up staying at his mini resort, Oslob New Village Lodge and swim with their famous whale sharks. This was already after my Kawasan day trip. When we became us years down the line, he admitted that I was his crush since high school. He also knew I’m into travel blogging. He said he will tour me too to the various tourist spots Oslob has to offer ( which he did, countless times, even to this day). Of course another blog post will be allotted for that. In the meantime, you can read about our love story. Hihihi!

Anyway, first things first — my trip to Kawasan Falls…

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