Sagada Tours - March & April 2010

I had some readers asking for information on Sagada Travel Tours for this Holy Week - while this blog has provided details in the past and probably will continue to provide more in the future, I just wanted to clarify that this is not a Sagada travel site. I'm also not a big fan of travel tours because it is very constrained but it looks like it's the most convenient route for first timers to visit Sagada. I did search for some planned Sagada tours for March and April 2010 and found three adventure tours at the ADVOCATE Tours blog.

Tour 1 - MARCH 18-20, 2010

Available slots: 25

Reservation downpayment: Php 2,000/pax
Reservation deadline: March 5, 2010 (Friday)
Full payment deadline: March 12, 2010

Tour package includes:
* Service of tour guide
* Roundtrip land transfers (air-con van/bus)
* Jeepney transfers around Sagada
* Accommodation at George Guest House Annex
* Total of 5 meals - 2 breakfast, 2 lunch, 1 dinner (*Dinner on the last day on pax account)
* Banaue-Sagada Tour (please see itinerary)
* Service of local guides and use of equipments inside the cave
* Tour entrance fees

Tour 2 - APRIL 1-3, 2010 - Holy Week

Target Slots: 45

Reservation downpayment: Php 2,000/pax
Reservation deadline: March 19, 2010
Full payment deadline: March 26, 2010

Tour package includes:
* Service of tour director
* Roundtrip land transfers (Air-con tourist bus)
* Jeepney Transfers around Sagada
* Accommodation at George Guest House Annex
* Total of 8 meals (3 breakfast, 3 lunch, 2 dinner)
* Banaue-Sagada Tour (sightseeing, cultural immersion, trekking adventure, spelunking)
* Service of local guides with use of equipments inside the cave
* Tour entrance fees

Tour 3 - APRIL 8-10, 2010 - Long Weekend

Available slots: 25

Reservation downpayment: Php 2,000/pax
Reservation deadline: March 24, 2010
Full payment deadline: March 29, 2010

Tour package includes:
* Service of tour guide
* Roundtrip land transfers (air-con van/bus)
* Jeepney transfers around Sagada
* Accommodation at George Guest House Annex
* Total of 5 meals - 2 breakfast, 2 lunch, 1 dinner (*Dinner on the last day on pax account)
* Banaue-Sagada Tour (please see itinerary)
* Service of local guides and use of equipments inside the cave
* Tour entrance fees

Additional information for these tours can be found at this Multiply Blog.

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Alleged Sagada Drug Dealers Released

In a blog post I wrote on Mar 31, 2009 titled Sagada Men jailed for Peddling Hashish, I linked to a GMA News TV web article about Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents seizing 13 bricks of hashish from three Sagada locals. I thank Gary, a poster in this blog, for updating me that the three men suspected has been released and "were found not guilty of the offense of selling illegal drugs" by a regional trial court.

Case dismissed against 3 alleged marijuana dealers
from Cordillera Express.com

Bontoc, Mountain Province, January 29, 2010. Three men accused of selling marijuana hashish bricks were released earlier today as the case against them was dismissed. The three, Vincent Navarro, Francis Page-et , and Edwin Datoc were found not guilty of the offense of selling illegal drugs by Judge Joseph A Patnaan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 36 here.

The three were arrested in Sagada on March 28, 2009 allegedly after selling 13 pieces of marijuana hashish bricks to a poseur-buyer from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

The PDEA team that arrested them, led by PDEA Director Opeña presented the three to the media in Camp Dangwa the next day, with the PDEA harping on a successful operation against illegal drugs. It may be recalled that the PDEA is not under the Philippine National Police but directly under the Office of the President. While the PNP does not condone the presentation of suspects to the media under the principle that they are innocent until proven guilty, the PDEA is not averse to presuming guilt by publicly presenting suspects as though they are already convicted. It may be recalled that the drug enforcement agencies were smarting from the Alabang Boys fiasco at the time, and the presentation of the three was seen as a calculated move to present the PDEA as serious in the battle against illegal drugs.

Full Story can be found at: Case dismissed against 3 alleged marijuana dealers

This is an injustice and an outrage! What will the PDEA do to account for the time wasted in jail for the three alleged suspects? How about their tarnished reputation? Was there an apology ever provided to the accused and their families?

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Vancouver Winter Olympics - Great Memories

Enough tennis talk - the second sporting event and my other reason for why I haven't updated this blog for some time is the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. I rushed home on the Friday that the opening ceremonies would be shown so I could watch it with my family. The ceremonies were awesome - sure, it wasn't as great a show as the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies but it was spectacular nonetheless. Of course, we were disappointed with the lighting of the torch due to the technical problem in one of the four torches, but the show went on pretty well. I am so glad to watch it with my kids. I want to keep watching Olympic opening ceremonies as a tradition in my family; hope my children will recall these special moments when they grow up.

Over the course of the past two weeks, we watched in amazement as the best winter athletes in the world competed against each other. We cheered for US and Australian athletes - they represent the two countries where we are permanent residents of. There were two competitors who we followed closely - they are Amanda Evora from the pairs figure skating and J.R. Celski of short track. Evora's parents are both US immigrants from the Philippines; while Celski is the offspring of US immigrants from Poland and the Philippines. Evora didn't win a medal but she and her partner placed tenth, while Celski won two bronze medals.

There were also some Olympians from the Chicago suburbs that we cheered for. Evan Lycasek outclassed the competition in winning the men's figure skating and he's from Napperville, IL. Shani Davis of Chicago duplicated his gold-silver haul from the previous Olympics. Then there's Katherine Reutter from Champaign, IL who won a silver in the ladies 1000 m short track, the first medal for a US woman in short track since 1994. Four teammates from the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks will be in action in the men's hockey final tomorrow - three of them will be playing for Canada and one will be playing for the United States.

My favorite events were short track, figure skating, and speed skating. My five year old's favorites were bobsleigh and luge. I found those two events to be too technical and really - does anyone enjoy watching those in TV? Apparently, my youngest son does, but I think he is looking more for those spectacular crashes more than anything else.

One thing I like about the Olympics are the incredible stories surrounding the athletes. My favorites during these games are:

- The Chinese figure skating pair who came out of retirement to fulfill their dream of an Olympic gold;
- The Canadian figure skater who competed and won a medal less than a week after her mother died;
- The Canadian men's mogul gold medalist who is continuously inspired by his older brother who has a disability;
- The young Korean figure skater who won her country's first Olympic medal in her sport and performed flawlessly under immense pressure to beat her own world record and win the gold by a huge margin;
- The Australian world champion skier who is a resident of Vancouver and unlike most athletes, have managed to keep his distance from the media;
- The young American short track athlete of Polish and Filipino ancestry who had sixty stitches on his leg due to an accident in the rink last November but still managed to recover on time for the games and win two medals in his first Olympics;
- The figure skater who is a child of Filipino immigrants who learned how to skate in a frozen pond near their house.

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics will end tomorrow with the completion of the gold medal match between Canada and the United States in men's hockey. It has been a great experience, our first time to completely follow the staging of a Winter Olympics. While the rest of the world will remember plenty of great and inspiring memories of these Games, a family in Georgia would have buried their beloved Nodar Kumaritashvili, the luge athlete who suffered a fatal crash the morning before the start of the Olympics. It was a dream that turned into a nightmare, as the hopes of a young man who spent so many hours training and qualifying for the Olympic event was dashed during a fateful practise session. I am hopeful that this story will not end as it is, that there will be something good that will come out of this tragedy. I'm not sure what it will be, but if there's something I learned from following the Olympics in the past 22 years, it is that hope trumps any human challenge - even death. Tomorrow will be a totally new day.

Looking forward to the 2012 London Summer Olympics!

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Australian Open 2010 Notes

I’ve gone almost 2 months without adding a single blog post here. That’s probably one of the longest spells I did. Trying to look back in the past two months, there are two major sporting events that prevented me from doing so.

The first one is the Australian Open – the first grand slam in the tennis calendar held in Melbourne. I’m a huge tennis fan, and last month, I stayed awake late into the evening watching live matches from Down Under. I was cheering on Roger Federer to extend his record number of tennis grand slams, amidst the challenge of younger up and coming players such as Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, and Jo Wilfried Tsonga; and established rivals such as Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko. Federer passed the hurdles along his way and went on to capture his 16th grand slam title, the most amongst male tennis players.

Then there’s the drama on the women’s side. After being defaulted at the semifinals of the US Open last year, world #1 Serena Williams was intent on proving that she deserves that spot. The un-retirement of rival Justine Henin was another motivating factor. She breezed through her first four matches before almost being knocked out by the talented Belarussian, Victoria Azarenka, in the quarterfinals. But Williams dug deep and made an almost impossible comeback. She then won the championships by defeating Henin in a thrilling 3-set match that saw both players go on streaks until Williams proved to be the steadier player at the end. Serena Williams successfully defended both her singles title and also the doubles title which she won with her older sister, Venus.

Chinese women tennis players also made a stir in the grand slam of the Asia-Pacific as two players from China reached the semifinals of a major for the first time in history. China, with its more than a billion gene pool has been tagged by a lot of tennis observers to be a major power in the future and the performance by a couple of its veteran stars just proved what has been expected all along. Now, the top Chinese player, Na Li / Li Na is now in the top ten. Expect China to produce more top 20 players and rival Russia in the most number of women players at the top in this decade.

I’m looking forward to the French Open in June. In the men’s side - will Rafael Nadal be able to bounce back and reclaim his dominance in Rolland Garros? Or, will Federer defend his crown to add to his 16 major titles? I think the only players capable of challenging Nadal and Federer in Paris will be Novak Djokovic and my name-sake, US Open champion and 2009 French Open semifinalist Juan Martin del Potro. Then again, it’s tennis. Let’s see what the clay court season produces.

In the ladies side, Henin would be the favorite coming into the French Open given her previous four wins in the tournament. But, I wouldn’t discount Serena Williams who made a serious run last year before falling to the Svetlana Kuznetsova, the eventual champion. This year, Serena is the only player with the chance of winning all four grand slams, and even if she doesn’t stay 100% healthy, I think she’ll be able to pull it off. Henin, Serena and Kuznetsova would be my top favorites, and they would be challenged by Kim Clijsters, Dinara Safina and if she can get her act together, maybe 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic will be able to do some damage.

To be continued...

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