PH's tallest peak: Mt Apo

Over the weekend, I was fortunate enough to be able to summit the Philippines' tallest peak, Mt. Apo (9692 ft) as part of a trail and fire assessment.  Sadly, part of Mt. Apo had a fire in March and because of this, the park currently remains closed to the public, though the grasslands are already starting to show signs of green growth.  It was a 3 day, 2 nigh trek up the East side of the mountain, over the peak and down the northern side.  We went right up the boulder section that can be seen in the photo below with the bare rock face, an area that also has sulfur vents as Mt. Apo is very geothermic.  

Jellyfish encounters

This work trip started off so nicely.  Great sunrise in Palawan and beautiful calm seas as we headed an hour by boat out to a marine protected area where participants were being trained on marine assessment techniques.  Before we got in for the coral component, we saw some jellyfish in the water. Being a freshwater native, I had no idea what type of jellyfish they were and the local manger handled them a bit to move them out of the way (only from the top though).   It wasn't until the end of the snorkel that we ran into them again as we made our way back to the beach and while trying to point out one to the people behind me, ended up making contact with some on my other side.  Sadly, these were no ordinary jellyfish....they were box jellyfish, some of the most venomous in the world. Luckily there was vinegar on the island, but it was still a long painful ride back to the mainland.   I can honestly say I have never felt pain that bad before.  On the plus side, I might have a new cool tribal tattoo to show for it.  

5 days after

There are delayed reactions to the sting, so I keep finding new tentacle trails every day.  Not my favorite guessing game.  Here we are 12 days later....

Quick trip to the US: DC and Oregon

I accompanied a delegation of foresters to the US for a week-long study tour.  It was a whirl-wind 5 days spent in DC and then out to Oregon.  Luckily with the jet lag I had some time early in the AM to wander around, see spring and explore a tiny bit of Portland and Bend.  We had amazing weather in the Pacific Northwest and stunning views of Mt. Hood as we drove from Portland to Bend.