I saved one of my favorite pictures for last. This was taken in Dapa where I was surrounded by little kids asking about my home, my appearance, my relationships, you name it. I decided to capitalize on the interrogation by snapping off a few shots and I was quite happy with them.

I'm also going to back track allllll the way to the beginning. Wanna know how I got this gig? By hanging out at the coolest place in Cebu.

When I arrived here, I was on a mission to find the original music scene. Without much luck for the first few weeks, I finally stumbled upon "Outpost". Outpost is an old house, converted into a bar/restaurant with live local and national acts most days of the week.

Outpost was started by a bunch of guys who also happened to start an outdoor equipment company called Habagat. The vibe is so chill, with indoor and outdoor seating, great food and awesome people. Naturally, since I found it, I've been there at least once every week. When you're at a joint that much, you kinda get to know the owners, or at least a few of them.

On a Friday night, about a week before the race, Randy came up to us and asked if we'd like to cover Carrera Habagat. A week of camping and running around on some islands sounded perfect to me.

We bought our tickets and headed to Surigao with the rest of the Habagat guys. Ahead of the race by two days, Randy and co. had booked a pension house for us to stay in.

Wait, wait... this is another good visual for you guys:

A single pension house room, only 4 actual beds with at least 4 mattresses on the floor. Me plus a roomful of mountain guys ranging in age from 26 to I don't know, 50ish?

Haha, I loved it. The guys spent a majority of time making fun of me because I didn't understand their jokes. A lot of the time, jokes translated from Visayan into English lose their punch in the punchline - so when the line is delivered, I generally just stare back. It either makes no sense or just isn't funny. However, I then became the joke, so that was ok - haha. Very cool group of guys.

Oh and they also managed to snore quite harmoniously- I would imagine it takes either great skill or very close friendship to produce that symphonic of a sound.