The G.R.E.A.T. Catigbian D.A.T.E. Park

The G.R.E.A.T. (Green Recreational Eco-Adventure Tour) Catigbian  Dagook Adventure Tour Experience (D.A.T.E.) Park is nestled in a 204,500 square meters parcel land with mountainous and rolling terrain.  It is located within the Barangays of Poblacion, Poblacion Weste and Rizal Catigbian, Bohol and is 1.5 km from the highway which can be reached by all types of vehicles.

The park has the facilities, trained guides and high end equipment to offer. The equipment (cables, harnesses, rope, etc.) are of the highest-standard and tensile strength to ensure everyone's safety.

The facility is supposedly not for the faint at heart, but for those who are ready to meet a different kind of challenge . . . much like a true jungle adventurer.

This is a 4-in-1 outdoor adventure experience – from  the Canopy Walk, Monkey Bridge, Trekking and descent through the Mountain Slide. To miss one is not to experience the rewards of the complete challenge.

The challenges at Dagook Adventure Tour Experience will definitely prepare one for the extreme challenges of Danao adventure park.

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Guyabano

The guyabano  fruit, leaves, and bark are miraculous natural cancer cell killers, 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy. Moreover, the compound extracted from guyabano selectively hunts down and kills only cancer cells. It does not harm healthy cells.

Mylene Mendoza-Dayrit writes in her PhilStar article: I remember receiving an e-mail that soursop or guyabano is tens of thousands more potent than chemotherapy. Having just lost a friend this year due to cancer, I looked at the title and trashed the copy dismissing it as another one of those incredulous claims.

Then I met a biochemist from a reputable university who claims three personal encounters with the efficacy of the plant. She excitedly recounted to me — in between rounds of freshly roasted Bataan coffee from her plantation — that the latest case involved the local barangay captain who was diagnosed with cancer. My husband knows him. His family was advised to prepare for the worse as he was thought to have only six months to live. Waiting for the prospect of a costly surgery, the patient got depressed and was resigned that he will not survive this. Gina boosted his morale and gave the friendly advice of taking tea from the soursop bark and leaves.

Apparently, the barangay captain did just that. He drank the soursop tea as his water for three months. He felt better and better and when he had another scan not a single tumor was seen. He was declared cancer-free!

That, of course, became a celebrated miracle in this sleepy Bataan town. I am sure they are planting guyabano obsessively as more and more harvest the fruits, leaves and bark.

Gina mentioned that the barangay captain decided to give it a try when she mentioned that her mother was diagnosed with cysts in the liver. Instead of letting her undergo surgery at her mid-60s she decided to just take the soursop tea and papaya fruit everyday instead. She claims to be healed.

Read more here.

In Panglao Island, you can enjoy Guyabano Shake 

at C.U. Restaurant and Deli

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Bacon

The "bacon with everything" food craze may soon be over; that is, if everyone heeds the new study by The Harvard School of Public Health whose researchers examined data from more than 110,000 people.

The study reveals that eating as little as two pieces of bacon or one hot dog a day upped their mortality rate by 20% over a 20-year period. A small, three-ounce serving of red meat a day (about the size of a deck of cards) increased mortality by 13%.

The results also showed that substituting other healthy protein sources, such as fish, poultry, nuts, and legumes, was associated with a lower risk of mortality.

“Our study adds more evidence to the health risks of eating high amounts of red meat, which has been associated with type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers in other studies,” said lead author An Pan, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH.

The researchers, including senior author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at HSPH, and colleagues, prospectively observed 37,698 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study for up to 22 years and 83,644 women in the Nurses’ Health Study for up to 28 years who were free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer at baseline. Diets were assessed through questionnaires every four years.

Read more here.

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Food Trip Friday

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Chocolate Hills

The Chocolate Hills is a famous tourist attraction of Bohol.  They are unusual geological formation in Bohol province, Philippines.  There are at least 1,260 hills but there may be as many as 1,776 hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometers (20 square miles). They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name.

The Chocolate Hills are conical karst hills similar to those seen in the limestone regions of Slovenia, Croatia, northern Puerto Rico, and Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. These hills consist of Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene, thin to medium bedded, sandy to rubbly marine limestones.

These limestones contain the abundant fossils of shallow marine foraminifera, coral, mollusks, and algae. These conical karst hills, called mogote, are created by a combination of the dissolution of limestones by rainfall, surface water, and groundwater and their subaerial erosion by rivers and streams after they had been uplifted above sea level and fractured by tectonic processes. These hills are separated by well developed flat plains and contain numerous caves and springs. The Chocolate Hills are considered to be a remarkable example of conical karst topography.

Four legends explain the formation of the Chocolate Hills. The first tells the story of two feuding giants who hurled rocks, boulders, and sand at each other. The fighting lasted for days, and exhausted the two giants. In their exhaustion, they forgot about their feud and became friends, but when they left they forgot to clean up the mess they had made during their battle, hence the Chocolate Hills.

  

A more romantic legend tells of a giant named Arogo who was extremely powerful and youthful. Arogo fell in love with Aloya, who was a simple mortal. Aloya's death caused Arogo much pain and misery, and in his sorrow he could not stop crying. When his tears dried, the Chocolate Hills were formed. 

The third legend tells of a town being plagued by a giant carabao, who ate all of their crops. Finally having had enough, the townsfolk took all of their spoiled food and placed it in such a way that the carabao would not miss it. Sure enough, the carabao ate it, but his stomach couldn't handle the spoiled food, so he defecated, leaving behind him a mound of feces, until he had emptied his stomach of the food. The feces then dried, forming the Chocolate Hills. 

The last legend is about a gluttonous giant named Miguel that eats everything in his path. One day he came to a plain. He saw a beautiful young woman named Adrianna. To win her affection, he needed to lose weight. So he excreted everything he ate. In the end, his fecal matter covered the land and he won Eng's affection. 

Suggested reads:

The Seven Natural Wonders of the World

TripAdvisor: Chocolate Hills

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Weekend Reflection

SkyWatch

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Freedom

“Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, 

singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running—that's the way to live. 

All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea 

out there, with the Ma-Wink fallopian virgin warm stars reflecting on the 

outer channel fluid belly waters. And if your cans are redhot and you can't hold 

them in your hands, just use good old railroad gloves, that's all.” 

                                                                                                   ― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

Jean-Louis "Jack" Kerouac; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969, was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation.

Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel. His writings have inspired other writers, including Ken Kesey, Bob Dylan, Eddie Vedder, Richard Brautigan, Curtis Meanor,Thomas Pynchon, Lester Bangs, Tom Robbins, Will Clarke, Ben Gibbard, Haruki Murakami, Jacquelyn Landgraf.

Kerouac became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements. In 1969, at age 47, Kerouac died from internal bleeding due to long-standing abuse of alcohol. Since his death Kerouac's literary prestige has grown and several previously unseen works have been published. All of his books are in print today, among them: On the Road, Doctor Sax, The Dharma Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans,Desolation Angels, Visions of Cody and Big Sur. 

Read more here.

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The Creative Exchange

Skywatch

Weekly Top Shot

Saturday Sareenity

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Pineapple

Pineapple is one of God’s remarkable creations. We enjoy its lush, sweet and exotic flavor, but it may be one of the most healthful foods available today.  Fresh pineapple can alleviate indigestion, arthritis or sinusitis. The juice has an anthelmintic effect; it helps get rid of intestinal worms.

Pineapple is high in manganese, a mineral that is critical to development of strong bones and connective tissue. A cup of fresh pineapple will give you nearly 75% of the recommended daily amount. It is particularly helpful to older adults, whose bones tend to become brittle with age.

Bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme, is the key to pineapple's value. Proteolytic means "breaks down protein", which is why pineapple is known to be a digestive aid. It helps the body digest proteins more efficiently.

Bromelain is also considered an effective anti-inflammatory. Regular ingestion of at least one half cup of fresh pineapple daily is purported to relieve painful joints common to osteoarthritis. It produces mild pain relief. In Germany, bromelain is approved as a post-injury medication because it is thought to reduce inflammation and swelling.

The pineapple is also rich in Vitamin C and Vitamin B1.

Vitamin C is a 'water soluble vitamin', which means it doesn't store in the body. We need to take Vitamin C every day in order to replenish its levels. Pineapple is a great source to find a daily dose of Vitamin C. It helps in the formation of collagen, a protein that grows new skin and blood vessels. The benefit of taking vitamin C is also believed to keep away the common cold.

Vitamin B1 is partly responsible for the development of energy in the body, turning carbohydrates into the daily energy we need. Vitamin B1 is important for the nervous system and muscle functions. Vitamin B1 also goes by the name 'thiamine' . As well as being found in pineapples, thiamine can be found in meat, whole-grain foods, leafy vegetables and egg yolks.

Although the pineapple has traveled and proliferated in many countries from its original home in the lowlands of Brazil, it is only in the Philippines that its fiber was used to create the delicate fabric of marvelous tensile strength called piña.

So fine and precious the quality of this unique handwoven fabric that during the Spanish period, it was sent as gifts to royalty such as Queen Victoria. Samples of embroidered piña are supposedly still preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Historical accounts may claim that it was the Spaniards who introduced the pineapple from Mexico to the Philippines, but others may argue that it was the early Chinese traders who brought it to the archipelago.

Related links:

The benefits of eating pineapple

Benefits of pineapple on weight loss

The pineapple vendor of Quiapo

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Slices of fresh pineapple are served daily at Saffron's Breakfast Buffet

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Food Photography

Food Trip Friday

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Tarsier

I finally saw a live tarsier!  Not those fuzzy ones hanging from the rear view mirrors of automobiles, or those carved on bamboos used as pendants for key chains.  I’m talking about a real breathing tarsier.

The tarsier is one of the oldest land species in continuous existence in the Philippines, dated at around 45 million years.  Initially dubbed as the “world’s smallest monkey” due to its physical similarities to monkees, but the tarsier belongs to the more primitive suborder prosimil, or prosimian. 

A missionary by the name of J.G. Camel gave the description of a tarsier to J. Petiver who published it in 1705.  It was then the tarsier was initially given its scientific name Cerchopithecus Luzonis Minimus.  It eventually got the name Simia Syrichta in 1758, and later Tarsius Syrichta.  This is how it finally became known to the rest of the western world.

 Locals refer to tarsiers as maomag.

The tarsier has one of the slowest fetal growth rates of any mammal, taking six months to reach a birth weight of 23 grams!

Tarsiers measure only between 8 to 16 cm. Despite its diminutive size, however, tarsiers can spin their heads 180 degrees, and jump to a height of 16 feet!

This tiny baby, however, has the highest infant-weight-to-maternal weight ratio of any primate that gives birth to a single infant.

Also, female tarsiers readily act as foster mothers to orphaned baby tarsiers.

Besides director Steven Spielberg’s E.T., John Lucas’ Yoda was also inspired by the Tarsier.  It would certainly be nice if they could both contribute to the upkeep of tarsiers in sanctuaries here in the Philippines.

At the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella, Bohol, the tarsiers are no kept in cages, but live in a gated protected area.  Being nocturnal creatures, they are free to roam and hunt for their food – even jumping outside of the sanctuary’s fences – but they do return home when done with their nighttime gallivanting.

This Tarsier Sanctuary is a sprawling 134 hectares of forested land. The Tarsier Sanctuary is in the midst of the towns of Sicatuna and Corella in Bohol.

To get to there, one can ride a bus or jeepney. In the Tagbilaran bus/jeepney terminal, take a bus that is bound for Sikatuna, which is about a 30-minute ride.

From Sikatuna, you can hire a pedicab or motorbike for about 40 pesos. For a faster and more convenient trip, you can also get a cab or one of those for-hire cars from hotels and travel agencies. The sactuary is approximately 14 kilometers from Tagbilaran City, and about four kilometers from Corella.

As much as I was thrilled to have finally seen these cute creatures, I was hit with a sense of guilt upon realizing that out of thousands of tarsiers who reside in this sanctuary, only four remain awake for tourists to gawk over and photograph.  It seems as if these four had boldly sacrificed themselves to protect their fellow tarsiers and their young from the stressful role of being eco-tour exhibits.

Linking with Camera Critters and Weekly Top Shot and Rural Thursday

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Oops Beach Cafe at Alona Beach

Oops Bar Alona Beach Resort

Panglao Island, 6340 Bohol

Phone (0063) 920-461-7895

E-mail Address: info@oopsbar.com.ph

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Visit Oops Beach Cafe online

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Going Green: The insidious chemical wastes

Most chemical residues are absorbed into the ground water, rivers, lakes and oceans; whereas some are spewed into the air, eventually lacing the local food supplies.

Chemical waste, such as mercury, bioaccumulates in the food chains. It is taken up through the gills of fish and concentrated in the flesh. It can be dangerous to eat large quantities of big ocean fish, contaminated by mercury. In humans, mercury causes neurological symptoms, birth defects and death. In one international incident, a village of Minimata Bay, Japan suffered mercury poisoning and 52 people died eating fish contaminated by a chemical plant.

Where do these chemicals come from?

- 100,000 chemicals are being used worldwide

- 3,000 chemicals are added to our food supply

- More than 10,000 are used as solvents, emulsifiers, while preservatives are used in food processing

- 1,500 new chemicals are introduced each year

What are the most common toxins?

1. Pesticides, EPA: 60% herbicides, 90% fungicides, 30% insecticides which are carcinogenic  

Risk: Cancer, Parkinson's, miscarriage, birth defects, nerve damage, malabsorption of food

Source: Food and bug sprays

2. Mold and fungal toxins

Risk: Cancer, heart disease, asthma, MS, diabetes

Source: peanuts, wheat, corn, alcoholic beverages

3. Phthalates: used to increase shelf life of fragrances and soften plastics

Risk: Endocrine system (mimic hormones)

Source: plastic wraps, containers, food storage, hair sprays, deodorants and fragrances

4. VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)

Risks: Cancer, eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches, dizziness, visual disorders, memory loss

Source: Paints, deodorants, carpets, cleaning fluids, varnish, cosmetics, dry-cleaned clothing, moth repellants, air freshners, printer ink

5 Dioxins: Chemical compounds formed as a result of incineration, smelting, chlorine bleaching, pesticides manufacturing, burning of fuel and waste

Risk: Liver damage, cancer, reproductive/developmental disorder, severe acne, skin rashes, skin discoloration, heart disease, diabetes,endometriosis, early menopause

6. Asbestos: Insulating material widely used during the 1960s-70s

Risk: Cancer (mesothelioma)

Source: Insulation on floors, ceilings, water pipes constructed during the 1960s-70s

7. Heavy metals: arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium, aluminum

Risk:  Cancer, neurological disorders, kidney failure, cardio-vascular diseases, Alzheimer's, foggy head, fatigue, blood disorders

Source: Dental amalgams, contaminated water and fish, unleaded fuel combustion, cigarettes, aluminum, cooking utensils, pesticides

8. Chloroform: A colorless fluid with a pleasant, non-irritating, slightly sweet taste used to make other chemicals.  It is formed when chlorines is added to water.

Risk: Cancer, reproductive damage, birth defects, dizziness, headache, fatigue, liver and kidney damage

Source: Air, chlorinated water, food

9. Chlorine: highly-toxic yellow-green gas

Risk: Cough, skin and eye irritation, sore throat, breathing problems, asthma

Source: household cleaners, living near an industry that uses a lot of water such as a paper mill

What are diseases linked to toxins?

- 1 in 3 people have cancer (more than 2 billion) \

- 1 in 8 women have breast cancer

- 17 million people have asthma

- 4 million people worldwide have Parkinson's disease

- 2.5 million people have Multiple Sclerosis

- 4 million people have Lupus

- 4.6 million people have Alzheimer's

- 40 million people have arthritis

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Suggested reads:

“Pink Slime” -- Finding Its Way Into American’s Ground Beef

Princeton University - Chemical Waste Disposal

Chemicals in Wastewater: A Growing Concern

The New York Times: How chemicals affect us

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