Blackbeard's Seafood Island's Boodle Fight

It was my birthday, and one of my fellow bloggers suggested a burpday celebration with the Sox Bloggers at the newly opened 

Blackbeard's Seafood Island 

at SM Gensan. 

Boy, we were in for some serious boodle fight! :)

We had so much fun when the food arrived that I forgot to take photos of the place. Sorry! :) While waiting for our food, we were served with these complimentary 

Tuna Chicharon.

Kasalang Filipino sa Gensan 2013

So here are a few of the reasons why I love Kasalang Filipino 2013 at Gensan.

It was a wonderful experience being part of the Kasalang Filipino 2013. If only to support my hobbyist turned full time wedding photographer hubby - Omar S. Gallinero. 

Bo's Coffee Invades GenSan

With the advent of coffee shops in the city, coffee drinkers such as myself find it hard to pin down a favorite. Maybe it comes down to taste, the robustness of the coffee bean used or the perfect blended frappe that is singular to the discerning palate of consumers. But then, whats more important at this point given the myriad of choices is to patronize a brand or a coffee shop that is proudly Filipino. 

Bo's Coffee takes pride not only in the fact that they are wholly Filipino owned but a huge percentage of their coffee beans are sourced from local growers in Bukidnon, Sagada, Benguet and Mt. Matutum in South Cotabato.  

The newly opened store at SM City General Santos also serves breakfast as soon as they open doors at 8AM and you can enjoy your coffee till 11 o'clock in the evening. 

Press Release from Bo's Coffee:

_______________________________________________________________________________

Bo’s Coffee Opens its First Store in GenSan

Craving for a caffeine fix in GenSan?

There’s a new coffee shop in town you’ll definitely want to check out. It’s the recently opened Bo’s Coffee in SM City, GenSan! Go ahead, treat yourself to a well-deserved cup of homegrown brew.

Did you also know that they only serve freshly roasted beans from the Philippines? This means that not a single bean in the store is grinded and brewed has lasted a month at most, ensuring the best coffee experience every time.

Aside from great coffee, Bo’s Coffee gives plenty of reasons for you to drop by its new GenSan store. World-class beverages are up for you to discover and love: from perky Espresso Beverages, healthy and toothsome Green Tea Matcha Freeze, sweet Ice Blended Cookies and Cream, fruity Mixed Berry Freeze, and even tropical freshly-brewed Dalandan Iced Tea!

For quick snacks, healthy bites, and filling meals, Bo’s Coffee GenSan also has an array of food products and pastries for you to try. You can choose from Breakfast options such as hearty Bacon, specialty Sausage, and fluffy Omelette Sets. In the mood for pasta? Then have a try of these picks: meaty Bolognese, tasty Carrittiere, and traditional Aglio e Olio.

Grab a bite of these crusty sandwiches: Bo’s Turkey Club, Grilled Chicken BLT, Grilled Italian Veggie, and Tuna Salad. For dessert, why not have delectable cakes such as indulgent Blueberry Cheesecake and Supermoist Chocolate Cake. For a delightful bite, have a frosty Carrot Bar, zesty Lemon Square, or sweet and nutty Food for the Gods.

There are surely a lot of selections for you to try at the new Bo’s Coffee GenSan branch. It’s just not your usual coffee shop. Its wall interiors are even inspired by homegrown craftsmanship, accented by earthy and organic coffee sacks. The coffee lovers’ cozy nook gives homage to Philippine-origin coffee. 

Your entire coffee shop visit of course won’t be complete without the service of friendly Bo's Coffee baristas who view coffee preparation as an art. So come over and visit the newest Bo’s Coffee store at General Santos City!

With over 60 stores and counting all over the Philippines, Bo’s Coffee guarantees that homegrown, freshly-roasted coffee taste that Filipinos surely love. For more details, visit www.boscoffee.com.

VINTAGE: A Manny Librodo Workshop

Photo enthusiasts and hobbyists from General Santos City and other cities around Mindanao have converged once more for the GenSan leg of photography workshops given by world renowned and Bangkok based Filipino photographer, Mr. Manny Librodo.

Photo courtesy of Mr. Ronald Rivera

For the first day of the workshop, they had the privilege of having a photo shoot with one of the country's most photographed faces, the very versatile Ms. Kharunisia Jazmin. This lovely lass is a talented young lady who does her own styling and concepts, and is a very competent hair and make-up artist.

The 1st two sets of the photo shoot was shot on location at the Manilay Ancestral House in General Santos city. One of the first of its kind in GenSan housing a variety of antiques and vintage artifacts that the participants had a myriad of picture perfect possibilities to choose from. 

The third set of the photoshoot was shot at Mt. Sabrina, which was supposed to be a sunset shoot but the elusive sun decided not to show herself in this shoot. But still, the photos were still exquisite. 

This Manny Librodo workshop themed: Vintage was organized by Prism Events 

in coordination with the Gensan Camera Club.

Special thanks to Mr. Warren Manilay for allowing us to use the Manilay Ancestral House as well as Mr. Orman Manansala for sourcing out our male model for this workshop.
Thanks also to the following gentlemen who acted as assistants in this workshop: Omar Gallinero, Bong Maliwat, Ronald Rivera, Don Pagunsan and Ybrael Abergas.

For more information on future Manny Librodo workshops in Gen. Santos city, you can check out the facebook page of Prism Events here. Thank you to Sir Manny for letting us use his photos for this blog post. 

Koronadal's 12th Hinugyaw Festival and Piyesta Korona 2012

It was a wonderful venture being part of  the six Soccsksargen Bloggers who were invited  by the LGU of the city of Koronadal. We get to experience first hand the celebration of the 12th Hinugyaw Festival and Piyesta Korona, which is also in conjunction with the city's 72nd Foundation Anniversary. 

Our day started early with a civic parade in  Koronadal's main thoroughfares. Afterwards, school kids from the elementary and high-school levels braved the rainy outbursts for the marching band/ drum and lyre competition in the South Cotabato Sports Complex. It was nice to watch these talented kids do their stuff marching and doing cart wheels while the rest did wonders with their huge base drums and cymbals. 

I am also proud to mention that the laurels of the drum and lyre open competition was brought home by the Eugenio Ranada Elementary School and the Christian School of Polomolok, both coming from my home base - Polomolok. *wink *wink 

The afternoon festivities for the Piyesta Korona started with a flourish as beautiful maidens (ahem and x-men too) strutted their beautiful rendition of Mardi Gras inspired costumes in the streets. It was a photographer's dream being able to take photos of the contestants up close. Registered photo hobbyists joining their photo contest (including us bloggers) were allowed access inside the cordoned area. So we can mingle and take photos according to our fancy. I only posted a few here, but you can view more of the photos in our facebook page. 

A little trivia for you: Piyesta Korona is the brainchild of current Mayor Peter B. Miguel to give emphasis on the "korona" or crown which might aptly describe the city of Koronadal. The event was composed of three different categories: Hinugyaw street dancing, Mardi Gras individual category and the Floats with their festival queens all focusing on the theme "crown".

Below is the winner of this year's Mardi Gras individual category. What I love about this contingent is the ingenious way they presented their idea in a very mardi-grah-ish way. The painted face and the huge crown all screamed mardi gras to me. :) I felt like being in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil just looking at him. 

Of course who would not notice the energy and hype of the nine participants in the street dancing competition..never mind that the street dancing lasted until late in the evening, but not once did I get droopy eyes all trough out just watching them perform. Some of the participants came from as far as Cotabato city and they all did a wonderful and entertaining presentation.

To cap the evening's celebration, the members of the LGU of the city of Koronadal released colorful lanterns while a grand fireworks display wowed the throng of people who attended the festival (including me :).

Kudos to the organizers of the 12th Hinugyaw Festival and Piyesta Korona. It was indeed a successful and fun event. 

Other Soccsksargen Bloggers who attended the 12th Hinugyaw Festival culmination day and the Piyesta Korona were: Avel Manansala of Gensantos.com, Doc Remo Aguilar of TacurongCity.net, Arzeriel Garcera of Pinasbackpackers.com, Aethan Yting of Aethanoscopy and Nanrdxz of South Cotabato News.

I would also like to thank our hosts headed by Hon. Mayor Peter B. Miguel- who incidentally is also the festival director;  Mr. Francis Sablon - asst. festival director, the members of the LGU of Koronadal City and the Sox blogger's official residence during the 12th Hinugyaw Festival - Cresta Del Rio Splash Resort.

Dolefil's "Light a Tree, Light a Life" truly worthwhile project!

Dole's VP and Managing Director Mr. Simon Denye 

My first time to experience Dolefil's Light a Tree, Light a Life project, I was so excited since I've been hearing about it for years and haven't really experienced the lighting of their trees, much less seen one live. I know you start to wonder, living in Polomolok, how come this is my first time? 

The Light a Tree project of Dolefil is an inter-division contest wherein employees decorate their Christmas trees (Norfolk Pine trees to be precise) inside the company premises - in the pedestrian walkway. So you see, its only for the eyes of the employees. I have to be really convincing so the guard will let me in and take a peek which during the past years, I never get to do. :)

But this project is not only limited to the enjoyment of Dolefil's employees so to speak. It is a very worthwhile endeavor wherein each division has an identified charity. Dolefil will then give a generous donation to the charity of the winning tree/division.  

So having said that, you could just imagine the effort put by each division in their trees... like this one for example. They even have a mini-conveyor run by a thin Santa. Maybe if Santa lost his reindeers and opted for this bicycle, he wouldn't be bothered with a big round belly! 

For this tree, they used recycled materials like scrap pouches (you know, the tetra pack ones they use for packaging  fruits and juices? yep.. thats the one below ) as their poinsettias. 

this one even used drums as base for their snow men..

Another division were very creative in using used straws for lanterns and tree ornament...

And who would even think that the IT division had thought of using old mouse as ladbugs on their way to their Christmas tree like below...

And I just have to show off this tree, my personal favorite.. 

this division had a small mini-Dole plantation around their tree...

So to recap, it was a very nice experience having seen these trees. A rather nice and exciting evening  for all the Sox Bloggers in attendance, thanks to our gracious host, Dole Phils., to Ms. Gwyn Ebol and of course to the Bariles who never fails to give us an exciting event to look forward to. :)

Have an exciting Christmas! May you find the proper venue in sharing your blessings to our less fortunate brothers and sisters in the example of this Light a Tree Project. Christmas after all, is a season not only for tinsels and lights and decorations.. but it is the season for giving! 

Philippine Blog Awards for Mindanao Nominations

I have only been blogging for more than a year now. At first, I never even imagined that anyone would be interested in visiting let alone read any of my blogs. I remember being hooked in this hobby because of my love for writing. I am not a lady who can say is good with expressing how she feels verbally. I have always had a strong love affair with the written word. I really don't know why but I can express myself well by writing (well.. typing mostly since nowadays we don't use pen and paper :). Sometimes I get absorbed with the ideas in my head, its frustrating that my hands can't type as fast as the ideas come.

But blogging for me is an outlet (visit my other blog: mommyjournals for more of my raves and rants about anything under the sun). The Pinay Travelogue is also a showcase of a few of Mr. OSG's prized photographs. That is one of the main objectives of this blog. And also to document and to showcase pictures of places we've ever been to, most especially those places here in Mindanao that are screaming for people to blog about. But in the course of updating this blog, you will find most of the photographs here are mine since Mr. OSG is really busy with this own hobby that at times, it gets hard threatening him to take photos of places we visit. hehe. So excuse some of my pictures here. :)

But not once did I imagine that people- well strangers to me that is, will really start reading our blog. It makes me happy to note that people who come visit our blog are mostly people I don't know personally. Well, of course at first the only ones I expected to visit are my relatives, friends and people who are acquainted to us as a couple. 

So from the bottom of my heart, I wish to thank all of you my dear readers who came and who have read and stopped by to visit our blog. Because of you, we got nominated in the prestigious Philippine Blog Awards for Mindanao - Travel/Destination blog category. 

from Gensantos.com 

Yeah we haven't won yet, just included in the nominations but it is an honor to be ranked among Mindanao's creme de la creme of experienced travel bloggers. Thanks for believing in us, and for giving me inspiration and motivation that I have to come up with more blog posts amidst our hectic scheds. Thank you readers for coming to this journey with us.  

Blogfest SOCCSKSARGEN 2.0

Its that time of the year again when bloggers from the Southern Philippines gather for the biggest event in this part of the blogosphere. Hosted by the Sox Bloggers along with GenSantos.com and GandaEverSoMuch.com. 

Registration fee is only $5.00 USD (P280) via Paypal or Bank Deposit, slots are limited to 100 participants only. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

This year's theme is "Emergence of Blogs and Social Media" Venue will be in General Santos city (specifics will be announced at a later date). The Philippine Blog Awards, the most prestigious blogging awards Mindanao leg will follow at 7:00 PM. This event is invitational, but you can still submit your nominations until October 15, 2011. 

See you there! 

12th Lubi-Lubi Festival

In Glan, Sarangani Province, they have a high regard for the coconut. The coconut after all is a major source of livelihood in this area of Southern Mindanao. It is the reverence they hold for the coconut that   they celebrate the Lubi Lubi sa Glan Festival every 8th of October. 

Lubi lubi is a native name for the coconut. They celebrate its benefits and multiple uses by a dance festival. Grooving their feet to the rythm of drums.  

They also give reverence not only to the lubi lubi but to their patron saint, Sta. Catalina de Alexandria

What I love about this festival is the painted faces and bodies of the participants. You can see a variety of painted faces and colorful costumes here. Often, I marvel at the intricacies of each costume's detail. 

Truly they go all the way when it comes to the Lubi lubi festival. And then it also helps that the prize money here is a whopping one hundred thousand pesos for the lucky winner! :) At least it only shows that the local government here give importance and therefore really alot budget to this festival.

Glan offers not only its pristine beaches but a wealth of culture and the arts. 

Given that this festival has already been on for 12 years, we wondered why  it was not well documented. Why do I think that? I tried googling it and I only came up with LGU published posts. So I wondered, why do photographers (and bloggers alike) seem to shy away from attending this festival when the street dancing was one of the most colorful we've ever been to. And then the 3 photo hobbyists from the camera club who came all the way to Glan had to stop shooting since the place intended for photographers were suddenly blocked by people from Glan themselves.  Blocking their view therefore preventing them from taking any more photos. :) Poor crowd control? Maybe.

So sad, when photographers (and bloggers alike) should have been their partners in promoting this event. They are also like tourists so to speak. If people here, start being really friendly to tourists (well, bloggers and photo hobbyists included) maybe more people would start enjoying this festival along with the locals.. --just my two cents worth on this, no offense meant. :)

SEx Tour - Part Deux (The SOCCSKSARGEN Experience Tour)

My first time to join the SEx Tour (thats the SOCCSKSARGEN Experience dear readers), I was all geared up for a jam-packed itinerary and I wasn't disappointed...

I only had time to join Day One of the three day tour but it was well worth it. We started off at the break of dawn to Maitum, a quaint town in Sarangani province.

Upon arriving at the municipal hall, we were in awe of the mini-museum they have at the second floor with the display of the unearthed archaeological treasures that date back circa 5 BC to AD 225. We were told that the ones on display are just a few of the pieces and most of the valuable items were on display at the National Museum in Manila.

Then we were treated to a sumptuous breakfast feast at the home of our gracious host, Ms. Beth Ramos-Palma Gil. Their hospitality is evident in the yummy food we never seem to get enough of. I loved the bangsi, the black and brown rice as well as the salted egg all washed down with refreshing glasses of lemongrass and turmeric juice.

After breakfast, we simply had to try the Whitewater Tubing at Pangi river. It was an adrenaline packed tube ride coursing through 1.6km of the river's raging waters. It was a challenge keeping yourself afloat on the rubber tube as well as making sure you don't swallow gallons of ice cold water in the process. :)

Then we had to rush over to Kiamba for another appointment with their Tourism Staff. Luckily Peter Pilot was a very efficient and fast driver. I felt I was cast in the Fast and Furious movie just seating in the backseat. hehe. The Kiambans prepared another feast for us complete with a lechon de leche! yum!

Bloggers at Kiamba with our host from the Tourism office

Our full stomachs didn't hinder us in catching a boat ride to Tuka Marine Sanctuary. A protected area about 20minutes from Kiamba's pier. It had a beautiful beach but they pointed out that the coral reefs might have been a sight to behold if not for the infestation of crown of thorns. More on this in another blog. :)

After snorkeling for about half an hour, we were once again on the road and headed off to Kalsangi Clubhouse in Polomolok, South Cotabato. Our tummies were so happy with the heavy snacks they prepared for us. And we were treated to an enlightening AVP (audio-visual presentation) of the beginnings of Dole and the various worthwhile community projects they are involved in. Truly, Dole Phils is an asset to the Filipino community in Southern Mindanao not only providing jobs but making a difference in the lives of its sponsored communities.

The day was topped off by another gastronomic feast at Piyesta Restaurant at Robinson's Place Gensan. But due to over fatigue with the loaded itinerary, I wasn't able to join them for dinner. But I bet it is another delicious treat since Piyesta is known for good food.

After this experience, I couldn't wait for the next SEx tour.. Special thanks to all our sponsors and event organizers, most especially to Mr. Bariles, Avel Manansala for making all of these happen.

Blogfest 2010....A Synopsis

There are award winning bloggers and emo bloggers. Those that blog about reality and those that blog prose and poetry... and then there is the SOCCSKSARGEN Bloggers.

Mindanao's Funnest - Sox Bloggers

with the men of the hour..Orman and Avel Manansala

The Sox Bloggers are the team behind the recently successful BlogFest SOCCSKSARGEN 2010. Conceived by the minds of GenSan's own celebrity bloggers Mr. Bariles, Avel Manansala and his royal Gandaness Orman Manasala. Under their constant leadership and guidance, the team of bloggers organized the biggest blogging event in Southern Mindanao ever! All in the span of three weeks tops! --something else huh? :) 

 With the charisma of the brothers, they were able to put together a  gathering of the best speakers in the entire local blogosphere. The likes of  Ria Jose, Jong Gonzales, Michelle Solon, Ryann Elumba, Danilo Arao, Jay Jaboneta, Dale Palileo, Aileen Apolo-de Jesus, Bob Soriano, Jun Acharon, Janette Toral and Brendel Balaga all authorities in their fields, some even flying in from Manila to share their time and talent to the 100plus registered attendees. Read more about them at GenSan News Online Mag.

funny moment with one of the speakers, Ms. Michelle Solon

 

exercise break

Many thanks to the following sponsors who made this event a resounding success! The Gold Sponsors for backing the Sox Bloggers in this endeavor: 

• East Asia Royale Hotel, 
• Sagittarius Mines, 
• Smart Communications, 
• Dolores Hotels and Resorts,  
• Gaisano Mall of GenSan 

Thanks also to these people who made this event truly memorable not only for the Sox Bloggers but all the bloggers of Southern Mindanao: Mr Omar Gallinero of Montage Digital Photography, Royal Iris Productions, the team from STI College and Robinsons Place Gensan.

From all of us in the SOCCSKSARGEN Bloggers, we wish to thank everyone who flew in, rode a bus, a taxi, from all over just to be with us in our first Blogfest ever!Your presence made this event a success. Hope you learned a lot and had fun while you were here.  Hats off to everyone and till we all meet again....