i travel sketch live

at the philippine eagle center

meet alex,  leah 's daughter, i sketched her when we were at mintal's japanese cemetery last weekend while on tour. check out her domo bonnet, so cool!

reasons to visit malagos garden resort and stay for a day or two - good food and wine (they also have different cheese for sale made at their farm) - swimming pool - mini zoo - butterfly sanctuary - there is a family room that is near a creek, the sound of flowing water is absolutely revitalizing - childern's play ground -a big area to walk hand in hand with your partner when we were there, the buffet food was sooo good, calderetang kambing, garden salad, fish fillet, barbecue chicken thighs and pumpkin soup. we also had a taste of their new cheese blend pineapple ricotta which for me was perfect with brewed coffee on a rainy afternoon. and they played an instrumental version of  the song 'feelings' as background music and set the player to 'repeat'

...all i know is that, its stalk is long and its leaves stay so close to the ground... Sul orchids is a farm and not a resort, so there are no entrance fees and the orchids are for sale all year long, the reception area/ greenhouse looks  very nice and comfy that you would be tempted to hang around and do some reading or sketching, sadly i did not have the luxury of time for those activities. there is no wifi connection in the farm.

the base of the tree was  dug up by  treasure hunters because many thought there was a tunnel that goes under it and leads to a buried treasure. many of the old japanese graves there were also defiled. so when you are in mintal, ask for the oldest and biggest acacia tree, who knows you might be the lucky person who will find yamashita's treasure. do you know that the tunnels beneath mintal were made ten years before world war 2? before this year ends i will have sketched that old acacia tree.

sketch of a heron statue at the japanese tunnel in davao city. The Japanese tunnel now is only 150 meters long, the rest is closed off, but the guide said that the tunnel stretches to a length of 8 kilometers, probably going to Mintal which was called 'little tokyo' before world war 2. So should you go to the Japanese Tunnel? yes, because there is a nice pool and a hotel :D

Last weekend I joined a group blogger tour around different placed in davao organized by Davao bloggers and the Davao city tourism office. I was part of the red team that would go around  tourist destinations around Mintal and Calinan areas. Saturday morning, while waiting for the event to kickstart, we were in McDonalds matina, i was outside (the inside was packed, but i think 60% of the people there were not eating at all, i think mcdonalds should charge an entrance fee and make it consumable for more profit) and sketched the electric post.

We like Eagle ridge resort because, the room rates are reasonable, the food is good and the price is reasonable too, close to nature (no sound of vehicles passing by, you can hear the sounds of birds and flowing water with a view of  the mountains from your room balcony, i forgot to scan the sketch), fast wifi internet and close enough to town that you can have fast food(mc donalds and jolibee) delivered to the resort. get there by taking the jeep to toril from downtown davao and alighting at ulas intersection, from ulas intersection, you can either take a ten minute walk to the resort entrance or take a jeep going to mintal and alight at the resort entrance. miniminum jeepney fare in davao is 8pesos. alternatively you can take an airconed passenger vehicle going to mintal or calinan from bankerohan  and alight at the eagle ridge resort entrance.

last weekend me, kikit, subang tribu members and volunteers of the philippine eagle foundation visited a manobo tribe in matigol, inamang, arakan, cotabato. there we helped in giving out school supplies,clothing and toys to everyone. after the activity and after the rain, we went to explore the area, i went on barefoot because the mud and rain rendered my sandals useless. sketching mount sinaka sketch of a tree at 'kawa' the tree was all i could sketch because i'm not worthy to sketch the beautiful view. because my sketch from kawa cannot prove how beautiful the place is going home, we trekked  almost three hours from the village to the national highway. when we got to the highway, we had lunch, bought vegetables and relaxed in a nearby spring before hitching a ride back to calinan. for me an kikit.  this is our (me and kikit) first real trek in mindanao. we made new friends and we got free shirts too! thanks to subang tribu and and the vo...