Hello! Hi! Mabuhay! How are you dear Hivers? I hope you are doing fine!
Time had passed. Things had changed. I could still remember the days when I was still young and free, My friends and I would always climb and trek the mountain near us every summer. Now that we grow and continue to our different paths, we barely see and talk to each other.
I was awakened by the shout of my sister 
OH!! I MUST HURRY! She asked me to go with her on an adventure!
TO DANAO CITY, WE GO!
Everything was abrupt and rushed. I just knew that my sister's buddies canceled right before that morning. She was left with no choice but to take me. I was initially hesitant because of my business and upcoming speakership for the seminar (which I will also share here in my future blogs, HEHE). To cut the story short, I found myself packing my climbing essentials and headed to her house.
It was 9 in the morning. The scorching heat of the sun is painful to the skin. I don't think we were at the right time to climb, because surely, I'd get myself sunburns and body pains.
Well, guess what? Everything went fine according to her plans. We rode a van going to Danao City Drop Off and hired a motorbike to go to the peak.
The summit of Licos
Licos Peak is a 365-meter-tall hill located in barangay Licos, in the middle of Danao City, Cebu. It is 13 kilometers away from the national highway. You can access it by any means of transportation. To get there, we hired separate motorbikes for 150 pesos (2.66 US DOLLARS). It took us around 30 minutes to reach the peak's drop-off. The road goes uphill and you can see the buildings and houses beneath. I was a bit worried for I know that my sister has a traumatic experience involving motorbikes. So even when I was on a motorbike, I kept looking back through the side mirror to check if they were following us. Finally, we were able to reach our destination safe and sound. The drop-off point is the barangay hall which is just below the peak.
Whooops! We are just at the beginning of the story! Come with me as I share with you what happened next!
Kicking Off to Licos Peak
Clueless of how steep this hill was, I crossed my fingers and excitedly began to trail. I could not deny that I was thrilled to climb again after many years. Even though my body was never ready for extraneous activity, I believed this thing was a piece of cake for me. It was past 10 o'clock when we set off. It was only the two of us and did not ask the neighborhood a tour guide.
Then, the adventure began in 3, 2, 1!
The sound of the humming air embraced and welcomed us offering its freshness and coolness. The heat of the sun was too hard to beat and the shade of the trees was what I wanted that time. We were minutes away from the point, yet, I hardly caught my breath.
Puzzling Markings to Unknown
As we continued our journey, we heard some hikers from afar. They were shouting and laughing. We were wrong when we thought that it would be only the two of us. So we took a pause and waited until we saw the hikers. Minutes passed but nobody was seen. We started to wonder where those voices came from. We even tried to follow the voice that we failed. Finally, we decided to go on our own.
But to our surprise, several markings were seen printed on rocks and trees. They were red and blue. So we followed until we reached more markings until we doubted that we were on the wrong track, that those markings were not going to the peak.
So we agreed to go back to zero and just wait for those hikers that we heard. Another minute passed but there were no shadows seen. Without a choice, we finally decided to follow the markings and let it bring us to where it leads.
The struggle was Surreal
Going up was super duper challenging I must say. You will surely use your Spiderman skills to grab the roots or trees that you can use to hold. You have to crawl and make sure not to fall. We laughed at ourselves for the struggles that we faced. Take note, we were not even sure where this trail was going. LOL.
The tall trees covered us from the heat of the sun. However, the sweat is like a thousand liters coming out all over my body. I forgot to count how many 'TONGUES OUT" and how many "WHOOOS" I shouted. Let me show you the genuine struggled faces I had during the climb.
(Everytime I look into these photos, the picturesque view of the peak comes back to mind vividly - chuckles)
The Best You, I Love View
Indeed, the best view comes after the climb. After an hour of struggling, we were finally able to see the view from above. I was star-struck for a moment. Stunned by the view, I was speechless. It was almost mid-noon but I was not bothered by the heat anymore. I was overjoyed to see what I conquered that day.
Then, we savored the time by taking photos as our souvenirs. We took turns taking photos and enjoyed the rest of the time.
After taking photos, we decided to take our lunch. We brought food from home and also bought some snacks before the journey.
More from this Stunning View
Before I embarked on this journey, the only thing I heard from my sister about this peak was that this was a hard climb full of rocks. Truly, wherever you look, you are surrounded by big rough rocks.
While enjoying the view, there were these little things that amazed me.
I fell in love with this place!
A shared passion from Strangers
While enjoying our lunch, we heard another voice from not so far from us. We were laughing because we believed they also had the same struggles as ours. Little did we know that they were practicing for a trail marathon which will be held at this same place and the same peak. We were shocked to know that those markings made were for the joiners of the marathon. So, it was not printed for nothing at all. We had a little conversation about the same passion and knew that they also climbed as a hobby just like ours.
After an hour or so, it was about time to go down. But I tell you, If we had a hundred percent struggle going up, it was double going down. The leaves were so slippery. I don't even know if my Spiderman technique was effective going down. We just laughed at the funny moments that happened.
We had a good time.
As we reached the drop-off point, the lady offered us a drink and shared how we enjoyed each other's company. Until we all bid goodbye and unfortunately forgot to ask their names.
This blog and this adventure taught me that it's not too late to do the good things you used to do that helped you become what you are now.
I'm surely, back on track - Back on blogging! Back on the trail - back on climbing!
Thank you so much for reading this far! I hope you enjoyed it. See you on my next blog!
Have a good one!