Team Bacchus at Galera!
Whew! Just arrived an hour and a half ago from our "Team-Building" activity at the beautiful beaches of Puerto Galera, Mindoro. I've had company outings before, but this one really stands out!
Day 1
I wasn't really sure of joining 'till early morning Tuesday. I've finally given my go signal to my teammates that I'll be joining them. 9 of us, including Borne, our coach and her boyfriend left Manila an hour before lunch time. Fortunately, I was able to seek permission (last minute as always) from my dad to borrow the Kia Ceres for the trip. Yeah it's big for 9 passengers, but it's the only one available for us to use and my team has no reason to complain about the lack of air-conditioning at the back of the truck. Only the 3 in front, including myself as the driver, have the luxury of using the air-conditioner all to ourselves! We parked the truck outside the Batangas City Pier and was in the nick of time to ride the ferry boat to Galera.
after several screwed-up plans since February 2004, it's nice to see the the familiar beach from afar
Ah! It's been almost 2 years since I last touched foot on the white sands of White Beach! Weather was nice and it's not yet too late to swim! Nice to see clear waters and white sand again, I tell yah!
first few shots I took after setting foot in my favorite beach
Something seems to be wrong. Where are the beautiful people??? They're in Manila of course! It was a Tuesday and nobody would go to the beach during a weekday. Probably if you see a group of people wondering around in a beach during weekdays, you may think of them working in a call center 
Thanks to Rigs, who seems to know everyone we bumped in to, we were able to get a couple of rooms and eat our late lunch.
The 2 ladies sitting in front are Karen and Jeanne. Sitting at the back are Argy, Joppet, Kenneth and Borne. Standing at the back are Poms and Rigs
After the heat suffered by most of the team, thanks to the Kia Ceres, they all wore their swimsuits and jumped in to the lovely, inviting waters.
Ah! How refreshing!!!
while they swam...
... I took pictures of myself! Gimme a break guys, I need to be vain even once in a while!
There are a lot of things I really miss in Puerto. One of them is their food, especially their kebabs! So I ordered one.
Others did too, and not only kebabs!
Boss Borne and her Halo-Halo
Drinking session has begun a couple of hours later. The team is known for its members who would drink anything as long as it has alcohol content with it. Since the Greek God Bacchus is the God of Wine and we were assigned to choose a god name for our team, Bacchus was the most appropriate.
I strolled the beach while listening to my mp3 collection and reminiscing the first time I was there with my girlfriend. While strolling, I saw a tattoo parlor which also does Henna. I remember my girlfriend thought of having a tattoo on her breasts and I quipped that I will give her permission as long as my name is her tattoo.
Joined the team later for several shots of Mindoro sling then we all slept afterwards.
Day 2
It rained during the wee hours of the morning but thank God it stopped before sunrise. After we all ate breakfast, some of my teammates went back to the beach to sunbath.
Then a wild idea hit the team - riding the Banana Boat! The boat is inflatable and is pulled by a speedboat.
I thought it was that simple. Until...
SPLASH!!! Riding the banana boat at high speed is not the big idea, but to give us a big splash once the speedboat goes into a wild turn! We did this around 3 times. A fourth one was supposed to follow but the speedboat headed back to the beach. In some act of desperation, some of us crazy folks deliberately overturned the boat, and everyone did get the splash!
Care for another ride? Hell Yeah!!!
It was almost lunch time and White Beach is at its most beautiful sight. So I siezed the opportunity and took pictures of it.
One word: WOW!!!
It was so cool I want to have a picture of myself in the beach.
(To Be Continued)
