Amazing Race in Corregidor

It’s been a year since my first time in Corregidor. Back then, I thought it was in Bataan. Imagine my shock when our tour guide divulged it’s part of Cavite. And I call myself Caviteña! Now allow me to reminisce about this short yet sweet stay in the island.

Our batch had long planned to visit an unexplored destination like Corregidor for some ghost-hunting madness but, fortunately for the panic-stricken killjoys like myself, we discovered about the adventure tour first before the overnight counterpart of the historical tour. How can you possibly say no? Admit it, there’s something beyond heart-pumping about the reality show Amazing Race that, given the chance, you will jump at the opportunity to be in the show or anything close.

Meet Lor(n)a the Explorer!

Could somebody remind Lora to zip her backpack? Please?

Off to the battlefield!

Our team gets briefed

I brought casual clothes to change into upon arrival in the island. I had to endure at least 6 hours of Rest Day Over Time (RDOT) before heading to the bay terminal to meet up with my batchmates. However, everything happened so rapidly that I set aside such plans after our group stretching and briefing. Forgive me for being in a skirt all throughout. It doesn’t look seriously sporty, right?

And we’re off to the first challenge!

Looking for clues

And we found ’em!

Outside the [mental] hospital!

Mind games dito…

…mind games doon!

Problem solved! Wee!

About to survive the long duckwalk in the tunnel + ladder climb

Leaving the lighthouse

I’d hate to break the ambiguity of the challenges in the succeeding photos and paragraphs. But this competitive fool needs to justify how our party of 10 lost our approximately 10-minute lead. The first ballgame required the participants to form a circle, throw the ball to the person across them one after another until the basketful of balls had gone around. Mind you, in such a windy day when typhoon Quiel decided to make a landfall!

My turn to catch the ball from Cayin, our leader. Next off is Carmela, the girl standing next to Cayin.

Ball game by the ruins!

The opposing team about to break our lead! Damn!

The second ballgame happened to be the last challenge. It reminded me of one of the games that we had during What is Your DNA? (Discover and Nurture your Abilities). Instead of PVC pipes and calamansi, we’re supposed to make a plastic ball reach the basket a few feet away by making it roll through pieces of bamboo. We were THIS close to regain our lead but the ball fell down about thrice. We’re left with no option but to swallow our frustration and go back to the starting line.

Exhibit A

Exhbit B

Exhibit C

Exhibit D

Exhibit E: Almost there! Let’s do this!

Aaaaand we did it!

Tell me, do we look like runners-up to you?

We refuse to sulk. It’s lunchtime at last!

Let’s vault in, dirrrty feet! Take us tamagochis to the diner!

 I forgot to mention that some of us missed to have proper breakfast and we found the junk food being sold in the ferry’s snack bar far from satisfying. In my case, my last meal was around 12 midnight when one of our team leaders treated us poor saps to let’s-pretend-we’re-not-working-on-a-weekend dinner followed by hot taho in CCP at 6:30 am. Shortly after I made my second ascend to the ladder, I recognized how dizziness slowly crept in and I pushed myself to lean in a nearby branch. Millie realized it’s not my usual way of hugging a tree and probed what’s wrong. “Gutom na ako,” I murmured and MJ rushed to offer the freebie granola bar. I imagine how pale I’ve become. In a few minutes, I felt better. Thank God!

As you can probably tell by facing this challenge with an empty stomach, I didn’t really make any elaborate preparations for this challenge. That’s when overconfidence gets problematic. It’s almost effortless to convince oneself that such time-pressured games do not really necessitate major workout sessions. Knee injury or knee injury, I’ll survive it with a huge smile in my face. No anti-climactic finish in the hospital like this.

Always the last to arrive?

Guess who’s lagging behind?

Yes, I was always the last to make it and it was my name that consistently went with “Double time!”. When I finally do, somebody or the entire group’s almost done sweeping the place for clues. I really felt like a dead weight.

There was this one moment when I’m panting away at the back of the race and started asking myself why did I even agree to join this adventure to begin with. We apparently underestimated the challenges! Then they laughingly boomeranged the questions: “Who tagged us on Facebook about this deal, huh?” and “Whose idea is this, anyway?”.

Gosh, it was my idea! It’s all my fault that we’re crying happy tears under the interchanging heavy rains and bright sunshine. It was the exact motivation that I needed to hear and I felt my spirits lift up. It felt as if I can do million jump shots as if I never ever broke my kneecap or something.

This is amended version of this entry. Photos grabbed from Abby, Tagz and Gary.