I
HAVE BEEN LOOKING for a place that has a good carrying capacity which
could not create environmental concerns in the event Snakehawk
Wilderness School starts to accept extended activities on a regular
basis. Although the Buhisan Watershed Area and among its fringes is
a very perfect site, I could not help it when my activities use up
forest resources like bamboos (which is very rare there) and would
defeat my own preservation effort.
You
see, my partner – William “Jungle Wil” Rhys-Davies – is
working full-time to get Snakehawk forward. I have never seen him so
dead serious so I suggest a place down south to get Snakehawk over
the horizon. I have been to Lower Sayaw, Sibonga last April to scout
the area for its resources and to assess its carrying capacity should
Snakehawk pushes to host a great number of clients. It was during
the time when we were negotiating with a maritime school to equip
their students the necessary survival lessons.
Jungle
Wil need to visit the place ASAP and I arranged Glenn Pestaño to
accompany us there. This is the favourite haunt of Glenn and he
knows the locals there very well and so, on July 21, 2013, we meet at
the front of the San Nicolas de Tolentino Parish in Pardo, Cebu City
to board a bus bound for Carcar. In less than 90 minutes, we were
dropped at Ocaña, where there is a road going to Napo. From there,
we ford a stream and follow a dirt road going uphill.
In
less than an hour, we reach the house of our host: Rufing Ramos. We
unpack our things to change into dry clothes since we were sweating
quite a lot from the uphill walk. Last night it was raining very
hard in the city and it stopped at dawn. When I woke up that early
morning, it was still raining but I ignored the weather as I am an
amphibian. By the time we start the hike, the sun shone.
I
tour Jungle Wil around the house of the Ramos family and showed him
the different fruit trees and herbal plants grown by Rufing. Then we
move to an open meadow on a hill and showed him the campsite which
could accommodate more than twenty tents. We follow a path down into
a very small valley where there is a dry small brook and show him
three different types of bamboo growing.
Further
up another hill is another path which goes down to a natural spring
that feeds an irrigation canal for a small rice field. The waterway
would be perfect for nocturnal hunting as it might be teeming with
rice frogs, fresh-water crabs and, possibly, shrimps during night.
Along the way is a perfect trail to teach people plant identification
and a sort of a “discovery hike”.
We
return and I see Rufing setting up two snares with a pressure-trigger
mechanism nearby his house. This kind of snare is designed for fowls
and birds and he funnel his intended prey by blocking all the spaces
in between except through the snares. Hopefully, what would be
caught by the snares would be lunch and he did not even bother to
place bait.
As
we were talking and having coffee, an unmistakable cry of a fowl came
from where the snares are located and we proceed immediately to
investigate. Indeed, a rooster was caught with one foot raised up
high by the cord attached to a branch that served as a spring
mecahnism and we have now food. Rufing’s wife dispatched the
chicken in the kitchen along with the two kilos of rice which we
brought.
Sure
enough, we have our lunch at 1:00 PM. The chicken was not tender but
it is tasty as it was free-rein. I keep going back to the pots for
refills of rice and soup. I see Jungle Wil enjoying very well the
food with his old canteen cup. While resting after the meal, Glenn
arrive with a gallon of frothing jungle juice. It is not sweet but
it is fresh nonetheless.
I
go down to another steep valley where groves of spiny bamboos grow.
I need to retrieve a short dry pole, a remnant of the ones I cut last
April, for use as a trap. This pole would be utilized as demo for a
scheduled activity. I return to the house to work on it when Rufing
notice fungus growing on the rim and on the insides. I am always
wary of mushrooms and fungus because I have limited memories of it
but Rufing assured me that it is edible and tasty.
Rufing
showed me to a place where a lot of it can be found. It grows on
decaying and burnt wood and, indeed, there are a lot of it growing.
I ask Rufing what name do they used for the fungus and he said that
they call it as “kwakdok” and it sounds funny because it rhymes
with “quack doc”. Anyway, we harvested a lot of it and I get to
fill a half-full inside a plastic bag. Rufing even taught me how to
prepare it before cooking.
Well,
after that useful time of foraging, we both go back to the house and
proceed to work on the bamboo pole and help finish the coconut wine.
When it is about 4:00 PM, we decide to go down back to where we came
from in the morning. We got into a snag with a group of old
villagers wanting to know more of us and our purpose. Here, we get
to drink hard liquor as a matter of respect and concoct alibis so we
could leave.
When
we thought we are free of them, we again are delayed by another group
of drunken, but younger, people on the farther stretch of the road.
Here, we have to use all our cunning to get rid of them because, it
seemed the glasses of strong drinks are plenty and it is getting
dark. When we had finally been freed of “social impediments”, it
was already dark by the time we reach the highway.
We
leave Carcar at 7:00 PM and reach the big city at 8:15 PM, thanks, in
part, to a flying public utility jitney disguising as a bus! I did
get home in one piece but I was subjected to bouts of fear on the
highway.
Document
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