Mambukal Day Trip

Today we went up to Mambukal Mountain Resort with Ryan's mom and Aunt. It was the perfect day; sunny and hot! We walked around the entire site touching the natural sulfur springs made hot from the volcano, Ryan played in the boiling mud pit and the kids did some wall climbing.

There has been so much rain lately that everything was this vibrant green contrasted with the beautiful colour of the water in the pond and rivers. So beautiful. Also we were given an amazing show by the flying fox bats! They suddenly all startled awake and were flying around with their huge wingspan. It was pretty cool!

We made our way into the butterfly gardens and walked around while the butterfly's flew around us. There were some live cocoons wiggling around but the butterflies quickly stole away the attention again:

We spent as much time as we could handle in the hot dipping pool before making our way into the cooler pool where the kids played around and spent some really fun times with Grandma!

It was a really great day. We all got some sun, some of us more then others but it was a success! The short drive there and back was completely worth the hours spent in the mountain today! Hopefully we'll a lot more successful adventures while Ryan's mom and aunt are here.

Cliff Jumping Filipino Style

It has been a busy week for us. Five American's have come to visit Focus and so Ryan has been busy at work and trying to help these guests see a little of what our area has to offer in the ways of fun. It's been a crazy schedule but today I think was a great day for the boys. We took everyone up to Mambukal Mountain Resort for a little cliff jumping. There isn't much more to say then that! Enjoy some of my favorite shots:

Everyone got their turn and after those first warm up jumps the experiments began and the poses really started to come out. We had splits, 360* turns, dives, the classic nose plugging and even a mooning from one of the local boys (don't worry, no pictures)! All these pictures were taken from the 6th set of falls of the 7 falls. It's a quick hike up but by the time you get there you're a little winded and defiantly hot. Even though it's a little cooler up on the mountain it's still really warm and mixed with the humidity that jump into the cooler water feels amazingly refreshing. It's also nice since it's so warm that you don't feel cold after while you're standing around waiting for your turn or taking pictures and you dry off quickly enough that you aren't grossly sopping during the hike back down!

Mambukal

The Jarman family have been lucky enough to get some family out to visit them already! On Sunday after church we tagged along as they took Bobbi's sister and her family up into the mountains to Mambukal. It's a mountain resort found at the base of a volcano here on Negros Island. It has a couple of sulphur hot springs, one is so hot you can't touch it or go in and the other is so relaxing and nice. There is also a couple of normal temperature pools, a climbing wall, a tram, hikes to waterfalls, some foods, butterfly gardens and of course places for the resort goers to stay.
The first thing that I was able to do was go on the tram over the river. Ryan and Lance have already been there and done that with some of the gang at Focus so Bobbi and I decided to test it out together. We hung upside down and with the blood flowing like crazy to our heads we zipped down the line to meet everyone waiting for us on the other side.

After the zip line the boys went up to the waterfalls and us girls took the kids to the pool to cool down for little bit. Madison and Scarlett had cute matching swim suits, I just couldn't resist these cute little girls!

The boys also were able to go swimming but in the fresh water! They hiked up to the 4th of 7 waterfalls. The hike is up the mountain in the hot humid heat and it takes about an hour to get up there. Once they made it up to the 4th set of falls they saw a bunch of the mountain kids cliff jumping into the river. Ryan had a blast taking pictures of the kids while they were jumping and then showing them the shots so they could see what they looked like! Apparently one of the guys had these sweet ninja moves and Ryan got some great shots of these kids playing around. I can imagine them smiling and laughing with those dark brown faces and great big white teeth filled smiles as they were looking at themselves on the camera. Of course the guys did some moves of their own to refresh themselves after the hot, sweaty walk up the mountain. Unfortunately by the time the guys made it back the hike was closed since it was getting close to sunset so us girls didn't get to go. Bummer, BUT next time for sure!

One of the things that Mambukal is famous for are the huge bats that live up in the tree's. We have a lot of bats that fly around our neighborhood at night as they eat those bugs at dusk, sometimes swooping just above your head but we don't have anything like the bats up at Mambukal! They really are the biggest bats I've ever seen, even in the zoo.