Thursday morning started early for most as bloggers gathered at Gonuts Donuts and anticipate the trip to Island Cove.

 

 

An hour later and we see the big sign welcoming us to the summer destination of Cavite, Island Cove.  There were 30 participants so Yehey divided everyone to 6 teams composing of 5 members each.  Team leaders are Noemi, Dante, Marcelle, Jennifer, Jonas and Carl.  To make things fair, the leaders and members were picked out of a fishbowl.

 

 

First Challenge -Find the team’s survival kit from 2 rooms at the hotel. 

The hotel at Island Cove houses 113 rooms including 30 cabanas.  Interestingly for animal lovers, some rooms are pet-friendly so you can feel free to bring your furry friends –or scaly ones (eeps).  The hotel also offers 24-hour room service, wi-fi and free entrance to Oceania Water Park. 

 

The yellow team sped through the halls trying to locate the two rooms.  After clearing the ground floor, we rushed towards the second level.  Dante, Yellow Team’s team lead, went pass the marked room since somebody already came out of that room.  He thought that there were no more kits inside.  I just had to double check.  The girls, Leirs and Karla, were with me.  I grabbed one bag, which made us Team Yellow.  Inside were water jugs, towels and several yellow flags.  I shouted for Dante and Eric but they were nowhere in sight.  Karla suggested that they might be back in the lobby.  We traced our steps back to the hotel lobby but couldn’t finish the challenge without the rest of the team.  I kept calling Dante’s name and finally I saw him and Eric cutting corners and rushing to our side.  We placed the yellow flag in the destination point where we got the next clue.  Unfortunately, we were the last team to finish challenge one.  We didn’t let this discourage us as we made a quick dash to the next stop.

 

The 2^nd clue directed us to the place where the floating huts are but the clue said that nobody fishes in the area.  We almost ran to the fishing village when the Team Marshal asked us to read our clue carefully.  We headed to Kawit, Alapan, Binakayan Pavilion instead.

 

 

Second Challenge –Find the Other Half of the Masquerade Mask

Kawit, Alapan and Binakayan appear like floating huts in the middle of a big pond, but in actuality, they are function rooms, where you can hold team buildings, weddings and events.  We were 2^nd to reach the area.  Immediately, we were handed the task card along with half of a masquerade mask.  We have to find the other half.  I think this was the most frustrating part for our team.  I immediately located 2 half masks but they weren’t the “other” pair of our mask.  Dante was able to locate another half, but it wasn’t ours.  Most of the teams were able to locate their mask.  10 more minutes pass by and we really swept the area clean but it was only OUR mask that we couldn’t locate.  We found a mask that matched the facial color but the hair wasn’t the same.  The station marshal gave our next clue.

 

 

 

 

Third Challenge –Sack Race

The third clue directed us to the Cavite Hall.  Cavite Hall is another recreation hall in Island Cove.  It can house 500-600 people for big events.

 

 

I have never done sack race in my life, not even when I was a kid so I was a bit queasy on this challenge.  Dante went first while I went second.  Good thing that the sack was big as I was able to maneuver my hops and turns easily.  I didn’t fall, thank goodness and our team managed to ease out of this challenge swiftly.

 

Fourth Challenge –The Food Challenge at Sangley Point

Sangley Point is the biggest restaurant in Island Cove.  It also lodges 3 function or meeting rooms namely Magdalo, Magdiwang and Aguinaldo.  The first two rooms can fit 20-50 pax while Aguinaldo can accommodate 200 people.

For the physically challenged, this challenge might be their redemption.  Pick one team member with a not so sensitive appetite to choose one covered food and drink.  Dante was the brave soul.  Luckily, his pick was not too difficult.  Uncovering the bowl, it revealed three balut eggs.  Dante easily chowed down the three cholesterol-ridden duck eggs and drank the spicy carrot juice.  Some of the teams had to eat Isaw, Ampalaya, Pig’s Brain, Frog, Snails and drink Chocolate Shake (what a break for Chris’ team), Cucumber Shake or Ampalaya Shake.

 

 

Fifth Challenge –Slide and Kayak at the Oceania Water Park

Even prior to the start of the race, our team already huddled to discuss the delegation of the tasks.  I already begged off anything that has to do with getting wet.  The challenge requires two people to slide while two wait in the kayak to be pushed by those who did the slide.  The rest of the team was eager to do the challenge.  They all handed me their cameras and valuables as I continued to read the clue.  Dante and Leirs did the slide with Leirs going first.  Swoosh.  Dante followed.  Swoosh.  It was only then I remembered to instruct Eric and Karla to ride the Kayak for Dante and Lairs to push.  I slapped my forehead for the misstep as we could have saved time if they were already in it as soon as Dante and Lairs hit the water.

 

 

Sixth Challenge –Know Your Move at the Giant Outdoor Chess

Eric volunteered to do this challenge and it was pretty quick.  He was a rook and he only had to do a rook chess move.

 

 

Seventh Challenge –Belt it Out at the Island Songs KTV

Leirs volunteered to sing her heart out at the KTV.  She sang Gold and we all helped her to it while I took some photo shots.  “Gold!  Always believe you can do it.  We got the power to go!  We are unstoppable.  Always believe in…”

 

 

Eighth Stop –Target Shooting at Adventure Zone

Since Dante was the most manly in the team, he volunteered to do the target shooting challenge.  We have to hit the mark three times with paintball guns.  Dante missed.  The team asked me to try it.  I did but only hit one.  Two more.  We were neck in neck with two other teams at this point.  Sire was able to hit the target successively, which really wowed a lot of onlookers.  Dante figured a very clever strategy.  He placed the paintball gun perched on the tree to stabilize and voila!  He was able to get the two more hits successfully.

 

 

 

Ninth Stop –Monkey and Crocodile Farm

It was the only Detour challenge of the whole race, where we had to pick between two challenges.  Dante picked Monkey thinking that Monkeys are less scarier than Crocodiles.  We had to feed the monkeys and get a very good photograph of it.  This was quite tricky as the monkeys are already full from all the bananas the other teams gave them.  Moreover, once they get the banana, they hide back to their shade.  Good thing that Eric and Karla’s hands were faster as they snapped away taking shot after shot.

 

 

Noemi’s team chose Crocodile and it happened to be the easier and quicker challenge since you only need to take a picture of one team member holding a baby croc.  Aerin had a very cute photo of the monkey eating the banana. 

 

 

The Final Stop –Goal at the Fishing Village

Finally, our last destination, The Fishing Village.  The Fishing Village is one of the area in Island Cove that offers a different setting.  One can do actual fishing here.  There are at least 10 kinds of fish: Sapsap, Lapu Lapu, Samaral, Kitang, Pargo, Talakitok, Bidbid, Bangus, Apahap and Barracuda.  Fishing fee is only PHP 100.  There are 33 huts where 5 are land huts and 18 are floating ones.  This area can house 450-500 people while the Fisherman Grill can accommodate 150-200 people.

 

 

Island Cove’s Managing Director Gilbert Remulla welcomed the bloggers and helped in awarding the winners.  1^st place went to the Orange team, which is a very much-deserved win.  We were also so happy placing 4^th after the unfortunate incident of not finding the mask at the Pavilion, which made us trail behind for most of the race.  We were all so tired and spent after a long day under the summer heat but Eric is right in saying that it was an afternoon well spent.  We had an absolute blast in all of the challenges as we gave our best. 

 

 

It was a well thought out adventure race.  I had loads of fun and exercise.  Big love to the Yehey team and Yellow Team!!!

 

 

Detour: Island Cove Album

Iris Album

Noemi Album

 

 

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Detour Entry Tomorrow

 

Tags: adventure race, bloggers, caption, challenge, Detour, event, Island Cove, Island Cove Adventure, March 5, Photo, points, Race, sponsored, task, Yehey

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 11:59 am and is filed under Taste Manila. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.