The red/orange under-layer is nickel ore; get to it by taking all above

Image By Girlie Cervantes

I recently visited Surigao del Norte to report on tourism activities there, with a special focus on water sports. I found plenty of water sports and many new ventures in the pipeline. But what really took my breath away was the rape of Surigao over the past five years in the quest for easy money.

Jake Miranda, local hotelier and scuba diving fanatic, described Surigao del Norte as “presently suffering an identity crisis”: does it want to continue to be rapped by the global mining industry or does it want to embrace eco and adventure tourism. It cannot happily

Engineers off to survey wind turbine site

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

During the month of March, PhilCarbon has had a team of engineers in the field (literally) surveying for sites for Mindoro’s first wind farm in Bulalacao. An estimated 20MW wind power capacity may be installed in 2014 if the famous Bulalacao breezes check out.

Twenty sites are being surveyed in Bulalacao from which three will be chosen for a eighteen month wind analysis. A anemometer will be installed at the three best sites and the analysis of the wind data will dictate how many wind turbines can potentially be installed. According to Bulalacao Mayor Villas, “the wind turbines will be one of two renewable energy resources for Bulalacao . . . we are also seeking funding for a small hydro electric plant in one upstream location

Philippine Windsurfing Championship, Puerto Galera

Image courtesy John Smart

Every year in February, Puerto Galera traditionally hosts the second leg of the Philippine Windsurfing Championships on the waters off Boquete Beach. In 2012 the event will be expanded into the Puerto Galera water sports festival, to include all manner of wind–powered and human–powered water sports.

In addition to the windsurfing championships there will be competitive kite–boarding, dinghy racing and paddle banka racing and potentially dragon boat racing. The goal is to make February the on–water eco–water sports tourism festival month in Puerto Galera and to provide a vacation–extension for windsurfers and kite–boarders who usually travel to Boracay for the Funboard Cup in January and then have nowhere els

Photo courtesy Martyn Willes

UPDATED 30/01/2010

Puerto Galera Cup 2010 Windsurfing Championship, 27-28 February, will be the second leg of the Philippine Windsurfing Series of 2010. The Puerto Galera Cup 2010 is open to all windsurfing enthusiasts from around the World.

The Puerto Galera Cup Windsurfing Championship will be hosted as usual by the Sandbar Beach Resort within Puerto Galera Bay - the Most Beautiful Bay in the World in the Philippines. If previous years are a guide then in 2010 there could be up to one hundred windsurfing sails and boards on the water, competing in categories from junior and novice all the way to National Champion s

Photo courtesy John Smart

The Philippine Boat Show SEA Expo 2010 is more than just a boat show: Sea-Expo 2010 is the only waterfront lifestyle exhibition in Asia that promotes all of the lifestyle toys and trinkets for playing and laying on the beach. Too keep cool you need Sunbrella ultraviolet resistant fabrics.

Sunbrella is the standard in ultraviolet resistant fabrics for tropical climes. BVZ Asia has the exclusive distribution rights for Sunbrella fabrics throughout most of Asia. With offices in Japan, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, and with the Head Office in Hong Kong, BVZ Asia has the most extensive and strongest distribution of Sunbrella fabrics anywhere in th

Photo courtesy Martyn Willes

The Commodore's Cup (5th - 6th December) at Caliraya Lake, Cavinti/Lumban, Laguna, is organised by the Philippine Windsurfing Association and brings the best windsurfing and kiteboarding practitioners from around the Philippines and across Asia together for the final event of the 2009 Philippine Windsurfing Series. The Commodore's Cup event is open to all national and international windsurfing and kiteboarding enthusiasts.

The Commodore's Cup is an annual event designed to close out the Philippine Windsurfing Series racing season, that this year started in Puerto Galera way back in February. At Caliraya Lake the 2009 Philippine windsurfing and kiteboarding champions will b

Photo courtesy MyCam-Asia.tv

Taal Lake is now on the Internet with its own webcam.

Last year we introduced you to MyCam-Asia.tv - a free travel services website that provides real-time advertising and promotion for tourist destinations around Asia. Yesterday MyCam-Asia.tv announced the installation of their latest IP camera (webcam) in the grounds of the Taal Lake Yacht Club, Taal Lake, Batangas.

The view from the Taal Lake webcam shows the northwest vent of Taal volcano, the one that most people assume (incorrectly) is the main crater of Taal volcano, and the volcano tours boats of the Taal Lake Yacht Club . . . ready in waiting to take tourists on volc

Photo courtesy Bulalacao Mayor's Office

UPDATED 05/07/2009

Kiteboarding and windsurfing weather forecasts have been available from windguru.com for some years now and the weather forecast locations are well established, so when windguru.com ads a new weather forecast location for kiteboarding and windsurfing we are compelled to investigate. Last week, windguru.com added the new kiteboarding and windsurfing weather forecast location of Bulalacao at the South of Oriental Mindoro - just one week following the installation of an IP camera/webcam showing Tabuk Beach, Bulalacao Bay (where this photograph was taken in April this year).

Bulalacao offers good wind during the northeast monsoon and off