ds and I were the first one to leave the guys after lunch. The trail going back to Barangay Alas-asin was much easier as it is already familiar and there are no longer technical trails. The only disadvantage here once you get out of the forest is the afternoon heat. We were able to catch up with the chicharon boys who were having a nice snack and some rest on the marked stop-over at the clearing entering the forest. The view there at that time was nice and it was ironic that my camera's light meter started malfunctioning then. Soon I heard Leonard said that "Buti ka pa meter lang (good for you, it's only the meter)", it turns out that his Canon SLR camera got soaked when we were at the Papaya River. A few minutes later, we already moved on leaving behind the guys who were insisting that we should rest a bit.
It was downhill all the way from here, and a lot of the clearing. Eds was quite fast and I was a few paces behind him as we were somewhat running back. I was irritatingly holding on to my bag which is more of a distraction as the straps were always sliding out, letting the weight slip down, so I have to constantly pull the straps to keep the weight at my back. So folks, never buy an "illustrazio" bag for the outdoors. Shortly we were walking on the trail near the Jump-off point. There were no signs of the sir Jame's group or his car near the house, so we moved on to where our ride dropped us off. We had to wait there until the others came. After a while, Daddy E. arrived with the Chicharon Boys, turns out that we have to walk more to where we registered in the Barangay. It's not that long a walk.
After all have have arrived and cleaned up at the barangay. We were on our way home. By 5pm we rode a Fast ferry back to Manila.
