User:Geostride

Geostride.com is an adventure blog that focuses on expeditionary and exploratory travels and adventures. Written by Myles Delfin a Philippine-based adventure writer and photographer whose work has appeared in Philippine adventure and travel publications, websites, and broadcast media. The author writes about his experiences as an adventure racer and cross-country cyclist, he also writes about new and undiscovered adventure destinations around the Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao islands of the Philippines. The primary topics for Geostride.com includes mountaineering, camping, hiking, mountain biking and other related adventure activities.

Geostride.com features the possibilities of the Philippine islands as an adventure destination. After all, the country is newly regarded by international travel and adventure publications as an emerging destination for tourists. In fact, because of what it can offer, there have been many adventure and endurance sporting events in the country including the Elf Authentic Adventure Race and numerous marathons as well as triathlons. Road cycling and mountain biking biking is also starting to grow in popularity and there are international cycling races that take place annually. In addition, there is a growing number of hiking and climbing enthusiasts in the Philippines who belong to local mountaineering clubs, some of the more popular mountains include the jagged-peaked Mount Guiting-guiting in Romblon, Mount Halcon in Mindoro where the indigenous Mangyan people also reside, Mount Banahaw in Quezon Province, and many other smaller peaks including Mount Batulao and Mount Maculot in Batangas where a climber had gone missing for two weeks recently, he was later discovered to have fallen from a steep cliff on one side of the mountain that faces the popular Taal Lake and volcano.

The mountain trails and islands of the Philippines are largely undiscovered destinations. Though, many of the more popular places like Puerto Galera, Cebu, Bohol, and Boracay offer amenities to travelers. There is increasing interest however in the lesser known islands and beach destinations of El Nido and Coron in Palawan as well as in other places around the country. The Philippine islands are connected by air, sea, and land transportation. There is a local system called the "nautical highway" which is an interconnected transport system of buses, vans, and roll-on, roll-off ferries that service strategic ports across the country. In theory, it is possible to travel from one end of the Philippines to the other using this system. Alternatively, there are numerous airlines that serve both domestic and international passengers. Most of the islands of the Philippines have airports or airstrips, the major airline companies use fleets of Airbus and Boeing aircraft, most of which are either leased or brand-new. There has been a recent aggressive re-fleeting program of most of the local carriers and an ongoing upgrading and development of local airports. The Philippine Department of Tourism is promoting the adventure destinations of the Philippines through a new campaign called "it's more fun in the Philippines" which has received widespread support from Filipinos living in the country and abroad.