Maniolas

Image via The Poor Traveler With several non-working holidays this week, many of you are probably already looking at spending time away from the metro. But before you head on over to old reliable Tagaytay and other usual destinations, why not take a look at the province of Rizal for your holiday getaway? There’s plenty to see and do in the picturesque province! Check out some of these highlights—and hidden nooks!—curated by Rappler.com: Windmills at Pililla While the windmills at Bangui, Ilocos Norte are probably the most well-known windmills in the Philippines, you don’t have to go to the literal edge of Luzon to see these totems of renewable energy. The Pililla windmills are two hours away from Metro Manila, and feature around 27 turbines built on on the hills offering a breath taking view of the surroundings. There’s a main observation spot in Pililla that you can visit that serves drinks and shade from the intense sun. Getting there: Board a jeep or van from Cubao or EDSA-Shaw heading to Tanay. Once you’re there, you can hire a tricycle to the Pililla Wind Farm for around Php 200 – 300, with the trip taking around 30 minutes. Visit the Masungi Georeserve You’ve probably seen photos of a web-like structure suspended above jagged rocks and outcroppings in your Facebook feed before. More often than not, that photo was taken in the Masungi Georeserve located in Baras, Rizal. It’s a conservation area and popular outdoor adventure facility. While the photos show Read More …

Contrary to popular belief, being an illustrator and comic book artist doesn’t bring in the big bucks. Most of the people that ply the trade are freelancers who go from project to project without a guarantee of repeat business. It’s especially hard to pursue your lifelong passion when dire real-life situations get in the way, but for comic book artist Josel Nicolas, simply stopping his life’s work was not an option. When both of his parents started accumulating expensive medical fees, namely for his mother’s eye operation and his father’s heart surgery, Josel turned to one thing he knew how to do to pay for them: his art. He is devoting the entire proceeds of the third printing of his illustrated book, Windmills, to paying for his parent’s medical expenses. He actually began creating the serialized comic back in 2009, inspired by the medical battles his father has had to face. “Honestly one of the biggest goals I have in ‘Windmills’ is to talk about sickness. I feel like my father falling ill has shaped my life greatly. He had a freak car accident when I was young and afterwards we discovered a pretty big benign tumor, which we had removed, but it left him without balance and with some speech problems (he sounds like he’s angry all the time and forgets words),” Nicolas shared in an interview with GMA News Online. “Although I have yet to actually write more about my dad’s illnesses, it does show up intermittently in some Read More …