Adventure Travel Expo in Chicago: It's do or dive

We get quite a chilly welcome as soon as we step out of the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago one early morning in January. Outside, blankets of powder white snow cover the ground. Ice, ice, baby! As the temperature dips below zero, we shrink at the thought that this is a lot colder than if one gets stuck inside a walk-in freezer, something we wouldn’t wish on anyone. Did anyone say frozen ass-ets? And oh, did we mention the wind chill? Suddenly, I remember being told (it was more like a cold warning) by a guy at the airport in Los Angeles on our way to catch our flight for Chicago: “You’re going to Chicago? Why are you going there?” But inside the Adventure Travel Expo at the Donald Stephens Convention Center in Chicago, the atmosphere is far from cold, and people can only think of sunny skies, surfing, sky diving, scuba diving, white water rafting, kayaking, rock climbing, and a lot of other adventure sports to die for — or dive for! Besides, there are treats and goodies galore at the booths to warm the heart and the belly. One booth even baked a giant fruitcake, which had guests queuing up for more. Of course, our mangorind candies disappear as fast as they’re put on the tables.

This year, the Philippines makes waves as the main feature at the expo. “You mean there are 7,107 islands in the Philippines?” a wide-eyed Chicagoan asks her seatmate at a breakfast briefing hosted by the Philippines for travel agents and capped by a raffle of round-trip tickets to the Philippines for them to see for themselves some of those islands — and what lies beneath! That means our colorful corals and marine bio-diversity, as Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano never fails to point out in DOT’s sales blitzes abroad.

Chicago must love the Philippines so much it’s got its own Dr. Jose Rizal Monument on N. Lake Shore Drive and a Bataan-Corregidor Bridge, among other Fil-Am tourist sites in the Windy City. It’s also got a Philippine exhibit at its Shedd Aquarium. I guess the feeling is mutual. Filipinos, who count as a major ethnic group in this part of the world, love Chicago for better or for worse — it’s got the best hot dog (with everything on it), the best ribs, the best stuffed pizza (Say “Giordano’s”) in all of America; it’s got the best professional basketball team in the universe (da Bulls), and it’s got the worst politicians who enjoy taking long vacations in prison.

And now, Chicagoans have their eyes on the Philippines as the featured destination at this year’s Adventure Travel Expo, a top-rated adventure show in the US that features hundreds of captivating destinations from different countries around the world.

Why the Philippines? Why not? The Philippines is heaven for the outdoor enthusiast. Why is that? Let us count the reasons:

1) Variety. Craving adventure? The Philippines has a thousand and one escapes to offer, from the more leisurely pursuits to the rough-and-tumble adventures for the more stout-hearted souls out there.

2) Affordability. Everything in the Philippines is within your budget — accommodations, transportation, food, etc. You’ll be surprised to discover how far your money can go.

3) Modern infrastructure. All adventure destinations in the Philippines are easily accessible by land, sea or air.

4) No language barrier. Filipinos are as much at home in English as they are in Filipino. Need we say more?

“Imagine swimming with the whale sharks, dancing with fireflies, passing through an underground river you never thought could exist ... Excitement can be found if you’re looking the right way,” says an awestruck Durano. “The trick is to find the kind of thrill that lets you rediscover ecology, that scratches your itch to seek adventure in nature. Your options are all here, just pick where you want to begin.”

Caloy Libosada, tourism consultant and travel writer, and the only Asian speaker at the expo, knew just where to begin. “When I went around the Philippines for 26 days on a budget of P15,000, I started in Manila, traveled through the rest of Luzon, and then the Visayas, and Mindanao,” he relates. “I subsisted on noodles, ate where the students ate; haggled with the bangkero, and slept on the bus.”

A daring spirit with an insatiable passion for adventure, Caloy adds, “That time, I helped develop mountaineering. But the country and the market were not ready at the time. Now, with Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, adventure travel has resurfaced. One of his pet projects is bird-watching. I’m also an avid bird-watcher.”

But tell us, where’s the best spot to bird-watch?

“There are a lot of nice spots,” comes Caloy’s quick reply. A little bird must have told him.

The eagle-eyed Caloy tells us, “You can actually see the Philippine eagle in the wild. For the longest time, we thought we couldn’t. It’s easy to see the eagle, like in Bukidnon and Davao. We know that the Philippine eagle is difficult to find. But if you find a nest, that’s it. When they nest, it takes seven months for the egg to hatch. So the nest is there for seven months.”

Caloy chirps, “Bird-watching should be a very big thing in the Philippines. It’s highly addictive. There’s the joy of realizing that there are more birds than the maya. Did you know that of the 600 birds found in the Philippines, 200 are native to the country?”

Another big thing, according to Caloy, is rock diving that goes with photography. “You don’t just go to a coral area. Kasi kakaiba ang naroon so payabangan.”

The Philippines stood tall and proud at the Adventure Travel Expo. “We’re very much honored to have the Philippines sponsor the event and we’re particularly pleased with the way they exhibited at the show,” John Golicz, CEO of Unicomm Events for New Business, tells us in an e-mail after the show. “The booth (Philippines) was warm and inviting. The cultural performances were the hit of the show and, most important, the staff at the booth were exceptionally hospitable. I think Vernie did a wonderful job!”

Of course, John is referring to Vernie Velarde-Morales, the indefatigable tourism director at the Philippine Consulate General, Philippine Tourism Office USA & Canada Midwest Region. “Consumers are amazed by the fact that they’re seeing the Philippines prominently,” Vernie gushes. “Already, a lot are asking more about the Philippines and we have ready partners to refer them to. Some are saying they’ve heard about the Philippines already, they know the Filipinos, and they love the Filipinos. There’s that added interest and more seriousness in joining their friends or family to go and visit the country.”

Those who were invited to breakfast came from a data base of more than 2,000. “These people were highly sifted,” says Vernie. “Considering the weather outside, everybody who comes in will be candid with you and say, ‘You know, I didn’t want to miss this. So, even if it’s by my knee outside or past my knee outside, I’m here.’ And to really tread a snowy, snowy road, especially if you have to go through secondary roads to get here, their presence here is really saying a lot ...”

Vernie relates that at the seminar hosted by the Philippines, she had to emphasize this: Did you know that the Filipino-American household is the highest-earning ethnic household in the US? “We are. Not so many people know that.”

While Vernie and her staff are quite good at their job, Vernie gets some help from her partner Lisa Greyhill, co-founder of the Adventure Travelers Society who’s a bundle of fun. “The diversity of the things the Philippines offers is its great selling point that a lot of people don’t know about,” says Lisa. “There’s history, all these different activities; there are places honeymoon couples can get away to. There’s something for people who are on a budget. It’s not one of those destinations only a certain type of people can afford or enjoy.”

And what would the Midwesterners enjoy most in the Philippines?

Says Lisa, “Midwesterners are really hard to tie down to a certain thing. Believe it or not, Chicago has its own mountaineering club and it’s like the flattest place in the US. There are clubs for everything. There are really all sorts of people with different activities/interests. I don’t think you can nail down the Philippines. They’d love the food — I don’t know anyone from the Midwest who doesn’t eat. And they’d love the shopping! They don’t think it’s high on their checklist and then they bring these big bags of way too much clothes and everything. And then they go, ‘On my God, now I have to leave something behind.’”

Of course, we can’t leave the expo without mentioning the fact that among its star attractions are Andrew Zimmern, host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern and Patricia Schultz, author of 1000 Places to See Before You Die.

Of course, included in Patricia Schultz’s list are three places in the Philippines. “Amanpulo, Taal Volcano, and Banawe Rice Terraces,” she names ’em.

A few hours before boarding her plane back for New York, Patricia sits down with us and shares tales from her many travels around the world. For instance, just getting to Taal Volcano took her a day. “It was like this quintessential Filipino experience just to get there. But you can go to the corner and buy coffee, and it’s a Filipino experience. Everything was wonderful, we had a picnic and sat on the shore, and then went out by boat. This was like 10 years ago ... The Rice Terraces was very interesting; we went hiking and it was cold ...The Aman Resorts are heaven. They just can’t do no wrong, they’re remarkable. They took an American architect to create the first one in Phuket. I think it’s interesting to bring an outsider who has the perspective, who understands what’s special and inherent to that destination, and then fantasize it and create something that’s a dream.”

We never really dreamt of meeting Andrew Zimmern up close and somewhat personal. Of course, we wouldn’t dream of eating the stuff that he eats. “One of the places we shot was Puerto Princesa and there was a restaurant where we ate little wriggly sea snails sauteed in coconut milk and ginger. Big piles of them just kept coming and I couldn’t stop eating them, the crew was all looking at me,” Andrew begins to share his many sizzling food tales. “In Angono, we went to a restaurant owned by a famous artist who had passed away (Balaw-Balaw of the late Perdigon Vocalan). I sat down with the lady and she served uwak. She also had a soup there that she called Soup No. 5 — there were some things inside that were very, very hard core, like little pieces of balls, testicles, etc. What saved it was her extraordinary broth, it was so good!”

On that warm note, we leave the Windy City back for home where we know for sure that lots of sunshine await us.