Juan for Fun Backpackers Explore Davao
Text and photos by Jojie Alcantara
Five adventurous teams composed of 15 energetic college students with high self-motivation and thirst for exploration were selected through video auditions for the first Cebu Pacific Juan for Fun Backpacker Challenge in the Philippines.
Opening this wonderful opportunity to the youth is the country’s largest flag carrier, Cebu Pacific, which offers six destinations to explore in a budget travel competition from August 29 to September 2.
Each team is given P30,000 allowance where the primary goal is to accomplish the most number of fun activities in Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Clark, Davao, Iloilo and Manila. The team who was able to spend the least amount of money wins 12 Cebu Pacific tickets to any domestic or international destination of their choice, 3 hotel accommodation packages and 3 Canon S100 cameras.
During the Davao race as the 4th leg of the backpacker challenge, Team Bukidnon won the fastest crocodile relay, pomelo peeling and durian eating at the Davao Crocodile Park.
Gracing the event opening was Croc Park’s big boss Sonny Dizon who welcomed the team and announced that if they had more time they should try Davao’s wildwater rafting as an addition to the race.
In a fun mock relay, my media friends and I were split into two to compete for the same adventure race. Daily Mirror’s Maya Padilla and I went neck to neck in grasping the small crocodiles in our hands, while running towards Mindanao Times’ Ian Garcia and SunStar Davao’s Charles Maxey, who almost choked on their durian seeds. Lastly, Edge’s Kenneth Ong and my teammate Allan Abais of ABS-CBN showed dexterity in peeling off the whole pomelo fruit with their bare hands in a matter of seconds.
Ian, Kenneth and Maya (Team Cambodia) won by a narrow peeling margin AND tickets to Davao-Kalibo flight, courtesy of Cebu Pacific, as given by PR Consultant Charles Lim (Sehralco). Precious H. of Sehralco and Eden David of DOT XI treated us for a delicious lunch at El Gato afterwards.
The teams were off on their own adventures before flying to Iloilo then Manila as the last leg. This included finding a good but cheap accommodation overnight, which is everywhere in the city. You can follow their last leg of adventure in www.juanforfun.com, and root for the team you want.
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UPDATES: Team Big Explorer wins the overall competition, with second place to Team Bukidnon, and third to Team KeLoFe. Congrats to all.
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