I’m tracing my travel history from 1974 up to the present. This post is 3rd of 5 in the series.

After graduating in college, I went back to Cebu and found work in a telecoms company. The beauty of it? It again afforded me to travel to places that I haven’t gone to or even imagined of going to!

As I was a field engineer, my area was Central and Eastern Visayas but was later on expanded to cover the whole of Visayas and Mindanao:

• I have often been to Bohol and the Camotes Islands
• I was frequenting Ormoc and Tacloban and a brief visit to the south in Leyte
• Southern Negros was another place that I was visiting time and again

When my area was expanded to include Mindanao:

• I was able to visit Zamboanga City for the first time on my way to Tawitawi by boat which made a stopover in Jolo
• made visits in Zamboanga del Norte, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and Occidental
• motored from Davao to North Cotabato, Cotabato City/Maguindanao and passed by Sultan Kudarat on the way to Gensan and back to Davao.

My work also brought me to trainings in Bangkok three times of which, I made stops in Malaysia and Singapore. Always an adventurous person and in pursuit of butterflies for my collection:

• visited Marinduque for the first time where I was interrogated by the military in Mt. Malindig where I stayed for two days asking me for my “supposed” mission. They thought that I was a spy of the NPA, a local rebel group
• the ruggedness of the Cordillera mountains was just captivating and Sagada beckoned me. This was also the first time I set foot in Baguio but only in transit
• strangely, I got fascinated with Homonhon Is. off the coast of Guiuan in Samar that one summer, I planned and went there via Balangiga. After a few days, went back to Guiuan, slept for the night at Borongan then hopped on a bus all the way to Allen to catch a ferry to Sorsogon for an overnight visit in Legazpi just to marvel for the second time Mt. Mayon.
• from Legazpi, I went back to central Samar to collect insects in Hinabangan, at the former mining area
• I’ve also set foot for the first time in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato and I vividly remembered it since it was in time for my birthday, a time that I have to travel somewhere remote and haven’t yet visited

In 2000, I volunteered to be transferred to Davao.

Check a summary of my travel history.

Map by Eugene Villar’s Lakbayan

Estan Cabigas is a multiawarded blogger, freelance photographer and writer based in Makati City, the Philippines. A true blue Cebuano, he makes stunning images and meaningful photo stories. He has contributed to local and international publications including CNN Go, National Geographic Magazine, Geo (Germany), Sunday Times Magazine (London) and other publications.

To know more about him and his photography, visit estancabigas.com.