Prologue: The Final Four

by Marko Laqui

The road to the Finals was extremely long, hard, and frustrating, but still prevalent was the general feeling of anticipation and excitement. However, it seemed like two months of preparation was not enough. Originally, there were eight participants, each eager and seemingly steadfast in their intention to embark on a different, and thrilling kind of adventure - 'The Chico River Rafting Challenge.'

But, as the departure date (the Finals as I call it) drew near, clouds of doubt began to creep in, mists of uncertainty steadily rose, vented from obligatory concerns.

One week before the Finals, the first casualty - Pipo, begged off due to a meeting with a big client, the date of which conflicted with the rafting sked. A few hours after, the next casualty - Paeng, begged off due to unfinished work at the office. Then the day before the Finals, still another casualty - Othmar, my adventure buddy, begged off due to a last minute change in his office project's presentation sked that again conflicted with the rafting sked. It was the first time either one of us couldn't go on a planned adventure trip, locally. The Finals day itself, early afternoon, yet again another casualty...and the funniest one among the lot - Tonnette, begged off coz her secretary was missing. Looking back, it was really a hilarious tale but to make it short, Tonnette couldn't leave without discussing with her secretary her (secretary) assignments while she (Tonnette) was gone. Tonnette stayed.

And then there were four... You can't imagine the feeling, having prepared this trip 2 months back, and still, all that lengthy discussion and planning almost, just almost , went for naught when the final week came. But what's uplifting was that the remaining four kept their resolve, and were bent on not letting the sudden drop in number spoil the fun they were gonna have. Boy, and what fun did we have! :)

Three girls and one boy make an odd group. More so when the girls don't know each other yet, they haven't met. And I haven't met one of them. But we were all gonna be in this trip together. Some scenario huh?

Picked up Pipo's sis, Cha2, and left the car at Shell; was gonna take a cab to the terminal but Tonnette's friend, Rika (whom we all hadn't met), texted and offered a ride. She lives near ABS-CBN, so that's pretty hard to refuse considering the proximity. It was an awkward feeling arriving at her house, Cha & I thinking of a proper intro..."Hi, you don't know us but we're the ones who're gonna hitch a ride with you to the terminal," or something along that line. The intro and get to know bit went smoothly though and soon we were off to the terminal, Rika's dad driving. Jona's gonna meet us there.

Finally we're complete, soon after introducing the girls to one another, we were on our way..

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