My Laoag, Pagudpud and Vigan Tour Package: Need Contacts, Suppliers and Tour Operator Partners

Late January I and a friend went to see Laoag, Pagudpud and Vigan in Ilocos for three days and two nights. Early of February I uploaded the photos on Facebook and few days after made a blog post about it. In no time my friends start ‘liking’ the photos, commenting like crazy asking how to go there and how much I spent. The blog post that I wrote with keywords Laoag, Pagudpud and Vigan was ranked Page one on Google. If these keywords are searched separately on Google, each of them is on Page 2, 3 or 4. 

Update: I am now selling local tour packages.

For complete itinerary, rates and details please let me know.
For more information please contact 0919-893-7236 or email mariarona.beltran@yahoo.com

Let us know:

1. how many people are joining

2. date of travel 

My Google analytics is also showing me a significant traffic this blog post is giving to me that I had a “light bulb moment”. There must be something more! So I added “offers tour package” and took a one day crash course how to setup local tour packages with a DTI accredited tour operator. Most of the traffic I get is from organic searches on search engines. It did not take long that I started receiving emails, SMS and phone calls along with the question they always ask me “Are you the girl on the photos?” which I answer “Yeah. *blush* *blush*”

My iBlog8 Philippine Blogging Summit Review

Year 2005 I first heard of the word “blogging” when I was a college graduating student. I somewhat “belittled” its worth back when then blogging is defined as an online diary for one’s happenings, rants and raves. Late of 2009, that all changed when I signed up to Blogspot with no idea what domain I will take or what niche will my blog be! Now, blogging is not anymore the definition I used to know about it before. It is now used for marketing, advocacy and so many possibilities we never imagined it would evolve this way. When I started blogging I did not thought about money, I was trying to make use of my idle time.

Meet Manila's Tertulia Night for #ThoughtfulTourism

Meet Manila, is the latest online portal promoting the Philippine tourism through social media. Launched just late this April it already has Facebook fans of 12, 000+ and Twitter followers of 16,000+! Meet Manila will be hosting a Tertulia (sounds really exotic to me, wonder what it means really)  night promoting #ThoughtfulTourism.  

Carlos Celdran will host the Tertulia Night. Who else can best mirror Manila if not Philippines' heritage and tourism image other than this RH bill advocate?  Fourteen local heroes will also speak to everyone of what made them really standout because of their advocacy that made our country a better place to live in. I always love listening to people who make positive difference to others. I am inspired and I get a bit strength from them order for me to pursue what I love doing or who knows soon be part of them? Enough Rona, wake up you are dead dreaming!  One lucky winner who previously answered about "What does it take to be an empowered traveler?" will also be chosen and will receive really cool prizes like free accomodation to resorts and stuff.

This event is expected to be joined by the country's known bloggers, travel agencies, local personalities, Department of Tourism officials and many more. And oh, by the way I am crossing my fingers I get listed because I registered a little bit late and I am in a wait list for now :( I hope to be really part of this and will blog about this soon. If you wanna know more about the event on Facebook you may click here 

Ayala Museum is Free Entrance on International Museum Day

Ayala Museum envisioned by the late artist, Fernando Zobel de Ayala will be offering a free entrance in celebration of the International Museum Day on May 18, 2012. Ayala Museum is noted by its historical collections like the sixty diorama that explains the tapestry of Philippine history and miniature  boat gallery that tells how our Philippine maritime trade and colonial economy was like before and it also houses archaeological and ethnographic objects from the country's northern and southern cultural communities. Ayala Museum also has fine arts collection that features works by three painters considered pioneers in Philippine art--Juan Luna, Fernando Amorsolo, and Fernando Zobel.

International Museum Day is celebrated every year since 1977 by the worldwide community of museums. Because of the new technology, museums are facing challenges related to climate and new electronic media. For more information about International Museum Day you may click here 

Journeying James' Tattoed Kalinga Women

Photo credited to Journeying James

Original photo link and story here

I am a sucker of  heritage and history stuff. Yeah kinda boring really but I don't know I have these eyes and ears for these (Wala ang drama lang!).  We are losing so much of our cultural identity because of the technologies and foreign influence we encounter everyday. I am not against about these but we should at least not let our local identity fade away so when I  read about Journeying James post about  JourneyingJames as a Rice Farmer in Kalinga I instantly got interested about the story and the photo which eventually I posted on Facebook at first.

Rappler.com on Citizen Journalism

Radio, TV and newspapers are the only news sources whenever one wants to know events in a particular place and time decades ago. Called as traditional media, journalism rights are only exclusive to those Journalism graduates with direct contact to public officials, concerned individuals and editors personally choose what story to post. Announcement of news can be predicted and even show same patterns of problems such as poverty and corruption over and over again. “We noticed that there is a need for paradigm shift in journalism and that is how citizen journalism is conceived” says Chay Hofilena, Rappler.com's Citizen Journalism Director.

Citizen journalism is an emerging field in journalism that taps ordinary citizens to be part of news gathering, reporting and feedback. Rappler.com is a social news network founded by veteran journalists lead by Maria Ressa that uses citizen journalism to bring social change through a platform using the latest technologies.

Travelling Solo in the Philippines

Sharing you an essay I wrote about travelling solo when I went to Cebu. Sitting in a waiting shed roofed with dried nipa leaves along the asphalted road, I saw an old man about to cross to the other side. Wearing a buntal hat, worn out camisa de chino shirt and faded jeans rolled up to his knees, he slowly pulls the carabao through the rattan rope tightly tied to his left hand. Scattered in the middle of the road are maya birds hopping back and forth on fallen coconut fronds, upon seeing a jeepney approaching, quickly flew up to the nearest trees. The whiff of air from their flapping wings caused the dusts to go up creating a blurry sight for a moment.