When one mentions 'rappelling', I always remember the classic scene in the first Universal Soldier film where the characters of Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme attempted a daring Australian rappel assault straight down the Hoover Dam. Though our experience at the 155-foot-high Pulangui Bridge at Quezon, Bukidnon ain't nowhere near a UniSol's feat, I definitely felt a massive rat throbbing from inside my chest as our guide prepared my safety gears.

"Are you nervous?" he repeated to me. "Are you nervous?" I gave him a thumbs-up sign, completely betraying what I was truly feeling, just before I kicked my feet off the edge and catapulted my body mid-air. With only a single sturdy rope saving me from a three-second free fall into massive broken bones or worse—death—I quietly recited a short prayer.