Our Mt. Pinatubo trek started with us flying to Manila from Cebu. So despite the odds we were able to arrive manila, me past 11pm and my travel buddy past 12 midnight. Usually the tour packages would start with a meet up in Mcdonalds in Capas, Tarlac but in our case we arrange that we will be pick up somewhere in the Metro.
After a quick wash up at the hotel room my sis and her friend rented for the day, since they arrive manila a couple of hours ahead of us, at 3:00 am we were ready for our VAN pick up that will take us to Capas, Tarlac
At 3:30 am we bid Atrium hotel and my dear bestfriend Chona goodbye and took our Van trip to tarlac.
On our way, we had to look for a convenience store near an atm machine. We stopped over one of the 7-eleven outlet with a "portable" atm machine inside the store but no luck, it wasn't working when we were there. The store accepts credit card payment for as long as the purchase is no less that 300.00 so there we bought our waters, junk foods and chocolates. We drop by Mcdonalds drive thru and ordered our breakfast meal and took it in the moving van. We were already running late because the pick up was suppose to be 3:00 am sharp and the trip should have been non-stop.
At around 7:30am we arrive at the drop off point and transferred to our 4WD for an hour drive to the trek site.
here are some of the 4WD's waiting for its' passengers. A maximum of 4 tourist per one 4WD, the driver and the trek guide. There are also soldier's visible in the trek to ensure the security of the trekkers.
after an hour of rough 4WD ride we finally reach the drop off point where the trek begun...
Meet Oliver our very young trek guide!
And the journey begins... the trek on the average would take 2 hours. For fast walkers it could take shorter than that, for me it took 3 long hours.
during the trek you will see rocks, mountains of lahar.
you will cross rivers, some are calm others with very strong current.
You would also get to meet the original inhabitants of the Pinatubo mountains. These kids were not born yet when the volcano erupted sometime in 1991 they have no idea how scary and destructive it was.
You would also meet fellow trekkers some are already descending from the viewing deck. Here you will observe that the trek to Pinatubo defies age, race and gender.
After almost 2.5 hours of trek you will see this sign. This sign is located in what they call us the base camp. Apparently, the 4WD drive would reach up until here before but the "SKY walk" which is the path that the 4WD would follow was destroyed it has since become too dangerous and unsafe for the 4WD drive to get here.
From this sign you're in for a rocky, a challenging trek as the trek path is now ascending. For me I stopped a couple of times trying to catch my breath and the big mountains blocking my sight of the sky made it doubly hard.
But knowing that I'm about to see nature at it's best kept me going....
lo and behold the Mt. Pinatubo Crater....
I have painfully conquered!
(more pics in PINATUBO TREK PHOTOBLOG)
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