Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Mount Pinatubo, Hiking the Active Volcano

Mount Pinatubo, an active stratovolcano located in the island of Luzon, Philippines. This was my next destination after spending one weekend in the Philippines travelling to Intramuros, Las Piñas & Tagaytay. There were sayings about this volcano, which the visitors would enjoy the ride, the hike, and the view. So I wanted to be there to witness it right before my eyes.

This was my first hiking trip, and I prepared nothing for it. In fact this was not really a difficult hike. With the level of fame of the volcano and the number of tourists flock here, the hiking packages were readily available and the hiking path was clear and highly visible too. The only challenge left was the stamina for hiking.

Mt. Pinatubo, located about 90 km from Metro Manila, the journey towards the volcano would take about 2 -3 hours, considering at that time of visit there was no direct highway connecting Manila to the nearby town of Mt. Pinatubo. With fellow colleagues, we were supposed to reach the tourist center of Mt. Pinatubo at 6 a.m. but as our driver lost his direction, we were late and arrived the tourist center only at 7:30 a.m.

Immediately we hopped on the our designated four-wheeled drive vehicle (4x4), and we disembarked from the tourist center. Visitors should expect a one-hour off-road ride, and another 2 hours of hiking in order to reach the top of the volcano which the spectacular view awaiting us. As the morning sun was just about to rise, the weather was chilling and the breeze blew towards my face, it was so enjoyable.

Not long into the off-road ride, the 4x4 started to cross streams and ride through extremely bumpy roads.


This location is part of military controlled area, and visitors would need to leave the names to the military in case of any evacuation needed during the eruption. As Mt. Pinatubo is still active till today, this is a very important. The last eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was in 1991, and it was the second largest terrestrial eruption of 20th century. The massive eruption killed more than 800 people and reduced the elevation from 1745 meter to 1486 meter above sea level.

Now what was left from the eruption, were bunch of "Toblerone hills" for the visitors along the off-road ride.

There were still villagers staying nearby, rearing buffaloes to help them drawing carriages of vegetation.


The area was so bare after the eruption, leaving behind only limited vegetation surrounding the area.

At one time during the off-road ride, my 4x4 was stuck in the river and the driver have to come down to sort the thing out before we could continue the journey.

Finally after approximately one hour of bumpy ride, we have reached the bottom of the volcano. It's time to hike buddies!

The hiking route was very rocky, and we also have to cross multiple streams of water along the way of hiking.


How small we are, when human vs. nature.

There are also streams filled with sulfur, making us sometimes hard to breathe.


After almost 2 hours of hiking, we make it to a point where it stated "Welcome to Mt. Pinatubo, Your Trek Starts Here". What the heck? If the trek starts here then what was happening for the past 2 hours before arriving here?

However, getting to see this signboard seemed to be a good sign. The much anticipated crater would not be far away! Since it stated for young age, only 15 minutes required to reach the peak.

Soon, we all found out that the signboard was not accurate at all! (At least for us). After the 2-hour hiking, we were already exhausted and in order to finish the final part of the hiking, we took more than 30 minutes to arrive the crater.


Finally, we were here!

The cool weather, the turquoise blue crater lake, the mountains surrounding the crater lake, such a breathtaking view!


Planking shot was very common at that time, and I did that too!

There was a small path leading to the crater lake, which visitors could swim in the crater.


As the sky was getting dark quickly and rain approaching very soon, we have to cut down the time spent at the crater lake area, in order to give us ample time to reach bottom safely. 

Turning back my head for a final glance of the crater before heading down, I knew this trip opened my mind and brought new impression towards crater lake. I will never forget how beautiful it was, the crater lake of Mt. Pinatubo!

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