Conquering Pinatubo

Remember when I said I was going on a mini trip? Yes, well, surprise! I spent my May the Fourth murdering my legs by hiking all the way to the crater of Mount Pinatubo with two other friends. As I've probably said a dozen times before, I rarely do anything remotely outdoorsy, so this was definitely an outside-my-comfort-zone sort of thing. And for someone who's pretty much sedentary, the whole thing really was a challenge. But given the chance, as this summer is supposedly about transcending my own limitations, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

So, getting there. Because we're all medical students with financial resources equivalent to basically nothing, we decided to take the bus to get to Tarlac. We met up at a bus terminal at 2:30am and left at around 3:00am. Now I've never done this before so I was quite nervous at the beginning. Later on, though, I found out that really, I had nothing to worry about since the two-hour commute went fine.

We got down in Capas Junction where we rode a tricycle to reach Sta. Juliana, which I assume is at or close to the foot of the mountain. We had breakfast, signed some waiver forms, and met up with Miss Sonia Bognot, the person who arranged our trip for us. She gave us a brief description of what to expect from the trek, some safety tips, and afterwards, she introduced us to our guide (Kuya) Richard.

4x4 ride to the mountain with these two!

We had to go through a 1.5-hour 4x4 ride to reach the start of the trail. The whole thing was going to be bumpy, to say the least, but it was all good. I'm just thankful that it was still pretty early when we left so it wasn't scorching hot.

We had one quick stop for, supposedly so we could take photos, and afterwards, it was off to the drop off point we went. And from there, we proceeded to, well, murder my legs and burn my skin. HAHA!

Literally everywhere you looked, you'd have a view like this. We weren't allowed to take photos near these things as they're unstable and could tumble at any time given that they're made up of just volcanic ash. It's quite sad, actually, how these lovely things came about after the notorious Pinatubo eruption of 1991 that killed many people, and destroyed the homes of a lot more. (Here's an interesting article about what is dubbed as the biggest eruption of the 20th century.)

According to blogs, the trek is supposedly two hours long. I don't know about that, but eventually, we came by the sign that said that the crater was only about a kilometer away. From there, the trail felt less like a desert and more like a forest. 

And finally, we were there, witnessing with our very eyes the "majestic" crater lake. And all the hard work we had to go through to get there, well, let's just say they suddenly didn't mean anything anymore. My legs ached and my skin was shades darker than before I started out this whole thing, but in that moment, they meant nothing. I was there and for a fleeting moment, it was all that mattered.

I could tell we each wanted to take a swim in the lake but sadly, swimming has been banned since 2012 (?) and if we violated that rule, we'd have gotten our guide suspended. We stayed under the shade for a while, enjoying the lunch Miss Sonia prepared for us as well as the lovely breeze and the view of this gorgeous emerald lake. We rested our legs a bit, just talking about random school stuff - gossip, Pugad, the upcoming boards... 

We were advised to leave before 1:30pm because according to Miss Sonia, May marks the beginning of the rainy season when it becomes a tad bit dangerous to hike in a trail composed mostly of unstable volcanic ash. So we did just that. We arrived in Sta. Juliana at between 2-3pm, got back to Capas Junction where we ate an ice cream sundae to relieve ourselves from the heat, and rode a bus bound for Manila at around 4pm.

I honestly wish we had our own vehicle for transportation because however hassle-free the commute to Capas was, the exact opposite could be said about the commute back. But it's over now. Years from now when I look back on my May the 4th, 2015, I probably won't spend much time recalling how much I hated the commute anyway; instead I'd be remembering how the water sparkled where the light touched it, and how the breeze soothed as it reached my skin.