The Mount Pinatubo Adventure

During this year's Holy Week, instead of taking trips to the beach or just chilling out, I decided to go on a hiking trip with my relatives to Mount Pinatubo. I believe that trekking is good exercise for the body. This is actually my second time to visit this place. I had fun the first time which was last year's March 2013, but we only hiked for a short while because we took the shortest trail possible. It just took us about 1 hour roundtrip for a hike to and from the crater.

For my second hike at Mount Pinatubo this year, I was actually surprised that the shortest trail is not as short as the 1st time anymore. For a roundtrip hike to and from the crater, it took us about 3 hours. The time of trek also depends on your endurance and how fast you can walk amidst the very rocky road. Honestly, my feet hurt after all that trekking not because of the long walk, but because of the sharpness of the rocks we were walking on. Thank goodness for the 4x4 vehicle that we rode on for more than half of our trip, or else my feet were gonna fall off anytime soon.

Just a little trivia: Mount Pinatubo erupted June 15, 1991, and lasted for nine hours. The volcano ejected not only ashes but also sulfur dioxide. During the hike, there can be seen some orange particles on the ground which is actually sulfur. Due to the strong eruption, numerous earthquakes were created because of the collapse of the summit of Mount Pinatubo which resulted in the creation of a caldera. The caldera is what we are now referring to as the crater of Mount Pinatubo. To clarify, the caldera is not the same as the crater because the crater is where the lava comes out whereas the caldera is formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption. So, I guess what we are really seeing during our Pinatubo tour is the caldera and not the crater. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

We coordinated directly with the staff from Pinatubo, and luckily a lot of other people were also going so the rate we got was P2050 per person. If you want to go on a Mount Pinatubo adventure as well, just contact Sonia Bognot at 0932-6094226. She's the one directly handling the Pinatubo tours. She's very nice and has a lot of stories to share. The food for breakfast and lunch are already provided by them. The tours are year-long except for the rainy seasons. Just call them up to ask for their available tour dates.

Here is the timeline of our hiking adventure:

3am - wait at designated meeting place for the van to pick us up (in our case it's the gas station near my cousin's house)

4am - van finally came (the reason the van was late was because they picked up other passengers as well)

6am - arrived at area for orientation (restroom break with charge of 10 pesos per person)

630am - filled out waiver forms and listened to orientation

730am - Adventure starts now!!! Rode 4x4 vehicle

8am - stopover for 5 to 10 minutes to take pictures

840am - get down from 4x4 vehicle to start trekking

905am - reached 1st stopover (ate breakfast here)

955am - reached last stopover (1km to crater)

1015am - 10 minutes left to crater

1030am - Finally reached crater!!!

1050am - Rest at the stopover huts by the crater (ate lunch here)

Crater Pics:

1120am - start hiking back

1pm - rode 4x4 vehicle again

210pm - returned to area of orientation

250pm - van starts departure back to Manila

5pm - Back in Manila!!!

So this is the whole adventure! It might seem easy but really it's very tiring especially since the sun was scorching hot that day. It's such a unique adventure because really where do you expect to find a tour for erupted volcanoes? Grab the chance to try this out while you're young or still have the energy to. 

Hope you enjoyed this travel post!

Ciao!

Kat <3