Why is it called Beautiful Disaster? Just an overview, Mt. Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano in the Cabusilan Mountains on the island of Luzon, near the tripoint of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac, and Pampanga. Before the volcanic activities of 1991, its eruptive history was unknown to most people. It was heavily eroded, inconspicuous and obscured from view. It was covered with dense forest in which supported a population of several thousand of indigenous people, the Aetas.
Availing the package tour we found in the internet, May 10,2015 as early as 2am,our meeting place is at Mcdo Quezon Avenue and we departed at exactly 3:30am to picked up the remaining passsengers in Dau Terminal. We arrived by 6am in Zambales and took some breakfast which was included in the package while waiting to our agent, Ms.Sonia Bognot.
Ms.Bognot arrived early and while we are still taking our breakfast,she gave us some important instructions and collected some balances of our payment. The Mt.Pinatubo tourism office also instructed us the do’s and dont’s while in our trip. After the briefing we headed to our assigned 4×4 jeep to where we will be using together with other tourists who are Kuya Nino,Ate Margie and her sister with the guide and driver.
It was rough and bumpy road that if you would not hold on to the rails you will eventually bump into each other bodies hahaha. You will pass at the vast area of lahar mountains.
A few kilometers away you will pass by a small barangay named Tarukan (the place where Crazy Beautiful You movie shoot was done) but you cannot see it unless you drop by at their place.
Still, as you passed by you will see some different lahar formation caused by either strong winds and heavy rains occurring from time to time.
So as we continue to explore the vast Lahar area of Mt. Pinatubo, we started to do the long walking and trekking to reach the Mt. Pinatubo crater. We do some pause for about 10 minutes in between yet we managed to finish the 2 hour leg course of walking in Lahar and to cross the not- so high river along its way. We reached the 1st leg of the road with no sweat at all 🤣 The second leg was not easy as the road is a bit steep along its way and full of mud.
After another hour passed, we reached the last leg of trek wherein way to the real crater of the Mt. Pinatubo. As you can see at the picture it is only a few minutes away from the crater, but believe me it is not easy as what the picture says. Well it depends on your pacing but really it is not easy.
For the way going to the crater, along the way is a mossy forest with a muddy road. Actually, the night before this trip it rained heavily and we’re actually thinking twice if we will join the tour. So the following day, the mossy forests has the remnants from the last night’s rain. It was really mossy that If you will not be careful enough to step there is a probability that you slipped how many times because of the muddy road.
As we reached already the crater of the Mt. Pinatubo, this signs will welcome you. Reminding us that in every places we will go we can take pictures of them but don’t destroy or do anything that will get be harmful to the nature.
Since we want to go down further more to experience how does it feel to get close to the foot of the volcano we walked down more. There, you can put on some blankets and sit down in a bit and take time to eat our packed lunch, (but as usual you have to clear your trash and bring it with you when you have to go back). As usual never forget to do the photo-op for the majestic place of the place.
A few moments later, we reached already the foot of the volcano. There are lots of small and big groups having their time to take pictures and pitching tents. There are some huts where you can seat and eat your packed lunch. For us, we decided to take some rest and just enjoy the view and feel the calm that the volcano sends to us. After 30 minutes of eating our packed lunch and some chatting with our new found friends, we decided to take some photos.
After the unending picture taking and endless praises of the view, we decided to go back as soon as possible because the tour guide said that it will rain and it would be very hard for us to go back because again it would be muddy road and it is not advisable to stay for too long at the crater because of the unpredictable weather conditions. So for the last time we took a glimpse of the view of Mt. Pinatubo before heading back to the city.
POV of TheBackPackDiaries: Really, it was a beautiful disaster. Mt. Pinatubo if not exploded will be as calm as Mt. Taal ( as of this time, Mt.Taal has been active again for some reasons.) You see that the place was surrounded by mountains and it was so peaceful to see it. But as what I always say, nature has its ways and reasons why it happened, maybe people also has some contributions what has happened to it. But as you can see along the way going to crater was a mountain of Lahar that has been also a part of its scenic views that will leave you in wondering how it was formed right?
That wraps up my blog for this Beautiful Disaster…
thebackpackdiariesnowsigningoff……
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