My First Trekking Adventure at Mount Pinatubo

Mount Pinatubo is still an active volcano after the devastating eruption happened back in 1991. Now this is becoming a tourist attraction to both foreign and local residents. I have actually seen a lot of promotional videos of Mt. Pinatubo in the airport featuring the crater and the off road adventure to get there. I get curious by that and when I saw someone posted an open invite in couch surfing, I hit the join button without any hesitation. There were 10 participants and I only knew one acquaintance there, named Ralph. I met him during the food crawl couch surfing event.

We met at Victory Liner Bus at 2:30AM and head to Capas Tarlac. I noticed that buses there are always depart on time, better be on time. We arrived in Capas at 4:15AM and had breakfast at McDonalds. We also bought some snacks like burgers and sandwiches since the food in the summit are quite expensive. It is also advisable pack light and bring necessary things like 2L of water, toiletries, Slippers, and Camera.5:15AM - We rode tricycle going to registration area and paid P300.00 per ride. Also, we paid P1,350.00 per group of 5 for the old refurbished 4x4 truck including the guide and driver.

The trail going to the crater is bumpy, wet and dusty ground. It was quite hard for me because it requires a lot of walking under the sun which was really hot and there was no tree to shed in the middle of the route. I almost ran out of breathe and suddenly I could not feel my right leg. My group was leading 200 meters ahead of me cause I let them leave me off as I was walking slowly. Thank God, there's old lady who seemed enjoying the whole trek handed me an ointment to reduce the pain and massage it a little. She was really helpful and inspired me to finish the course cause at her age she should have been in more relax trip than trekking.

Together with my group, we reached the crater, get back to the town at 4PM to get cleanse, and bath. All-in-all, the Mount Pinatubo is such a beautiful disaster... tiring but it's great and amazing experience!