picturesque: of glimpses and words: April 2012

I was never an adventurist and a mountaineer, although my life sometimes I think is one adventure ride and I literally live in the mountains – a plateau called Baguio City. So I was never into hiking, maybe because I don’t want to get lost and it’s so hard to fall between my knees in the mud. But due to Zye and Clau’s prodding, I was able to hike Mt. Pulag.

Mt. Pulag is the second highest mountain in the Philippines and the first in Luzon. Together with friends who call themselves Jay Mar which included Gil, I never expected to have so much fun. I couldn’t mention them one by one because my memory fails me (lol).

But anyway, I was hesitant in joining the team. Why? Hiking just wasn’t my type and I’m the home body girl who does only the reading and never the cooking (lol). Zye told me that I would only stay at the ranger’s station, but to my amazement I survived up to the camping site. They say it takes 2 hours to climb the mountain. 2 hours of walking? I think I did that in 3 hours or more! My face was literally turning red because of the exhaustion. It was also raining... raining with ice. Yes, you heard it. It was like a mild hailstorm in April weather. This was supposed to be summer! Without raincoats, we covered ourselves with translucent plastic bags. Good thing, the fashion police was not in the mountains only rangers (hahaha).

I was not able to go to the summit because I was soooooooo sleepy. I’m a sleepy head, no one can change that. But we managed to get a few good shots with the camera. So, I’m sharing it with everyone. Tell you what? It was worth the climb. I had a certificate that says “Only the brave and daring survive”! Yes, I survived Mt. Pulag!