I am pretty much an adventurous guy. Pretty active in sports and travel, but I have never tried climbing a mountain. Philippines has a lot of beautiful mountains that an adventurer can access. One year ago me and my girlfriend decided to try it out. So we selected Mt. Maculot in Batangas as based on other mountaineers it is one of the easy mountain near Metro Manila.
We started the trek at 6:30AM in the morning and hired a tour guide to make sure we won’t get lost. This mountain is very popular especially during the Holy Week Season. This mountain has the “14th Station of the Cross” where people go to each station and pray. They recall the events that transpired during the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Since Philippines is highly populated by Roman Catholics and people who strongly believe in the story of Jesus Christ that is why this kind of event is very famous.
The mountain is not that hard to climb as it has a dedicated path for the hikers however I consider it challenging as well because it was my first time and it has different terrains. Also it was raining the day before we climbed the mountain and it made the path a little muddy and slippery.
We had a few stops to rest and appreciate the 14 stations. You can also hear some animal sounds like birds and monkeys though we were not able to see them. While climbing I felt happy and sad at the same time. The view is really beautiful, all you can see is nature and the town of Batangas below however you can see a few trash lying around the ground makes you think that some people just don’t care with their surroundings and the damage it could do to the mountain.
After an hour we were able to reach the “Grotto” and the view is really breathtaking. I felt a great deal of satisfaction as we were able to complete the climb and see the Cross on top of the mountain and fear at the same time as I am Acrophobic. You can feel the cool breeze of the mountain top and the serenity that you cannot experience in the Metro.
Going down has proven to be more challenging as we did not take the same path. The trail we took was composed of huge rocks and more slippery terrain. I even slipped on a rock and fell of my butt.
When we reached the bottom of the mountain we went straight to a known restaurant located in the Market Place. We ordered for a boodle fight type of meal. Boodle Fight is a military style of eating. The food is piled up on top of Banana Leaves and you use your hands to eat instead of the usual spoon and fork.
Overall the experience was great that’s why if our time permits (due to our jobs) we would climb other mountains again.
I almost forgot, I also love eating and i cook a lot. That being said, I would never miss the chance to eat one of their local delicacy Lomi Batangas.