A little break from responsibility is not something we should be guilty of. Rest cannot be relived nor temporarily paused. Whenever it visits you, you have to make a deal, and you should choose what is healthy for you. Do not always be guilty of bringing your body to safety because it must always be that way.
Over the years, I have developed ways as to how to do my rest whenever possible. One of them is to bring myself back to nature and live like a wild caveman. Explicitly, I have to climb a towering mountain and experience what I cannot get from life in the city.
One of my favorite places to go is my spot in Tabogon Mountain that is not yet discovered by tourists. Only the natives of that particular village in Tabogon know where to find the spot, and the way is quite confusing that it could lead any stranger astray. Luckily, I know someone from the village that helped me visit the spot three years ago and then after that I kept coming back whenever I have a long break.
It is situated in the back of three mountains that haven’t yet been named. I just know there are three of them because I love to count them if I pass by. The fourth one is where the spot is situated, and it is on the peakest of peaks. I have to bring all energy I have and let it work with my legs and cardiovascular system as I ascend the steep path.
It was rainy season when I visited the spot again. I also visited it during summer and spring and each season makes the mountain dress different landscapes according to their likings. In rainy season the mountains would be wet and coated with fog (you can see it in the photos I shared) and in summer and spring, the mountains are vibrant, child-like, and sprout like seedlings—especially when you come in contact with the aroma of its air.
These are the differences I hope you can identify.
It was morning when I started my hike and I had my friend with me. We only had our bags with light things packed inside to make sure our hiking wouldn’t be harsh to our knees. But truth be told, our knees wanted to surrender that time because it was two hours of hiking and we couldn’t even stop because it would consume more time than we wanted.
We did not stop but actually we made our hiking slower to recover from exhaustion. Sometimes, we just need to take things slower and not completely stop at all. Slow but moving is a good weapon in hiking mountains—an underrated skill that even our ancestors have exercised.
Two hours after, we arrived at the peak exhausted and with nerves beating our body.
It was foggy, cold, and the tiny raindrops peeped on my skin as they caressed me gently from the exhausting trip I did. It was different when I arrived at the spot. The landscape view was not painted in blossom colors and the flowers, amidst alive, were not nourished by sunlight like summer did. It was a different spot, more likely a new spot for me, but it still had the memories I have in the place and it is still beautiful enough. I just had to make sense of it and adjust my convenience.
I adored it eventually, especially the fog slapping my face gently. The tiny waters it had gave cool to my body and sprinkled my hair with wet glitters from heaven. It was actually my first time experiencing fog that my smile would reach ears, like it was a big monstrous cave. I was very happy and it made me alive in a way that our ancestors experienced.
I picked fresh flowers on the exact spot and sat on the rocks. Touching them with my bare body calms my soul that no other way can replicate. It is indeed therapeutic enough to make me sane for the next whole month and it was free!
It has a lamp pole to make sure the spot has light at night and it is powered by a solar panel. That day, I made the lamp pole my friend and took photos with it. Behind me in these photos are flowers of different varieties but I wasn’t able to take photos of them because I was living in a dream that time that I didn’t want to spend more time with my phone.
I spent at least four hours on the peak before it rained heavily. Luckily, we were able to descend to the village before it rained because my friend there invited me for lunch. Heading our way back was quite hard because I had to control myself from the slippery path tilted like a toy. We safely arrived at the house of my friend and the rain started right after we entered the doorway. It must be a divine intervention.
That was my last time visiting the spot and my first time spending time in its rainy season. It gave me another weather experience and I realized rainy weather is not that bad. Rather it sometimes creates mesmerizing moments that carve deeply in our inner memories like a root channeling through the crust.
That is all about my annual visit to my favorite and memorable spot. It was one for the books I want to do a million times without getting bored and I hope I get to experience the peak during fall season if I have time.