Mt. Maculot Adventure

• Date:                   May 6-7, 2013
• Location:              Mount Maculot

Info:

Mount Maculot is located at Cuenca, Batangas and is considered a minor climb with difficulty of 3/9. The mountain is about 947 m (3,107 ft.) tall and is also located adjacent to Taal Lake. Mount Maculot and its 700-metre (2,300 ft.) high volcanic rock wall called The Rockies, is said to be part of Taal Caldera's crater rim.

Significant people:

Lester John Bella                  my significant partner

Regine Abigail Lalog             my sister

POT                                     Philippine Outdoor Tribe

Bimbo Baldo                         POT President

John Michael Abigania          original BYOB

Eizhel Bascos                       original BYOB

Joseph Roc                           original BYOB

Marki Lalis                           friend, working for HGS

Jovy Acuestas                      officemate

Patrick                                  van owner

How to get there?

From Manila, take a bus bound to Lemery Batangas and get off at Cuenca town proper.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

Jesus’ light is like a flicker, enough for you to take the next step.

I was a fresh employee of Convergys, Eastwood. It was Friday, and when it’s Friday, it means “dress down”. Therefore, I got the chance to wear my Mt. Maculot-designed t-shirt. At the pantry, one of my colleagues, who is also my batchmate, Jovy, asked, “Bakla, nagcclimb ka?” He was sooo excited for some reasons, lols. And I answered him, “Not really, just once in Mt. Maculot.” Blah Blah … more more conversation, until … “Ok, so when?” ---- We planned to climb Mt. Daguldol.

I didn’t know how to organize a climb so I called Karen. Flash back, Karen is Kuya Bim’s fiancée, Kuya Bim is the POT President. Going back, I called Karen asked how much would it cost us to climb Mt. Daguldol. Karen had to ask Kuya Bim ofcourse, after about an hour I received a text from Karen. Kuya Bim would be our guide again, he took care of all trekking stuff like cook set and tents, and he even lent his Columbia bag to Lester. Bottomline, we decided to climb Mt. Maculot, lols! Why? I forgot, honestly. It just happened. 

Ok, now is my 2^nd time to hike, and also 2^nd time in Mt. Maculot, so I told myself, “This is gonna be very easy.” Oh yeah, that’s just the mayabang Mimhie (it’s me), but I didn’t mean it that way. I was a bit ready that time, except for my bag. I still brought my pink Jansport. All else are ‘more technical’ than what I brought last year. I still didn’t have trekking pole though.

That was just my second time and I was still maarte. Actually, we were. We then decided to rent a van as we didn’t want to commute. Good thing we met Kuya Patrick. We rented 18-seater van. From work, restless, sleepless, and all that. We headed to Batangas. Zzzzz … After an hour or two, we had our first and last stop over --- market. We bought ingredients for sinigang. Ohhh sinigang, this is the reason why we had to bring 4L of water each instead of just 3.

Then we continued our way to Mt. Maculot. At the jump off, we had a chance to fix our belongings for around 30mins. I took away all non-sense stuff from my bag, left it in the van. My bag was still heavy, as in super heavy. But it’s fine. I overheard Kuya Patrick and Kuya Bim’s conversation --- Kuya Patrick was asking Kuya Bim for info such as how hard is it, how long it would take to climb, and all that. When we were about to go, Kuya Patrick stayed in his van. No no no, don’t tell me he’s not coming. So I and Eizhel made kulit and we encouraged him, or rather forced, to go with us. 

I knew the place, yeah I knew the place. I knew where to go, so I was the first in line! Walk walk walk walking with my sister, Regine, who I also call Beging. Did I just hear someone said, “dito po ma’am”… I didn’t care. I thought he’s just someone epal trying to ruin our excitement. Walk walk walk, then I heard the rest of the team shouting at the back, “Arby!!! Dito daw!!!” Okay fine, pwede naman makalimot diba? That was super funny. Now, I wasn’t the leader. Michael and Eizhel, they’re boyfriends by the way, they advanced. Kuya Bim was our sweeper, as usual.

Oh no! I thought it would be easy for me. I thought I already calculated the difficulty level, I thought, after my two-week warm up before the climb, I was ready. I was wrong. First 15mins was … was … such a …. Speechless, lols. TAKE 5 whew!

The people with me are my friends, so I have all the freedom to stop whenever and wherever I wanted.  Along the way, I kept asking Kuya Bim, “Malapit na ba?” or “Malayo pa ba?” or “Mga ilang oras pa?” or “Mahirap pa ba?” First Kuya Bim said that we’re around ¼ already. I got disappointed. Next time I asked Kuya Bim said, we’re almost there. I got too excited but after an hour, due to more more breaks, I haven’t seen the high talahibs yet, meaning that we’re not yet ALMOST THERE. Then I would get disappointed again. It was almost dark, but because we have more more take 5s, it took us more than the normal trek time to climb Maculot. Then I learned something --- that I shouldn’t worry about the future. God wants me to take one step at a time. Never mind whether the future would be hard or harder, God is with me, I shouldn’t be afraid.

I learned to be patient. I knew that after all the hardships, I would come to see how great God is. I would be, again, a witness of God’s perfect hands in creating the world. I learned to take care of NOW and trust God for my future. Then, there goes the high talahibs … we reached the campsite …. We’re on top of the world!

Yeah, it was still as hard as before, but the difference is --- God prepared my heart this time. So it appeared easier. Climbing can be compared to a Christian life. Amidst of all the pain, hindrances, trials, there’s always something to look forward to. For climbing, it’s the summit. For Christians, it’s our eternal destiny --- heaven. 

Socials socials socials… We cooked sinigang, we ate dinner, we had Emperador and Red Horse, more more pulutan, we enjoyed our night. 

Then Jovy feel asleep – one down! Followed by Joseph, and the rest is history, I couldn’t remember, lols. All I knew was, the beautiful sunrise woke us up. Time for ROCKIES! Oh okay, time for them to go to rockies. I thought this would be my 2^nd time, but since Beging is with me, NO. But in all fairness, she tried. In the middle of the rocks, lols, wherein you cannot go left or right, Beging stopped. She was not moving, she was just shaking and namumutla. I knew we had to go back, but she wasn’t moving, really! There goes Lester, she carried Beging and walked accompanied us all the way back. Beging was ok, she was just afraid. It’s fine. It’s normal. God didn’t allow me, Lhez and Beging to go up, maybe because God knew that something bad would happen. We followed what God said, and stayed where we could see our friends. We just took a picture of them, lots and lots. 

After rockies, we packed up. Again, going down was easy --- you just have to do everything backwards.

We actually planned to go to Mt. Maculot View Resort and swim for an hour or less. However, they wanted us to rent a cottage worth 600PHP (that’s the cheaper, I guess). We asked if it’s ok not to rent, we would just pay for the entrance fee since we have van, but it’s required. Therefore, we did not take a bath, lols. We just looked for a restaurant and ate lunch/dinner. I had kilawin and dugunuan. Super yummy. As in super yummy. Then we headed back home.

God is the source of our strength and determination. Rely on God and everything would be possible. And yes, that was my second climb. I got more stories to tell …