Mt. Romelo Experience

I experienced my first climb in Mt. Romelo in Famy, Laguna last Nov. 8-9, 2008. I was with my mountaineer friends, and my experience there was so amazing, even though the trails were so muddy that I slipped so many times and got my right ankle sprained.

I enjoyed the moment when we were in Buruwisan Falls (in the picture), the water was so refreshing and it really soothes my aching body! haha! I remember, while passing through the rocks, I accidentally slipped and got my leg hit the rocks, that when we came back to the campsite, I already have a huge hematoma on my leg, but still, I don't care, that will be a souvenir from Buruwisan Falls. Hehe...

After we had taken a bath we had our dinner and slept early. It was so cold there, and three of us had to share on a sleeping bag that we used as a blanket, lucky for me, because I was the one who is in the middle! hehe..

The next morning, when we woke up, I thought it was still raining, but it was not, thanks to God. I said to myself, it's gonna be a nice day!

After having our breakfast, we fixed our things and rented two horses to bring our bags back to the jump-off area. It was a relief because I know it will be hard for us to trek down with our bags on, because the trails were muddy because of the rain that night. There was this part of the trail that we had to pass, and the technique that they said for you to pass it, is to run down, but when I looked at it, I got scared, because I know that I might lost my balance and I may roll down. Haha! But thanks to "him", he was there to take good care of me, but while slowly going down, I lost my balance and slipped, but he manages to hold my hand. Hehe... But one of us really lost his balance and the only chance for him to safely go down is to run. We saw everything that happened, he passed the one whose leading the way and went straight to the guava tree. I got teary eyes from laughing so hard at him! That was one of the funniest moments of the climb! After that moment, we had some buko juice and continued our way down, and when we reached the jump-off area, I was so relieved! Whoa! That fun climb is one of the best experiences I ever had!!

Buntot Palos (a.k.a. Hidden Falls), Pangil, Laguna

It was February 2007 when I experienced my first climb on a mountain together with some of my friends. We chose Hidden Falls in Pangil, Laguna because it was near in Manila and my friend has a relative living in the said place and that relative of him also served as the guide when we climbed the mountain.

We started our journey from Manila, the group met up in Alabang at around 5:00-6:00 in the morning and traveled arouund 1-2 hours to Laguna. We arrived at around 8:00 in the morning at Pangil, Laguna and before starting to hit the trails, we had a short briefing first on what we have to expect on our way up there. We also offer some prayers to our Lord and after those things we had some last minute break and then we started to hit the trail! On our way up, all of us were so excited, we took some pictures on the jump off area and some of us played some jokes to our friend who happens to be a "gay". I remember, my friend saw a big worm and she picked it and showed it to our gayfriend and that friend of ours really screamed so hard when he saw the worm.

It took us like 2-3 hours before we reached the falls. The trails were easy to climb but the trail going down to the falls was a little bit hard, because it was a little bit steep that you have to hold on to a bagging while going down. It was already lunch time when we arrived at the falls. We had a nice lunch and after eating we took lots of pictures and did some funny things there. We left the place in the middle of the afternoon and another 2-3 hours walking again. Before we finally go down, we found a nice place to took some pictures while on our wet clothes! Yeah! We didn't change it! Haha!

It was me and just a few friends who arrived last from the mountain because we were so tired already but it was ok, because we had so much fun taking some pictures there. Hehe..