If I received and invitation to go hiking five years ago, no would be an immediate answer. I have never imagined myself doing any sporty activity let alone climb a mountain! But fortunately, people change (and yes, thanks to pop culture. That Thing Called Tadhana, anyone?) and I was able to reach my first summit last February.
We didn't want to get a guide at first because we thought climbing was easy peesy (lol us) and getting one is unnecessary. But Jeff (who is just 12 years old!) was insisting that we need one and gave us a discounted rate of 350 instead of 500. We gave him more after the climb though because he honestly deserves more!
We were nowhere near the jump-off point. Picture muna! Lol
The hike was unbelievably long. Prior to this, we searched online and most of them said that the hike is good for 2-3 hours. I believe it took us 5 hours!
Random hikers while resting. Don't forget to say your greetings when passing by other hikers. I think it's a tradition/ritual or you know, just poeple being polite lol
The fun part! A long cue of hikers awaits you before reaching the summit because of the rappelling. It's really steep, and only one hiker at a time can do it. Kind of scary at first but when patience gets in the way, I guess nothing matters. Most of the hikers who are pro got really impatient and preferred to legit mountain climb (you know, like climbing using your hands and get really dirty.. lol I don't know what I'm saying, but you get my point). We let Raine go rappelling first but after some time we decided to climb just like the others. It was so fulfilling! We kinda rock, lol.
Finally, the summit!
Honestly, we all kind of said "ito na yun?" upon reaching the top. The view was nice but it didn't look/feel the same as it looks like on movies hahaha sorry for expecting too much! Also, it was kind of crowded since hikers are trying to maybe feel the moment? Or maybe just rest lol.
Eating ice cream after such a long hike is nothing but nice. Nostalgia hit me after eating kuya's ice cream. Remember those popsicles sold by the beach with pinipig, cheese, and buko flavors?
I have no intentions of copying the bitchy girl emoji
There are two options in climbing Mt. Batulao. Either you go up via the old route and then go down via the new route (which is what we did) or vice versa. I recommend going the same way as we did!
So happy that I did this climb! Now every time my family and I pass by Mt. Batulao I keep bragging and I never get tired of it. It was such a refreshing experience, seeing beautiful views, meeting new people and having more memories to keep with my friends.. aside from having instagrammable photos, of course.
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