Mount Maculot, Conquered! :)

Sept. 5-6, 2015

Cuenca, Batangas

A co-volunteer and a friend of mine invited me on their trip to Mount Maculot and I gladly joined them. Hey, it's me Lain who so much loves adventure!

Sept. 5, 2015 Saturday.
DAY 1

Our meeting place was at Crossing Pavillion at nine a.m.
My friend together with her workmates are working on a  BPO company so I have to wait for their out.
At past nine, at EDSA we rode a bus going to Lipa City, Batangas. One of Fen's workmates is living there.
Bus fare going to Lipa is 107 pesos. 

After an hour we were already in Lipa. 

We then rode a jeep going to Palengke and from there we rode again another jeep going to Sherwin's house. 
I thought we were going to hike that day but it turned out that Sunday or the following day would be that day for the climb. Sherwin's house is big and I may say grandeur. 

They have a very wide living, entertainment and  dining room. Even their kitchen is big. They also have a dirty kitchen at the back. They have many rooms on the second floor. Fen and I shared the first room near the grand staircase. According to Sherwin, their house was just newly renovated. It was financed by him and by his another sibling. He has a very nice and hospitable family. We were very well taken care of! And the food, it was just so awesome and non-stop. My glutton side has been revealed. Sorry and thank you so much, Sherwin! 

Our lunch was freshly picked on their greeny backyard. Vegetables were so delicious! 

Our whole Saturday just became a grand vacation. Sleeping and eating were the most of our activities.

The sunset can be seen on their front balcony on the second floor beside our room and I may say that it was just so breathtaking. Deep inside my mind, I can say that I can live like this forever. Haha.

We slept early because we will leave at 6 in the morning the following day. Sadly, I cannot sleep early so I watched a film first. "Attact on Titans!"

Sept. 6, 2015 - Sunday
DAY 2

We woke up at 4:30 a.m. and prepared for the hike.
Thanks God that it was a nice day and would fit for our climb. 

With just a light packed bag, we left the house at 6 a.m. and hitched at Sherwin's family's owned jeep. Another spoiling. Wiw! Thanks again!
We then rode a jeep going to Cuenca, Batangas.
Then rode a tricycle going to the jump-off. But before that, we dropped by first at the barangay to register and hire a guide.

At 8 a.m., we were all ready for the climb. Mount Maculot it 900+ MASL. 

It took us more than two hours to reached the camp site. We had many stopovers to rest because the peak going to the camp site is just so high.

On the camp site, there's the famous "711". It is a small store and almost everything you need to survive was there like foods and drinks. They are even selling MTO(made to order) foods like pancit canton and cup noodles.

We also met Tiger. The guard and guide dog of Mount Maculot.

After reaching the camp site, we turned left heading to the  "Rockies".
It is another peak and by the name itself, it was really rocky.

The view on the top was really amazing! Taal volcano and taal lake are can be seen. Photo op activity was then followed. Thanks to our guide that also became our photographer.

We headed back to the camp site and had our lunch. 

After an hour, our next destination was the Mount Maculot's highest peak. It took us more than an hour to reach that. Wiw!
Unfortunately as we reached the highest peak, we were above the clouds and we could see nothing aside from a thick fog. 

Lucky us. Haha! After half an hour of staying there we then decided to go down via traverse.

We passed through an area that has a crowd of wild monkeys. They're so cute while playing and swinging on the branches of the trees. They were making noise upon noticing us.
We didn't had the chance to took photos of them because according to Sherwin, those monkeys were snatching gadgets. Haha. We don't know if it's true.

We had a hard time going down. Some of the trails were a bit rocky and we even did some rappelling.

By the way, Tiger has been with us during our whole trip of going down.

Our next destination was the "Grotto". I was able to climb it first. Yey! There's no one yet when I reached it. I was able to say a prayer and then shouted at the top of my lungs. Hehe.

I don't have any hugots. I did it just for echo testing. Haha.

Photo op again was then followed. 

After half an hour, we went down to the final descend. We then rode a tricycle going back to Barangay Outpost and it was already past 5 in the afternoon.

Since I brought clothes, I was able to took a bath at the back of the outpost. There's a fee of 20 pesos.

Our guide fee was 800 pesos (for the Rockies-Summit-Grotto day hike tour).

We went back to Lipa and ate on a famous lomihan. It was my first time to eat Chicken Chami. This cost us 80 pesos per serving that can also be shared for two person.

At 7 in the evening, we were back to Sherwin's house. After freshening up and packing our things, we're ready to go home. Courtesy again of Sherwin's family's vehicle, they drove us up to SM Lipa for the bus terminal.

And it was a home sweet home.

Thank you once again to Sherwin's family for accomodating us!
I will definitely miss the very yummy feeding program. :)
Sa uulitin! Hehe.