I’ve heard many stories about Mt. Banahaw, mostly about religious cults, mountain spirits, apparitions, nymphs and other enchanting stories which have become the mountain’s main attraction.  Those were some of the reasons why I did not want to miss the opportunity to join the journey of Buhawi Mountaineering Club to the mystical mountain.  Well, I’m not the one to share with you those thrilling stories.  Let El Dosado do the job.

All I could share is the actual journey of the group… how we struggled as mountaineers to survived and persevered to win. Okay, since I don’t wanna bother you much with the small details, let me just share with you some of the highlights of our journey…

 June 13, 2003, Friday the 13th, Official Holiday

“Mountaineers”

It was declared holiday by President Arroyo to celebrate the 105th year anniversary of Philippine Independence.  Instead of hanging around malls as we used to do during holidays, twenty two Buhawi mountaineers, including myself, decided to join the trek to Mt. Banahaw.

Mt. Banahaw is a 2450 meters mystical dormant volcano that looms over the provinces of Quezon and Laguna.  One could go there via the town of Dolores, which is two and a half hours drive from Makati City.  So we chose that route for they said it was more challenging.

Before we started the trek, we dropped in at the chapel of Brgy. Kinabuhayan.  We prayed for the strength we needed to keep up with the group.  We also exercised outside the chapel to warm up our body.   About nine that morning, we started to walk via Crystalino trails.  After the first two stations, I was starting to feel that the trek was harder than I thought.  At every rest along the trail, I took off my bag because it was so heavy.  At least for ladies, it really was.

We had our lunch at Kweba ng Diyos Ama.  There was an altar at the cave where the face of God the Father was sculpted on the wall.  Some members of a religious cult were there to pray.  There was also a spring of mineral water at the cave where we got our drink. 

After a long break, we continued the trek again.  We started on the almost 90 degrees trail where we had to be more careful than on a normal trail.  I thought I couldn’t make it but I did.  Of course we all did! Then a warm mist quickly developed into sudden burst of heavy rain.  Necessity being mother of invention, however, we had come up with a substitute to protect ourselves and our backpack from the rain.  Thanks again to Richard Hidalgo, our”garbage man” and sweeper for bringing more garbage bags!  

We had been walking for hours.  It was already late afternoon and yet we couldn’t see any sign that we were approaching to the crest of Mt. Banahaw.  Richard Lontoc, our energetic trail master kept on telling us, “Thirty minutes na lang!” (We have learned later that it was just a tactic to keep us going.)  Everybody was so exhausted.  Up and down...up and down…up and up and up and down again. Whew!  I felt like we were just going in circles.  My rubber shoes were muddy and my socks were wet because it had been raining.  I almost got disappointed.  But I was ashamed of myself because our very silent Ernie, although new to the group seemed so untiring.   Finally at seven o’clock in the evening, even though the original plan was to set camp at the crest of Mt. Banahaw, we decided to set up our tents two hours trek below the summit.  That night was very cold.  The temperature was 14o C and turned lower before dawn.

June 14, 2003, Saturday, Full Moon 

“Survivors”

I woke up early and I could hear the birds twittering in the jungle trees.    A few minutes later, we started to climb again.  Without proper sleep, I couldn’t trudge as fast as others did.  The morning heat grew as the hours passed and it made the climb more tiring for us.   Finally, before twelve noon, we all had reached our destination…Durungawan I-- Peak I of Mt. Banahaw. Yes!!!  It was so overwhelming to see the farthest place we could see with our naked eyes from the summit.  As Anne Murray’s says, “So high that I could almost see eternity…”  It was so refreshing to actually feel the fog slowly going up from the lower ranges of the mountain to its crest.  It was so soothing to hear the rhythm of the wind changing it’s melody from soft breeze to strong wind.  It was so fulfilling to touch the rocks (and sit on them) at the crest of the mountain for I knew they had been there for maybe more than a hundred years.  And it was so good to taste some wild strawberries to dampen our hungry mouth.  Of course, we should have not done that but we had no more water to cook our food.  But then, some of us still had the energy to climb the other peaks.  But I was so tired and hungry to do so and I felt envious of Liezle, the youngest in the group, as I watched her climbing Durungawan II.

After two hours, we began to descend via Tatlong Tangke route.  Not having enough food to eat, everybody was struggling as we trudged.  John, a new jolly Buhawi member, even joked, “Ano nga bang makukuha natin dito? A, para di mahuli sa kwentuhan sa office!”   And it was Betchay who delivered the most famous line, “Ga, pag kasama kita, nawawala ang pagod ko.” 

As we continued to hike through thick foliage, Ian (another nice “rookie”) and I saw a big snake crossing the trail.  Having ophidiophobia, I’m proud of myself I did not scream.  I just asked him if it was necessary to whistle to warn other Buhawi mountaineers.  But then, the snake had vanished immediately.

I was glad we had reached Kapatagan station where we took a long rest.  I only had a few bits of Tic Tac and quarter a smallest bottle of mineral water to share with the group.  As time went on, everybody began to starve.  Lunch turned out to be steamed rice, nilagang baka, inihaw na liempo, fish sauce with calamansi and pepper as our condiment and icy Coke.  But those were just some of our “yummy” imagination.  He! He! He! After all, there’s no harm in it.  We totally ran out of water to drink.  Even though Mt. Banahaw is also known as Bulkan de la Agua (Volcano of Water) because of its multiple springs and waterfalls, yet ironically, a drop of water from our empty bottles was treasured just to dampen our very parched tongue.  So we had to move on to reach the part of the mountain where we could get some water to drink.

Before we reached Tatlong Tangke station, I lost my footing and slid toward the edge.  Well, after all, it was not only me, right?  Aside from that, I was suffering then from migraine so I flopped down on the grass and cry.  Thanks to “Mommy” for going ahead to ask somebody to fetch me.
We knew that a store was waiting for us at Tatlong Tangke station.  So we ate and drink more than the usual while we were waiting for the other members to arrive.  Later that afternoon, after waiting for so long, one of them called up and informed us that our new member, Gary couldn’t descend as fast as he wanted to due to severe exhaustion, so of course the rest could not leave him alone.  Aside from that, they were all very thirsty and hungry that made me again a little ashamed of myself.  A few minutes after that, Laly (Thanks for your concern. Hmmn…), Jeny (our new “Mama”), Jacque (who was able to “move on” even without Jon) and Riezle (“rookie of the climb”) had arrived.  They informed us that Gary had gotten sprain and he was with Jon and our first aider Ricky.  So a rescue team lead by very active Sir Joel Tejerero left to fetch the casualty.  That meant we had no choice but to spend another night at Mt. Banahaw. 

While waiting for them, Tess made sure we would all be able to take dinner so she asked the store owner to cook more rice for us.  Others were already setting up our tents.  Since the place and the sounds around us were eerie, El, the group’s artist and “elevator” began to share some enchanting stories about the mountain until we could no longer see each other anymore because the fog suddenly became so thick.  Even the full moon was invisible.  So we stopped that activity because some of us were getting scared.

An hour later, the rescue team arrived and we were glad Gary was not as injured as we thought.  Our dinner was superb because our imagination at Kapatagan station turned out to be real at Tatlong Tangke station.  Who would have thought we were going to have a real feast as our supper?  Well, the store owner went down the mountain when we arrived to be able to serve our order.  Say?

It had rained hard that night that others were not able to sleep in their tents and chose to stay overnight in some abandoned stalls.  We knew then that the moon and the stars had vanished.

June 14, 2003, Sunday, Fathers’ Day

“Champions”

The rain had stopped to allow a brief moment of sunlight.  We woke up early to dismantle our tents.  It was Fathers’ Day but there was no way to greet all the fathers we knew back home because our celfone batteries were drained.  Well, who could forget to greet our team leader and “father” who was satisfied celebrating that meaningful day at the mountain?!  (Of course it was Sir Joel.  Who else?!)  We also greeted the husband of the store owner.

Heavy breakfast was served.  But then I skipped it because I was still suffering from chronic headaches but I had to be strong so I would not be left behind.   Honestly, I was inspired by Rey and Jaz for showing us that true love means “walang iwanan.”   

We left a few minutes after preparing a rod each for everyone to support us on our way down the mountain.  I was grateful to Bevis for making the trek down the mountain easier for me that I was surprised we were already at the foot of Mt. Banahaw.   When everybody got there, we happily clapped for each other.  Even though some things did not turn out the way we planned them to be…the way we wanted them to be, we felt like Buhawi Mountaineering Club had just won a very tough group game.  Yes, we were all winners!! (And we are still the champion.)  The trek was the toughest we had dealt with so far.  And it was worth it.  It was really an arduous journey to remember. 

I’ve learned something from the journey that can be related to achieving our goals:  When going through life and traveling at the direction of our dreams, the simplest but the best way to move on is to take it one step at a time and look forward beyond the unknown.  Along the way, we face numerous challenges but we have to face them triumphantly with God’s help, for every journey, no matter how long and arduous comes to an end.  By the time we achieve our goals, we start to realize that everything we are going through is worth it.  Then we become better, wiser and stronger than we ever were before.