A travel & adventure blog by Kara Santos
Unlike popular destinations in the country that dazzle you immediately with their obvious beauty and vibrant energy, the town of Mercedes in Camarines Norte is one of those quiet beauties that often gets overlooked. But when you dig deeper, you’ll find that she has so much substance. Mercedes has a serene and quiet charm that just grows on you. The longer you stay, the more you’ll realize just why the town is called “The Belle of the Pacific.”
Sometimes, we tend to take places in our backyard for granted. The nearer a destination is from where we live, the less it is on our tourist radar. For instance, Art’s hometown is Binangonan, but for some reason, we’ve both never been to Mt. Tagapo, a mountain that falls under the jurisdiction of the towns of Binangonan and Cardona in Rizal province (though it’s only accessible from the Binangonan side). Mt. Tagapo, referred to by locals as Susong Dalaga, is located in the middle of Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines. The first weekend of the year seemed like a good time as any to scale a mountain, so we we decided to finally head there.
On our last day in Batanes, after biking around North and South Batan, motorcycling around, and separate trips to Sabtang Island and Itbayat, Outside Slacker and I met up again in Basco to hike through a forest maze up a mountain. The thickly forested Mt. Iraya has an elevation of 1,009 metres (3,310 ft) above sea level, and is a major landmark of Batanes, the northernmost province of the Philippines.
Standing majestic and proud, Bud Bongao or simply Bud (Bongao Peak), is the major landmark that greets visitors to the island province of Tawi-Tawi, the southernmost province of the country, located in the Autonomous Region on Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
This mountain cliff is considered sacred by locals, who believe that it has a power to heal people of sickness and cleanse them of their sins. Many locals hike up to ask for blessings for good health, to pray in the Muslim shrines along the way, or as a form of thanksgiving. Continue reading “Hiking up Bongao Peak, Tawi-Tawi”
The first rays of the sun break on the horizon and warm orange light slowly seeps through the cold cover of clouds. As the veil of the night sky lifts, a sea of ghostly mist drifts by on the grassy rolling hills of Luzon’s highest peak.
This was how I envisioned my trip to Mt. Pulag, my first trip of the year and first ever ascent up a mountain (the second highest in the country). But that didn’t go exactly as planned.
What I got was bitter cold, rain, fog and mud so thick that it blackened my feet through my shoes and two layers of thick socks. There were times while hiking that I felt like one of zombies in “The Walking Dead,” just mindlessly shambling on, putting one foot in front of the other, wondering when the misery would ever end. Continue reading “Mt. Pulag: Expectations vs. Reality”
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