SAGOY AFTER
THREE
Arch. Aldrin Luzares aka bong revillah
SOC Vice President
5:00 am, we
woke up on an ironic day. On the east, the sun had just started to rise, slowly
peeking its way up from the distant horizon. Yet on the west, the moon was
still on its high. As if it wanted to witness the splendid eccentricity of that
day. It was summer then, but the absence of warmth brought us to cover
ourselves thick.
At a young
age I remember myself looking up. Playfully observing and appreciating the
imaginative configuration of the clouds. But on that day, my feet led my eyes
to a new and different perspective. I WAS HIGH! I was literally high. Clouds
were now beneath our feet. And if only Kinton cloud was true, I could have
found myself already enjoying it then.
That morning
really had me overwhelmed. Too amazed and excited by what we had witnessed. It
was like things were way out of the usual order, yet it was extraordinarily magnificent.
Perhaps, that was the beauty of irony we had just witnessed.
But the
excitement was far from over, for right ahead of us was no more a dream. For on
that day we were summiting Mt. Kanlaon.
The Idea of
climbing the still volcano started way before, when we were still starting our
fun driven career as climbers. It was only until late last January when we
decided to take on another level of adventure, to which Mt. Kanlaon was the top
prospect destination. But of course, being known as frustrated mountaineers,
the thought of tackling Mt. Kanlaon was a great challenge for me then. More
than anything else, the budget worried me the most.
Before Mt.
Kanlaon, we only had one major climb. Most of the climbs we had were within the
Cebu province only. But the group was
too enthusiastic about conquering Mt. Kanlaon. So, preparations were made. To
make sure everything was perfect, we held our meetings in not so proper places.
Tsk tsk! Anyhow, that’s the way things work for the group.
Climbing Mt.
Kanlaon was not a one affair deal. In order to condition ourselves before
attempting Mt. Kanlaon, we decided to climb the unforgivably scorching Mt.
Lanaya one month before the scheduled Mt. Kanlaon Climb. There were only 5 of
us who joined the pre climb event. I was a bit worried for the others who were
not able to join, but I was more so worried for us making to the base camp
then. But anyway, that pre climb was successful but too punishing though.
The Mt. Kanlaon adventure was
scheduled for three days. Together in that event were Pawlo Kuntis, Bitter
Ocampo, Erik Furotusok, roDEREK sikwati, Jan Farats, Jan Rigalo, Betch Tamayo,
Janis Gibilin, Bitter Ocampoy’s 3 friends: Sherbie, Cyril & Dexter; and of
course yours truly, the senator.
The first day started out to be an exceptional
travel here to there experience. The Cebu to Toledo trip was probably the most
lifeless and most dragging trip I had in my life. But it was helpful though
since most of us didn’t have a proper rest the night before. We arrived at
Toledo City heading straight to a friend’s house where we were offered coffee
and a help for securing tickets for the ship that would take us to San Carlos
City.
at toledo city...
When we arrived at San Carlos City,
we were walking our way to find a ride to the Bus terminal when suddenly: an
enchanting voice broke out through the distance. It was probably from a mystic fairy
descending from the mountains, thrilled by our presence and mystically chanting:
“SIR! SABAW MO SIR! INIT PA SIR!”. I felt like I was in a deep trance that time.
The next thing I knew, my stomach was already full.
So we headed on and rode a tricycle
to San Carlos City bus terminal. We took a bus that transported us to Canlaon
City. Along the way, we saw nothing but vast sea of sugarcane. And as usual,
bus stopped to pick up and drop passengers off. Minutes later, Pawlo Kuntis and
Erik Furotusok grabbed one of two standing passengers, the other one was held
tightly by Jan Farats. My hair stood up turning into bright gold and my hands
were on fire, ready to strike my Kame Hame Wave. To cut the story short, we
arrived at Canlaon City unharmed and still filled with excitement.
There, we
were greeted by our contact person who arranged our guided climb. Very quickly,
we drop by the market to make last minute buys. Then we headed directly to the
jump-off point via habal-habal. When we arrived at the jump-off point, our 2
guides, David and Goliath was already waiting for us with big smiles. And from
then on, the inevitable high level walk-in-the-park started. (By the way the Kame Hame Wave part never really
happened).
start ascent to Davids Place
Our first
goal that day was to make it to Makawiwili before sundown. But things didn’t go
quite well as planned. When we were starting our way up, David went ahead of us
since he was still going to pack his things up. Goliath, who was yet then our
lone guide, humbly led us to his far far away kingdom called “UNAHAN”. Then,
usual things started happening. Sweat slowly began pouring out from our
celebrity bodies. But eventually we managed to keep our composure and reached
Goliath’s place where we had a short rest, few adjustments and offered a long
distance prayer courtesy of our fellow sagoy, Sincha Plaster.
From there
we started our climb to David’s place where we planned to have our lunch. The
climb was too exhausting that exchange of bags was done just to lighten up the
carried weight of the others.
Past noon
when we arrived at David’s place. The two guides then started preparing our
lunch. It was embarrassing for us not to help. But then, David and Goliath
refused the help we offered. Maybe it was part of their service we were not
aware of. So then, we took the time to rest, enjoy the view of the luscious
green mountains, took some pictures, and shared small talks. The place itself was
already a good place to set up a camp for the night. But we were still stuck to
the idea of getting to Makawiwili.
at davids place while waiting for our special lunch ;)
SOC and FRIENDS
We reached
our camp site 30 minutes past five. The trail
to the campsite was still manageable and the views were comparably similar to
that in Mt. Talinis. We took a short time rest, just to catch our breath, and then
started setting up the camp. Again, the guides offered themselves to do the
cooking while the rest of us continued preparing our sleeping hotels.
scary night at bangko bangko pitching tents
Night came
and we were ready to grab our dinner. The Sagoy Camp dinner is not your typical
camping dinner. We were used to dine at camps with the most mouth watering food
we can think of. It could be Sinigang na baboy, Sinugbang Pork belly, Pansit,
or Guinisang Baboy. And at that time, courtesy of Sherbie, we were filling up
our appetite with a fat tasty HUMBA. How about that for a mountain high dinner?
Lights out
was never called until our most protected and priced power ups were served. A
bottle or two of Vitamin E was just enough to keep ourselves going for the day
ahead. It’s a sagoy tradition I honestly thought not worthy of keeping then.
But then again, traditions made us who we are. And if I’m not embracing these
traditions, then maybe a sagoy part of me might still be missing.
Once again
stories were told, memories and laughter were shared. But it was now time to
say our goodnight to the departing remarkable first day.
Daybreak finally came to light. I got out
from the tent and I closely observed the surrounding area. Trees were still
around, I can still hear recognizable sounds, and I can still breathe through
my nose and mouth. Perfect! We were still on Earth. Everybody was up and we were
all busy harvesting our own personal overnight made crystal tears.
The objective then was to reach the
shoulder of the volcano, where we were going to set up our second night camp.
That day was filled with lots of surprises. Some were breath-taking and some
were not appealing at all.
After taking our humble breakfast
and packing up our things, it was now time to hit the trail. But a sad decision
had to be made that day. The group had to be divided into two. There were two
routes to the shoulder, one was a direct route from Makawiwili, and the other
was longer and may not be a desirable option to take for those who suffered
early injuries. The Alpha team would take the longer route and would be guided
by Goliath, while the Bravo team taking on the direct route would be guided by
David. The plan then was to make it to Makawiwili and from there Bravo team
would directly proceed to the shoulder, while Alpha team would take the route
passing by PMS, Pagatpat and Margaha Valley. And from the shoulder, bravo team
would be meeting our team at Margaha valley.
Alpha team was composed of Pawlo Kuntis,
roDEREK Sikwati, Bitter Ocampoy and his three friends: Sherbie, Cyril and Dexter;
Betch Tamayo, and the Author. Since we were taking the longer route, we headed
out first. Bravo team, composed of Jan Farats, Janis Gibilin, Erik Furotusok,
and Jan Regalo, was not far behind. At that time the two groups were still on a
same direction. We were all heading to Makawiwili.
Passing by Kutitap, we filled our
dinking bottles with water. The place was large enough and was a good optional
place for setting up a camp. We grabbed our water from a source a couple of
meters or more from the camping ground. In order to get to the small water
basin, we had to pass by a narrow passage. The cliffs on both sides were
thickly covered with curtains of moss and vines dropping down. Spots of
sunlight penetrated through the canopies and sparkled the undergrowth below. Mystically
creepy it was, I wondered to myself: Could that be the place where the
enchanted “SABAW-INIT FAIRY” was holding her throne? We never knew.
like our ancestors this is SOC method of filtering germ free water lol
Any way, the water we got from the
source had an undesirable after taste. But it was unwillingly acceptable when
left with no other choice. But good thing though, Jan Farats brought a
hydro-decontaminating, cow-mammary- mimicking, state-of-the-art, manually operated
machine. (Water filter in short) After filtering the water, the after
taste was still there; but at least the water was then safer to drink.
Leaving
behind the Bravo team once more, we were now making our way to the view deck, Makawiwili.
The term Makawiwili simply describes a feeling of desirably holding on to
something you already fell in love with. Imagining then was all I did every
time a word was spoken about the place.
For less
than an hour of trek and climb, we finally arrived at what supposed to be our
first camp site. Tiring it was for me, but the excitement drove me to push
myself up the top of Makawiwili. And there it was, lo and behold, my first
glance at the impressive volcano. As it
stood still in front of the silent deep blue sky, clouds of white gently wave
its way softly altering the scenic display of the great peak. Indeed, Makawiwili modestly held-on true to
its name.
at makawilili peak..... first seen the beauty of the mother earth "kanlaon"
With still a
long way to go before reaching the shoulder, we now decided to proceed our way.
We were now heading to the PMS, a place defined boldly by Pawlo Kuntis as “PRE
MARITAL SEX”. PMS was actually the abbreviation for the Philippine
Mountaineering Society, who discovered the place.
We arrived
at the PMS just in time for lunch. Getting there was quite a nasty surprise for
us, as several biological landmines were planted along the trail. When we got
to the PMS, we met other mountaineers who were making their way down the
mountains opposite to the direction we were heading. Two of those friendly
mountaineers were ladies, yet to our surprise, they carried larger backpacks
than we did.
at PMS the garden of eden
After we
were done with our lunch, we proceeded to Margaha valley, passing by Pagatpat. Pagatpat was another camping site surrounded
by trees that are normally found on lowlands. The trail to Pagatpat was for me
the most challenging part of the whole adventure. It was a steep climb on rocks
between moistly dense forests.
mossy forest at pagatpat
More than an hour after: we found ourselves
trailing by the side of a mountain, heading down towards a clearing below. It
was a large barren land with most plants growing only along the perimeter. The
Margaha valley, is a depressed land that is seasonally filled with water during
rainy days and is ultimately dry during summer.
look at their faces "lol" when they first seen margaha!
At that
moment we were drawing ourselves close to the shoulder as we could clearly see
the camp site above us beside the towering peak. We were expecting the other
team to be at the valley waiting for us. But we arrived at the valley with no
signs of them. Until one of us saw tiny moving objects heading towards the
shoulder. Confidently, we thought those were our friends. So we decided to wait
for them to come down to the Valley. While waiting for them, a cup of hot
coffee helped set the mood while we were enjoying the 360 degree view displayed
before our eyes. Moments later the other team started their way down from the
shoulder.
vast plain in margaha valley
have a break... kape kape mode
waiting for the other team BRAVO to arrive.. laugh trip , higda higda, pahuway mode....
Sundown was
closing in; we decided to make our way to the shoulder all together. We started
setting our camp 10 minutes past five. The wind was then getting colder, so we
had to suit on our covers. We were then located very next to the summit. But we
spared the glory of conquering the top for the following day.
\
is it cold?
\
dinner for today
sizzling buwad with sweet lamas!
Daylight
came to a close and darkness slowly swallowed the day. Dinner was ready and we
all had our share of meal. And once again, glasses of drink were passed on from
one to the other. Stories were told, memories and laughter were shared.
Everyone was ready for the next big day ahead. For then, a new story would we
made and new memories would be mold.
This story
was written after our successful climb at Mt. Kanlaon. But this story was not
only meant to share the moments we had on that mountain. It was written to
celebrate the three years of our humble existence as mountaineers. And that, the
adventure we had in Mt. Kanlaon would simply describe the real sense of being the
adventurers we were, a true “FRU Mountaineers”: always late, demandingly picky
of camping foods, butthole honkers, “rest now-walk later” hikers, who’s got the
biggest bag contenders, and “camera shy?”
Imperfect and
immature they may sound, but those were the reasons why climbing mountains
became unforgettable for us. And that, those were the reasons why there were stories
to be told and memories to be shared and laughed about. And hey! A bottle or
more of vitamin E was not that bad at all.
some memorable pics....
some memorable pics....
beautiful sunrise with beautiful SOC
imagine fogs underneath your ground
shoulder [campsite] to the summit of Mt kanlaon
SOC rocks Vibram rocks
SOC ladies
same shoes [merrel] same trekking pole [blackdiamond]
On the third
day of our Mt. Kanlaon adventure, we did manage to get our feet to the top of
the great volcano. Tied to that moment were sweat, pain and injuries. Certainly
exhausting it was, but the glory of realizing a dream was already enough to put
a smile on our worn-out faces. On that same day we were able to get back to the
Island of Cebu and eventually made it to our homes safe.
i love you goodbye kanlaon!
A walk in the clouds - stairway to heaven
sea of clouds =)))
Mt. Pulag
perhaps?
complete pictures next....
complete pictures next....
No comments:
Post a Comment