Mt. Pinatubo Day Tour

Mt. Pinatubo crater lake

Mt. Pinatubo is shared by the provinces of Pampanga, Zambales and Tarlac. The major jmp-off point is at Sta. Juliana, Capas Tarlac. Today hikers and tourists from all over the world are enjoying and appreciating the beauty of Mt. Pinatubo's crater lake. Before it became famous all over the world, Mt. Pinatubo was a dormant stratovolcano until 1991 eruption. It was covered by forest and  rich vegetation. But during the eruption tons of ashes, gasses, mudflows, and a cloud of volcanic ash spewed by the volcano that leads the summit to collapsed and destroyed the vegetation and river systems of surrounding area.

With 30 participants including my self we left Manila at around 3 AM. Our meetup time with our tour operator is 6 AM. There was a long waiting time before we rode our assigned 4x4 type vehicle, it took us around 9 AM until we are finally seated.

4x4 type vehicle on the trail

In order to get to the crater lake, tourists have an option where to commence their hike, long trail or short trail. In short trail, tourists ride a 4x4 vehicle up to 2 hours from jump-off point to the new designated parking area and then walk up to 30 minutes from the parking area to the crater lake. While in long trail tourists can ask the 4x4 vehicle driver to dropped them off at the old parking area and from there they can commence their hike up to the crater lake for  2 hours. The 4x4 vehicle has 6 seating capacity only, 5 passengers, a driver and so a guide will just stand all throughout the trip while holding his balance.

lahar trail

Our tour was a gloomy day, there was scattered light rain showers on the trail. On mid-way our group had problem with our 4x4 vehicle.  At first I thought the lahar terrain that soften by isolated light rain showers was the problem because our driver has kept on changing routes. Until the driver stopped the vehicle and checked why our vehicle is stuck on the trail. He found out that the left front wheel has something jammed on it that prevent it from rotating. Unfortunately the driver has no tools to fix it and it will take time to fixed it. The driver contacted the tourism office through radio that we need another 4x4 to fetch us. There is no network signal in the area and the rest of our group didn't know that we had a problem.

While waiting for our 'rescuer' we decided to eat our breakfast, took some photos and stayed inside the vehicle for the rest of 1.5 hours when it started to drizzle.

finally our 'rescuer' is approaching

Since we were already left behind by our other group members we decided to short trek instead. Our 'rescuer' driver drove us up to the parking area where only maximum of 30 minutes walk away from the crater lake.

Where do you belong?

On 'stairway to heaven'

view deck

Swimming is not allowed in the lake anymore but you can have a picnic near the shore or even submerge half of your legs if you want to.

tourists having a picnic

I'm 'reunited with my college friends

Our incomplete group picture

 When we are about to leave at 3PM, the sky started to cleared-up and Mr. Sun shines. Everyone was happy taking pictures again.

And more pictures on the way back to jump-off.

hill of ashes spewed by Mount Pinatubo

this vehicle wrecked is being used by military as target for air exercises

Land ownership of Pinatubo was awarded by the government to Aeta tribe. A 150 pesos mandatory fee per tourist is divided among Aeta families as one of their source of income.

 

Aeta Children

More tourists means more easy living for Aeta people so I would recommend to everyone to visit Mount Pinatubo. You just don't experience the beauty of it, you also help to ease the living of this Aeta tribe and send the children to school.
  
For a hassle free Mt. Pinatubo tour there are many tour operators offering services like processing of permits, land transfers and food. In our case we availed the Mt. Pinatubo tour without transfers from Manila-Tarlac-Manila of Majestic Mount Pinatubo Tour and Homestay tour operator. I decided to rent our own vehicles (we rented two vehicles for a group of 30 persons) simply because I want to assigned our own pick-up and drop off point at our own convenience.