We were invited once again for a day hike in Laguna. This time, it is in Paete, the town famous of the beautiful woodcraft. The hike was originally scheduled somewhere else but they realized that it was impossible to do it in a day so they changed the itinerary to Mt. Humarap.
As usual, the meeting place is at Buendia and at 5am in the morning, the adventurers were there. Our group was pretty large, consisting of 14 people, most are couples. Some of them I've been with from the previous climb and some, the first time to be with.
We boarded the bus going to Sta. Cruz Laguna and we asked the conductor for a discount. He agreed and we saved P8 from the original P140 fare. As we reached Sta. Cruz, we rode a jeep going to Liloan and again, the fare is discounted. We only paid P20 each and the driver dropped us off at Paete town proper from there, our hike begins.
We walked a small street of houses ascending to the mountains. We didn't realize that the climb starts there since it looks like a residential area. As the houses were decreasing, we are welcomed in a cemented path going up. This is the path that will lead us on top to the Tatlong Krus spot.
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| the three crosses on top |
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| Our whole group |
The path is all stairs and it was clean and well maintained. We were informed that this has a 1/9 level of difficulty and can be accomplished in less than an hour but since the constant climbing of stairs wears our energy off, we had a lot of breaks going on top, thus making our climb more than an hour. As we reached the top (thank God!) we all rested on the cottages there. It looks like Picnic Grove up there and people are going there for picnics. I think there is an alternative road there since we saw vehicles on top.
At the far end where you can view the Laguna Bay, the three crosses are standing. It is all photo ops there where the view is great and the breeze is cool. We had snacks there before the rain poured and we decided to go down for our next destination, the Matabungka Falls.
We need to go down to the path to reach the falls. It was easier going down and we didn't had any breaks at all as we reached the waiting shed where the fork road going to the falls is found. We rested there for a while before continuing going down the falls.
The falls is so high. We can see it even if we are meters away from the catch basin. The water in the catch basin is shallow and you can walk around there. It was just that we don't want to get wet so we just had pictures in the area. We rested there for a long time as we admire the falls and take pictures. After a while we decided to go down the mountain.
It was tiring for our feet since you need to constantly use your legs for the climb upstairs but it was easier climb since the path is already established. We went down and continued our journey for our next destination and have lunch but that is for a separate post. For now, here is our itinerary for that day:
ITINERARY
0500 Take bus to Sta. Cruz
0730 ETA Sta. Cruz, take jeep to Siniloan or Paete
0830 At Paete, walk or take trke to Brgy. Ilaya Norte
0900 ETA Ilaya Norte. Start trek
1000 At Tatlong Krus, take pictures
1030 Make turn to Matabungka Falls
1130 Start descent
1200 Back at jump-off; head back to town proper
we almost followed that except that we finished around 1:30 pm. It was okay but we were already hungry at that time. But even if we are already tired, we continued for our next adventure...
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