at the crater of mt. pinatubo

...all that walking and waking-up at 2am are worthwhile...

• photo taken on January 15, 2011 by mavic
• first out of town trip for 2011
• itinerary c/o of http://tripinas.blogspot.com/

                        0300 Assembly time
                        0330 ETD for Capas, Tarlac via NLEX
                        0500 ETA Capas, Tarlac (stop-over for breakfast)
                        0530 ETD for Brgy. Sta. Juliana
                        0630 ETA Brgy. Sta. Juliana (jump-off point)
                        0645 Board 4×4 vehicles
                        0800 Start trekking
                        1030 ETA at the crater of Mt. Pinatubo
                        1200 Start return trek
                        1430 Back to the 4x4s
                        1530 Back at jump-off point. Freshen up.
                        1600 ETD from Tarlac for Manila
                        1900 ETA Manila

• had less than one hour of sleep the night before
• walked a total of 5 hours (2.5 hours on our way to the crater)
• had to walk 1 hour non-stop on our way back as there was heavy rain and we were trying to avoid strong river flows and/or mudslides
• did not bring SLR that day. i was afraid it would be too heavy.
• no trekking shoes also, i walked all day in my havaianas which has been with me since year 2006 :)
• i got separated from the group for a while and had to wait for almost an hour before i could re-join them
• water was cold at the crater
• water flowing from the small rivers, streams started to get warm as the rain poured out