Pico de Loro


Like I promised, I'm trying to put up entries for the travels I had this year. My traveling for 2016 really kicked off last February during Valentine's. Together with my friends, we went to celebrate the heart's day hiking Mt. Pico de Loro.





Hiking Mt. Pico de Loro is the first time that I really ever went to climbing a mountain. I have to be brutally honest when I say that I am not much of a hiker. I've been to treks for a couple of times but it was mainly to go a waterfalls or some other destination, not exactly for the mountain itself. So hiking Pico just to get to its summit was definitely a first for me.

The trek to the summit would take roughly an hour to two getting to the campsite. We started the hike around seven in the morning. The breeze was still pretty cool and the sun hasn't been fully up yet. At the start of the hike, you'll get to encounter a bit of a river bank, it really won't get you wet however.
We had a guide to help as along the trail. We were told along the trek that there were different main stops in Pico, the campsite, the summit and the monolith. The guide told us that the longest trek would be to the campsite. From the campsite, the trek to the summit would take roughly 15-20 minutes. The monolith will be different as you have to go down from the summit then take another 15-20 minutes to reach the top of the rock formation.





It was around 9am when we reached the campsite. The sun's warmth was starting to be stifling. So we took about half an hour break before started going up the summit. This is where we started taking photos. We can already see the view on this area. 





When we started hiking up the summit, we were not told that we were gonna crawl our way up to the top. The soil was very slippery and there are tiny rocks falling from the top. So it came to a surprise to us when we had both our hands and feet on the ground just to get to the summit.


When we reached to the summit, we took a few minutes break before we decided to go to the monolith. I was kind of hesitant going. I am afraid of heights and we could see from the summit that the people are at the edge of the structure just to get on top. I wasn't sure if I was ready for that kind of adventure. As I said earlier on this post, I am really not one for mountain climbing. But I was somehow coerced by my friends, saying that I could do it. So I decided to just come along and do something adventurous for once. 

When we were coming down from the summit, I could see people piling up just to get to the monolith. It was already midday and there are still a lot of people lining up. The guide helped us to cross to the monolith and told us to wait for our turn. We didn't expect that we'd wait for another two hours just to have our chance to get up the rock formation. So we sat waiting and hungry for our turn.

It was around 2-3pm when we were able to climb our way up to the monolith. I couldn't imagine the life of me now how I was able to survive the trek. It was scary! We were literally trusting our lives to every rock we are able to hold and step onto. One wrong move and we're off down to the cliff. 
When we reached the monolith, we were able to see the whole view. We could see the summit. And on the other side, we could see the shoreline. Describing it as beautiful would be an understatement. But to be fair, that's much what English language has to offer for the sight in front of me. We didn't stay far too long as the heat was boiling up and we barely have water left. So we started going back to the summit not much long after.

I got to say that this trip was gotta be part of my books. I have definitely checked a lot of to-do's on the bucketlist for this hike. And definitely a Valentine's day to remember.



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