Our Jeepny Ride
veryone was excited. For about a month long preparation, Escape is finally going to conquer Mt. Pulag, the 2nd highest mountain in the Philippines and the highest in Luzon. It was amazing how all of this were prepared, from Manila to Baguio, we had a smooth transition from a bus to jeepny that would take us to Ambangeg. The road from Baguio to Ambangeg was long, hard, bumpy, dusty and also quite scary as you were driving through a small road at the side of the cliff. We had three flat tires during the trip.
Our first stop was the DENR ranger station, where we were oriented on how we should act properly in the sacred ground of Mt. Pulag. Our lecturer was a woman of tribal roots, with a strong character and has a good control of her English. She takes her job seriously and does not tolerate anyone snoozing in between her lectures. She told us to respect the mountain as it is the "Playground of the Gods" and the "No one is to take-off their shirt and shout at the peak. Anything else you want to do with your partner you can do it inside your tents". We were to be accompanied only by certified "Rangers" in our climb, they will be the one to fetch water from the lake as it is no longer allowed to bathe or step into the water sources as it could get contaminated.
After our lecture and our lunch at the DENR station, it was another two hours of more dangerous and inclined rough roads towards the first base camp. We were thankful that our driver was skilled enough to navigate through all the road obstacles.
