Lakbay Norte 2: The Ever Changing Landscape of Mt Pinatubo

If you have lived to witness the explosion of Mt Pinatubo in June 1991, I’m sure you wouldn’t forget the devastating effect it had on a global scale. Almost 2 decades since then, from what seem to be start of creation on this land, it has evolved into another nature masterwork but now with an added human touch to its surroundings. It’s so fitting to name this this mountain “Pinatubo” which also means, “To make grow” and sure it grew after the years, and here are my observations from each visit within those 2 decades.

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Lakbay Norte: Cruising Subic Bay to a Kapampangan Night

Lakbay Norte: Cruising Subic Bay to a Kampapangan Night

5:00am I came down at White Rock’s lobby and joined a table that turned into some sort of internet café. I think I only had at two and a half hours of sleep and opening my laptop seems like a heavy task. Its day 6 of Lakbay Norte tour and I still wish I could have tried those other rides at Treetop yesterday. But I already got used to having only portions and a taste here and there. Besides this is a familiarization tour. The point is to get “familiar”.

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Mount Pinatubo revisited on Earth Day 2006

Mt. Pinatubo Crater

It was at least 4 years ago when I last visited Mt. Pinatubo. We had an outreach held at an Aeta Village in Tarukan, on the way to Pinatubo and the next day we headed for the crater. From the said village it was a grueling 6 hours trek towards the crater. This was like my 3rd climb at the time when I started on the outdoors and it was a real test of endurance on my part. With your feet constantly sinking in the sand, passing by numerous rivers and the scorching heat constantly at your back, this wasn’t a walk in the park. But reaching the crater was truly an amazing reward.

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