Backpack Reflections
I can no longer remember how I have heard of Mago and why we agreed to climb it several years back. Analyzing its cost benefit right now, it was such a loss. Imagine traveling almost three hours to Carmen proper then another hour going to the jumpoff in Barangay Santican, and then hiking for only about an hour just to see that marker before heading back home. But what’s clear to me was how crazy, happy we were back then.
Ask a number of Cebuano outdoorsmen and they’ll easily refer you to Mt. Lanaya if you want to experience a rather challenging dayhike. Towering at
Limatiks are scary. Just thinking about those creepy, blood-sucking mountain leeches already brings goosebumps into my system. Back when seasoned mountaineers share their encounters of these parasitic creatures, I would often wonder how in the world they survived such bloody attacks. So when finally I got a chance to hike mountains that are heavily infested with limatiks, I realized how traumatic the stigma we have placed upon those leeches that are just are thriving for survival.
There are about 300 volcanoes situated in the Philippines – 24 of them are active. According to PHIVOLCS (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology), there are several volcanoes in the country because it is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire wherein the boundaries of two tectonic plates are situated – the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate – which subduct or dive beneath the Philippine archipelago, along the deep trenches along its east and west seaboard.
Though seemingly terrifying like of the Battle of Thermopylae, according to some outdoor enthusiasts, Spartan Trail got nothing to do with such bloody war led by King Leonidas. Rather, it got its name from an outdoor group that bushwhacked the trail from Banawa to Pamutan in the early hiking days.
Crater lakes are bodies of water that are formed in a volcanic crater often made up of acidic content while others are of fresh water coming from precipitation, groundwater or melted ice. In no particular order, here are the most beautiful crater lakes in the Philippines.
