Mt. Maculot Dayhike, Rockies

November 2012 - Mt. Maculot, Cuenca, Batangas

Our trip to Cuenca, Batangas was just planned 2 days before the hike! I suddenly woke up on the right side of the bed and thought of climbing a mountain, LOL. So I asked my friend, Lovella to join me and she tagged Aiza along. It was a holiday and our schedules were all good.

The company L-F: Aiza, Lovella and me.

We boarded a bus bound to Lemery, Batangas at 5am and arrived in Cuenca at 8am. People I inquired with, about Mt. Maculot told me that its just an easy climb and good for trekking beginners. Of course, I wanted to hike on an easy trail since it was my first time to do so. I was a bit nervous and excited to try a new thing. When we bought what we needed from 711, our guide, Kuya Chris arrived to pick us from there. We started treading an uphill cemented road at around 8:30am and we were already panting. He said it was only the warm up. OH. Okay. In the back of my mind, I was thinking if this was really for starters. The real deal begun at the end of the cemented road. The trail was easy to follow but it was really difficult to hike without any exercise session or practice beforehand. Anyhow, thanks to Kuya Christopher, he accompanied us and saved us from giving up, haha!

Do not underestimate Mt. Maculot!

We rested a couple of times to catch our breaths and quench our thirst. It was getting hotter and the assault was making us exhausted already. We were grateful for the tree roots available, we clung unto for our dear lives. Kuya Chris had a lot of stories to tell from funny hiker moments to weird ghostly events in the mountain. Most of the time he was funny and we'd burst into laughter which echoed through the woods.

We were happy to see a lovely view of the Taal Lake from Maculot and we had to do our photo ops. After 2 hours of walking we were finally minutes away from the campsite.

O siya, malapit na raw!

When we reached the campsite, Kuya Chris introduced us to his brother (forgot his name, lol) but he owns the sari sari store there, "711" as what they call it. We had our lunch together and stayed for a while to rest. We decided to trek up to the rockies at around 12:30 noon time, good thing, it was not extremely hot. I was surprised that I was more than able to do a little rock climbing to the top. Kuya Chris guided us one by one of course.

Rock climb to the top

We were happy to see ourselves very successful in conquering the rockies, lol! We stayed on top for almost an hour, taking a lot of pictures and enjoying the view of Taal Lake. Kuya Chris pointed parts in Tagaytay and Batangas.






ITINERARY:

0500 Boarded Bus (Lemery Batangas Bound)
0800 Arrived Cuenca
0830 Started Trekking via Rocky Rd.
1030 Reached Campsite (Kaen,Pahinga,Tambay,Kwentuhan,Tawanan)
1230 Rockies Trek
0130 Campsite (Kaen,Pahinga,Tambay,Kwentuhan,Tawanan,Tulog)
0300 Descent
0430 Chill and Halo-Halo Party sa baba, Clean up
0500 Bus Stop
0600 Boarded Bus (Manila Bound)
0800 Arrived Buendia