Mt. Gulugod Baboy
A wonderful hike
June 11–12, 2016 | Anilao, Batangas
DAY 1
Recently, my friends and I decided to go on a quarterly hike, just for a change to our routinely activities. Surprisingly, we found more than a distraction but satisfaction.
Last March, we trekked Mt. Batolusong in Tanay, Rizal. For the second quarter of 2016, we decided to conquer Mt. Gulugod Baboy in Anilao, Batangas.
Most of our group met at a bus station in Cubao while others living in Batangas and nearby places just met the other at the Batangas Grand Terminal. The fare from Cubao is Php 180/pax. We were eleven in this hike.
We arrived at 9:00am in the terminal. We rented a jeepney, amounting to Php 1100(Php 110/pax), to drop us off at the mountain’s jump off, instead two separate rides, a jeepney and a tricycle.
On our ride to Anilao, we met Sir Phio and Ma’am Jen, they were also planning to hike Gulugod Baboy. Sir Phio introduced himself to us and offered us help, when he heard that we were not familiar with the trail. Being offered help, who are we to refuse? We agreed to hike together.
When we reached the jump-off, we registered and paid the registration fee of Php 40/pax. Before starting our hike, we ate lunch — the humidity and the hotness of the sun did not stop us to start trekking. Together with our new-found friends, we started trekking at around 11:00 am.
According to the blogs we read, the hike will only take 1.5 up to 2 hours but it took us 3 hours — not so brag-worthy.
Well, I’m not proud of that but that’s an accomplishment for the majority of us, given that we live a sedentary lifestyle.
We reached Peak 2 at around 2pm, which was a bad thing because there was no shade at the peak. We decided to set up our tent and endured the heat of the sun — the heat subsided around 4pm.
Just before sunset, we noticed small flying insects swarming in our camping place. It’s a good thing we brought an insect repellant. At around 5:30pm, we did our usual sunset photoshoot. Before dinner time, the insects were gone by then. At 6:00pm, we ate our dinner.
On the second day, our wake up time is 4:30am. We had our light breakfast, then started trekking the back trail. We arrived the Philpan Dive Resort at 7:30am to start our island hopping. We changed into our swimming attires before going to Fortalez Beach. There is an entrance fee in Philpan Dive Resort worth Php 100/pax. We rented a boat to get there for Php 2700(Php 207/pax). There was also an entrance fee in the beach, Php 100/pax. We rented a cottage for Php 300(Php 23/pax) and stayed in the beach until 11am.
Fortalez Beach is the lesser known one compared to Sombrero Island. We decided to go the former instead of the latter because it has a longer coastline and cheaper entrance fee.
After that, we headed back to the resort and took a nice bath. We ate lunch in a nearby karinderya and then rode a rented jeepney to Batangas Grand Terminal at 2:30pm. We arrived in Manila at 5:30pm.
ITINERARY
First Day
5:00am Call Time (Cubao Station)
9:00am Arrival at Batangas Grand Terminal
10:00am Arrival at Mabini Batangas, ate lunch
11:00am Started hiking
3:00pm Reached Peak 2, setting up of tent
6:00pm Ate dinner
Second Day
4:30am Wake up time
5:30am Started trekking
7:30am Arrival at Philpan Dive Resort
8:00am Rode the boat to Fortalez beach
9:00am Arrived at Fortalez beach
11:00am Left the beach
12:00pm Arrival at Philpan Dive Resort
12:30pm Ate lunch
1:30pm Rode from Mabini to Grand Terminal
2:30pm Arrival at Batangas Grand Terminal
5:30pm Arrival at Manila
