KISH...: MT. PULAG: Where Sun Dancin' Climbers Meet

I know, know Lex will be ecstatic that I'll be sending out to him Mt. Pulag blog entry (geessshhhh). I think this climb is the most grand of all my climbs in 2011 not because I've got broke for like 2 months?! (LIAR!!;but true eh) due to not eating (traumatic dieting), jogging (actually jogging from my work place going to my place to cover my transport expenses), lack of sleep (super not dreaming; let me correct day- dreaming of the place) & spending 1peso per 3 mins. in the automated internet cafe down by the dusty road near our district chapel--just to update myself and my TRAVEL-INSPIRATION thingy of PULAG but, because I'm super fascinated by the landscape and how a mountain so high could look like daisy fields (though w/o daisy). Yeah, I know I'm getting pathetic with the description and stuff but it sure is what enthralled me to go and set my Columbia white trekking shoes in its verdes (darn saying the brand won't help my blog; LIKE WHATEVER DUDE).

Before I go to the mind blowing expedition we had on our PULAG destination, I'll give you tid-bits of the mountain (am not being Kuya Kim here; but will try to sound like him though in English version). Relax, I won't be giving you scientific names, oh well statistics maybe??? (nah; stop the BULL). Aw righty, here you go, the said landscape edifice is the 3rd highest mountain in the Philippines (waaaahhh; geee never thought I could climb in the 3rd highest mountain in Phil. (coz am lame);devil smile; remembering PULA trail; back to reality). It's 2,922 meters above sea level in which its the border of Benguet, Ifugao & Nueva Vizcaya. Hence, its located on a high latitude, the weather is mostly temperate with rains and though basically the mountain doesn't have any big trees or say rainforest, there are different species living in the vicinity. Philippine Deer, Rats of different kinds but with cloud thingy on their names (duh???its in the highlands should have a bad a** name for rats) and so much more. There are lots of ethnic people in Benguet and so as our guide going to the said place. He said that there are different tribes and they have as well different dialects (good thing he can understand our Cebuano Tagalog (hehehehe)). Tourism in Pulag is a bit boosting hence its not only our local climbers who are amazed to see and experience the playgrounds of the Gods but as well as the foreigners. Though our guide told us that if one plans to climb Pulag, he/she or the group should follow the cited rules by DENR hence its an established place and they are preserving it, plus one could get lost even in the treeless mountain (scarrryyy!!! but wait how could you get lost? maybe fell down the mountain and just declared lost by your groupmates;tired of looking for the missing person perhaps;bad).

Anyway, we did chose the Pulag/Ambangeg trail. I won't be posting our itinerary coz itineraries tend to be violated all the time (that's what true blood travelers are for) hence you may see Pinoy Mountaineer's site for another nerve racking tid-bits of their ideal journey to the place (very informative actually ;)). We had different flights, Ken2x and I were in the early Sept. 15 flight (leave for work; for like 1 week) while the earliest, I would say is Neru (the young chef cook;why are mountaineering brats are so good @ cooking) & Nagel (cutesy; always smiling). We met in the airport and proceed to go to Victory Liner for the 5-6 hours ride to Baguio (could we just board a plane??). The price was like 500+php because they are actually rerouting due to the landslide-ish thing going on (watch news) so our plan was to sleep inside the bus. There were I think a lot of bus stops (not really sure coz its either am in the middle of sleeping and waking up from time to time because the rain was pouring like non-stop). By the time were a bit near in Baguio the sky cleared up and behold, I can see houses in the mountain and I'm getting the feeling of fresh pine scent. When we first step out of the bus, there's someone whom Nagel knew and was really friendly to tour us in Baguio and give us shelter for the meantime. By the way there house passes through an old abandoned building which is sooo creeppy to look at. They live in Legarda St. that was what I've remembered. We freshen up and we went out and had tasted the cuisine of Baguio pips and indeed for 50php you'll have 2 set of viand (on your choice) and a good amount of rice (not bad; super yum). Went to SM Baguio got hell lot of photos starting there (see below). And oh yeah, while waiting for Lex's group (Ayanz, Te Joy, Eduy, Noel, Jufe, Warner, Christian & Mentoy), we where looking for animal hats (crazy thing going extinct; can't find them cheap :()

Lo, and behold, when the Lex the great is with you, you'll definitely have a great ride of your life. We have almost toured the whole Benguet province (a bit). We've been to Opdas where hard core human skulls were buried in a cave but please do take note that the cave is just near residential houses (Ripley's believe it or not, you should believe it;SCARY) and we also had visited the dam where the lengthy Agno river is situated plus the mystical (sorry for being a storyteller here my adjective just got off the hooks) Bulalacao lake, where it is situated on top of the mountain or should I say its in between the mountain thing (I'm having a hard time thinking how the water got there). The old folks said that there had been a comet who had landed in the very place ages ago hence explains the whole water thing in the mountain but still it would be cool to witness the comet going on that very place (nah). Speaking of ride, our very cool mode of transportation going to the high mountains, steep mountains to be exact is a wicked jeepney with graffiti of eagle and horse soaring on its body plus Manong driver was very good in avoiding falling rocks (just kidding), what I mean was his good on driving and knowing the places as well (duh??? Manong driver lives in Baguio) Anyways, so much for my chitchat, feast on the photos below.