Post-Valentine's Trek to Mount Pinatubo

A great option for a day-long trip from Manila. We decided to go from north passing by Capan and Camp O'Donnell and arranging the guides and Jeep in the local tourist agency in the municipality of Santa Juliana. From there it is around 20 kms off-road going upstream of the O'Donnell River for about 2-2.5 hours until where it is still possible for the car to pass.

Before we started we got a local Filipino breakfast accros the tourist information center in a carenderia. The best part of the trip is actually the way in the Jeep and walking in the river valley, the view of the crater of Volcano Pinatubo is only an add-on. The views are spectacular.

From the parkplace we had to continue walking. Quite short, about 30 minutes, not a steep walk and then amazing view opens up. It was true rewards after half day of getting there.

Some time ago, it was allowed to kayak or swim in the crater, but not anymore. It was quite inviting to dip ourselves to the lake to cool little bit down. 

If the weather condition are unstable, and it could rain the guides get quite nervous, and that happened to our guides too. They started to urge us to start going back, because it might get very dangerous to cross the river passes when the water is too rough.

 They are true professionals, starting with the quality of the cars, and organization, only certified guides are allowed, they all communicate between each other and with the Tourist Information Center, which would update them about conditions via radio. I was at first skeptical about the prices for the guided tour, but after experiencing it I must say it was adequate.

Volcanic ashes took off Anna's shoe sole. Obviously Anna did not care so much. She seemed to be proud of it :)

When we finally got back to the car, there was no rain, so we were lucky. 

During our visit there was a local Fiesta in Santa Juliana, and the owner of the car invited us to eat in his house. Very pleasant experience for us, and besides, since the transportation in the village is not so frequent we even asked to get a ride to the nearest town. His family member returning from fiesta gave us ride. Great place, great people, definitely one of the best places around Manila to visit.