Nonetheless we have successfully hiked again and reached the summit of Mt. Sembrano located in Pililia, Rizal.
Although Nina and Letlet weren't present, we were blessed enough to be accompanied by four people who have made the hike worthwhile and most importantly, safe.
Of my El Hombre buddies, Maan was the only one up for the challenge. Nina claimed that she was, except that she had an "interview" that very same day. Letlet refused to be coerced into coming, asserting that she can't in retrospect to her fainting and barfing on our hike to Mt. Tagapo.
Maan and I hiked with Keneth, a high school classmate and his friend Keen who despite having a torn ACL bravely served as our guide. According to him, it's his fourth climb to Mt. Tagapo. The two others were Marvin, a friend of Keen who intimidated us with his Vibram shoes. He said it's ideal for hiking because the grip on the ground is much more firm, as if one is barefoot. His friend was Yayi, who has hiked seven times already this year. She's a nice Bicolana who works as an accountant but claims she's not good with handling her own money.
From our village, we took a jeep headed to Tanay Market costing Php38. Upon reaching the market Keneth had breakfast at the local karenderia, Marvin and Yayi bought bread at a bakery. Keneth and Keen were heavy smokers so I always saw them smoking.
We then rode a jeep headed to Pililia Rizal and had ourselves dropped off at the Malaya Barangay Hall. We then registered our names and contact numbers and paid Php20 each. We set off for our hike at 6:45am. Getting to Mt. Sembrano were houses and a concrete road that was steep. I had to catch my breath and about 3 minutes into walking I joked that it was time for us to go down and go home.
There was a point in our hike where there were locals riding a horse with baskets attached to the sides. We paused and positioned ourselves on the sides first. Maan miscalculated her position and was still hit by the basket attached to one horse. Good thing she held on to Keneth and me for support. She told me later on that she got bruised.
I don't know what maneuver I did but for some reason, the buckle to one strap of my backpack got broken. Unluckily, it was the point where we had to go down from a plain part of the mountain, where fresh bukos are available for Php10, to a narrow pathway to have lunch near a mini-waterfall. I was able to balance the backpack successfully on one shoulder, credits to Yoga tree pose I've been doing. :))
Reaching the mini-falls, we settled at a dry spot of boulders to where I shared my famous-baon-for-hikes-tuna-sandwich to my newfound hike buds. After eating, ingeniously fixing my backpack, getting to know each other more and resting, we decided to continue to head to the peak but not before I grabbed on to a rock which had a hairy caterpillar planted unto it. It stung and I took off the little hairs that clung to my right ring finger and paddled my right hand unto the streaming water. As they say in Filipino, Malayo iyan sa bituka.
One weird thing that happened to us was finding an unopened bottle of rum about 10 minutes before reaching the peak. It was just lying there by the grass and we left it exactly where we saw it.
All exhaustion we felt was momentarily forgotten upon reaching the peak and in savoring the view of Laguna de Bay surrounding Mt. Sembrano.
