#ISSAGOesplaces: Mt: BatuLOVE!

Last July 30-31, I accomplished 3 things:

1. Camped by the mountains

2. Hiked with my lovely mama

3. Camped and hiked in the midst of a storm

Yay to Mt. Batulao! (Please don't mind Batulove... I tried...)

It all started when we met up in Cubao at wish. I only fell asleep for an hour during the ride there. Once we arrived, we started the trek. It was really muddy and my shoes were so sad at the end of the first peak, and I swore that it was time for those shoes to retire, having been through hikes, gym sessions, and a lot of walking when out and dragging people around malls and such.

I had a bunch of salted pretzels and cookies to keep my blood pressure up and my energy spiked (Though I really didn't need the energy spike. I'm very makulit when it comes to climbing, the reason why mama won't allow me to climb under certain circumstances). I basically polished off all the pretzels and Tim Tams and Quaker Oats cookies in one go, and that made my mom even more pissed (Yes I am an eating machine sorry not sorry). 

After trekking and rappelling to the different peaks and being one of the last in the group because of my mom stopping me in case I fall and die (You do now know how many times I had to hear my mom yell out my name while I moved forward!), we finally made it to the campsite.

All before this, mind you, my mother was VERY unprepared for it, not knowing what to bring. So we bought almost all the food there, living off sardines and tuna and chips. Thank gosh there was a store there that sold coffee and all that jazz, or I really would've killed my mom before I died of starvation (after polishing off all the 24 Oreos I forgot I packed in my bag…). 

After eating and setting up camp, we slept til late afternoon, where we just enjoyed the breeze and talked about life and the meaning of it. Char, we talked about boys and gossiped about a lot of people. But seriously, there's something about the mountains I started to love. I slowly start to realize a lot of things about my life and others as well. Might be the air or the environment, but it's way better to be up by the peak than down in my room over thinking.

Dinner was hosted by the organizers, praise them! Super delicious, but bitin. SIsig, tinola, chicken adobo… Huhu would like to praise whoever cooked the sisig. We also had socials and s'mores, but I ended up sleeping at about midnight.

And then the challenge began.

I woke up at around 3AM to really strong winds and rain, but ended up sleeping peacefully again. I woke up at 6AM to my mom cleaning everything since it was all wet and it was flooding inside the tent. Again, my mom was unprepared and we ended up using old towels and clothes as an attempt to get all the water out. It was pretty fun but freaky at the same time, especially because we may have been stranded there if the weather didn't let up.

We ended up packing up at around 8AM, having breakfast at 9ish. It was still raining VERY hard, and going down was certainly a challenge, slipping from rocks or dealing with mud and flowing waters. And yes, my shoes fell victim. Needless to say, they'll be retiring for a while and will be using a better pair of shoes next time, those actually for hiking. That, and I'll be shopping for a new pair of running shoes for my workouts soon! Luckily, I was wearing a jacket and pants over my top and leggings which basically had me look like a huge silver panda while going down, haha.

Anyway, once we got down, we had to wait for a long time until we took a bus going home. At that point, I was freezing from the rain despite wearing a jacket. What's worse is that I was freezing my butt off even more in the bus going home. LBP has gotten hold and was left without proper sleep or food (Unless you can call chips otw home as food... Blergh) to spike up my blood levels. Once I got home, I took a bath with the heater as hot as I can make it, and crashed since I had to get up at 7ish for an appointment and to catch up with my articles (If anyone saw me scrambling for signal, it was to check up on contractors and my assignments for class).

Anyway, that was a lil bit of the experience I had in Mt Batulao! What I love is the fact that I made new friends and got to do the ultimate camping experience. Though we couldn't see even one star, the rain was really, REALLY lovely. The only thing I hated was the fact that I should've gotten more jackets. Lol. To the next climbs! :p