Tongue ng Maculot

October 14, 2012

Cuenca, Batangas

Maculot had always been a part of a mountaineer’s life. With merely P350 budget excluding food, this mountain is a box office hit for many hikers. And with the perfect cliff views and easy trail, they say Maculot is the top most option of one’s first mountain.

True enough that almost half of our group had Maculot as their first mountain. As for me, this is one of the most enjoyable climbs because of the jolly good crowd.

Thanks to Ron for this picture of the whole gang.

Since the mountain is a bit famous for hikers as I’ve said, going there is a breeze. The buses to Lemery will know where to drop off climbers in Cuenca Batangas, some 2hrs away from Manila (bus fare – P140). From downtown Cuenca, tricycles are used to sending hikers off to the registration area for the P10 brgy fee, and then up to the Grotto or Rockies jump-off (tricycle fare – P20).

Given that most of us are new, we ascended a bit slower. It took us more than 2hrs under the sun to get to the camp site. Then we had lunch and socials. No plans in pursuing summit since our senior hiker Ron, hates mountains with stairs.

Right after noon, we headed to the rockies. The cliff views are dreadful especially for people like me with effin problems with heights. Although with slow pace and guidance from Ron, all of us made our way through down the knee trembling DilangMaculot, the lowest end of the cliff one can be.  The view, I would say, is spectacular.

Heights is a personal problem for me. I’d really love to go back to Maculot and see if the cliffs do have the same effect on me the first time I saw them. I really would want to get rid of that fear and I’d love Maculot to be my measure.

Another reason why I’ll be back in Maculot, well aside from the summit, is the Sitio Lumampao. An area a couple of kilometers down the jump-off where one can dip into the Lake. We failed to side trip on this one since photo ops ate all our time in the Rockies. A personal achievement of mine though is the shortest descent in my history – 30minutes. I think I can do better next time though.

We finished off the day with a well-earned bulalo in Lipa before heading back home to Manila.

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