Revisiting Maculot

On March 8, we climbed Mt Maculot. Great to be outdoors, and stretch them stressed out City legs and prepare for a major climb. It was also International Women’s day!

C, G, R and R at the summit of Mt Maculot.

Ha! Who says climbing Maculot is easy? We did–but that was a decade ago. Years after we had all done our first climbs to this mountain, we all decided to do our practice climb here last weekend . The climb was in preparation for a Madjaas climb in Antique during the coming Holy Week break. But back to Maculot–it was not an easy climb . We arrived at around 11 am at the Cuence market. The bridge that would have taken us straight to Cuenca was undergoing a major repair that’s why we got off at the Lipa crossing and then took a 20 peso jeep to Cuenca. At Cuenca market, we decided to have an early lunch. Our lunch-quite expensive for palengke rates–40 for kare-kare and 30 for a small piece of Tambacol fish, left us satisfied enough for our 5 hour climb. Then we proceeded to Mang Manuel’s Mountaineer store which was next to the traditional trail. After Chincha put on her boots and we had drank a bit of water, we set out for a trail we had not seen in years. To our surprise we saw that the trail –even if it was not the best that we could remember because then its topsoil had been eroded –looked and felt good again. It would probably take another of God’s creation moments for the topsoil to come back and make the soil rich once again ( my uneducated guess) but it was good enough for us that day. It took us about an hour and 5o minutes to get to the campsite. And the campsite now had a semi-permanent hut that served halo-halo and which also stocked gin and other alcoholic beverages. We ate halo-halo but I was thinking how I don’t exactly welcome the presence of the store there but then these days, people go to where they can earn a living. So that’s the reality of that hut being there. But I wish the campsite had been left alone. We pushed on using the trail to the summit (R, G, C,Ro and myself) and met a group of guys who were surprised that we were all girls. Huh? This is the 21st century, boys! But they were friendly and nice. We moved on and went past the usual teka-tekas while the amorseco, madjong (in Bisaya, said Chelle), or mangkit and kulutan ( according to G ) clung to some of our daypacks and our trekking clothes. It was about 2 in the afternoon when we reached the summit. We wanted to go down the grotto side so we took a trail that took us down. The trail was wild with tropical flora but manageabale enough for us. Once in a while, we would consult each other on the right trail to take. Mostly we would look to R and C who had been to this trail more times than any of us. We reached a solid wall with a thick blue nylon rope dangling down its side. Now, for a test of our flexibility, agility and our fear of heights! When we all got down the second wall, we took a ten minute break so we could eat and replenish our lost energy. It was almost 4pm. When we got to the grotto area, we saw that the locals had preparations underway. There were huts and tables and chairs for those who would bother to climb up to the grotto to pray during Holy Week. At 5pm, we got down to the paved road. We had traveresed Maculot via the Grotto trail. We saw a lone tricycle waiting for passengers at the corner near the school. The tricycle driver’s name, we learned later on, was Vic Lunar. He was really nice because he brought us to his parents home when we asked him if he knew of a place where we could wash up. His brother was the bgy. captain in Bgy Pinagkaisahan. Mabait pa rin ang mga tao sa probinsya, sabi ni Ro. Oo nga. Kaya nung oras na ng bayaran, and he only asked for ten pesos from each of us, we paid him double for his trouble. He was very happy. We got down and almost missed the right way to the highway where a jeep would bring us to Lipa and the bus terminal. We saw a wooden bridge that was steep enough to make us ache all over again. Sakit ah. But it got us out of Cuenca faster than if we had gone back to the jeeps near the market. Aray, the muscles were clenched and tensed up after our city living! Going up the wooden steps, we saw the group of guys who we had met up at the summit. I would remember that Mang Orly, their leader, had said that climbing up mountains was his “beerhouse”, his only vice. G found it a nice comparison. We laughed and had a noisy banter inside the jeep on our way to Lipa. When we got down at Lipa, they moved off to eat, we presumed, and we climbed up the bus bound for Cubao. It was a nice dayhike, like always.