Outside my four walls (At Mt. Mariveles/Tarak ridge)

“What is a personal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend.”

- The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

I didn’t ask permission when I went to this climb. Oops! I know what you’re thinking, what I meant was, I didn’t ask permission but I informed them where I would be going.  I had a hard time convincing them that I’ll be alright. I didn’t know what kind of assurance I would give to persuade them that I could take care of myself. I just wanted to have a time to reflect on things and stabilized my thoughts so I could think more efficiently the succeeding days (Nababaliw na ata ako mwahaha). No one knew that I was already packing my things one week ahead of time; I was neither really prepared nor excited, as what you think. I was still trying how to pack lighter than my first climb but I failed to do so. But unlike before, I already had my new backpack, which was more comfortable. I had a hydration pack, which I would need the most since I feared dehydration, and talked about acute renal failure which I think is still far to happen. I brought my knitted cardigan than my previous batch jacket because it was lighter though, I didn’t know how windy and cold would be at the tarak ridge as what I read.  I never thought that I would be doing this again, I’m still looking for reasons and I’m eager to discover that there must be something out there. Sometimes I do things without asking for reasons, maybe it is called instincts. Dami ko sinabi, pero nangangati lang talaga ang paa ko, yun lang... And then, I went out and told them that I would return soon (Ako ay magbabalik mula sa nawalang sarili).

Friday night, at 7:30pm, I met Arisse at Pasay rotonda, and we decided to ride a van going to Cavite. While on the line at the terminal, rain started to pour in. I was hoping that the rain would not continue until the following day because I hate walking in a muddy and slippery trail. We arrived at our destination, met sir Jim with our newbie, Jenny (This will be her first climb with us) and slept at his house. We had a hard time to sleep because of the neighbor’s party happening at the front of the house from dusk ‘till dawn. That time, I wanted to shout and tell them, “magpattttuuullllooooogggg kayo!!!”  I only slept for an hour and woke up at 4am, took a bath, fixed my things, then rode sir Jim’s pick-up and met another two friends, sir takumi and sir JR.

During the ride, I felt my mind was floating, my head was empty, my brain was filled with air, descriptions as such. I still couldn’t sleep during the ride, even if I wanted too, maybe because I was being amused by the view outside. We travel on a lengthy bridge for about 30 minutes, saw the road sign going to Mt. Samat, and also, to Mt. Natib (reminiscing my first climb). We also saw a statue of guerillas with rifles and bombs. A friend noticed while looking at the statue, “Kaya pala tayo nasakop ng mga hapon noon, baluktot yung rifle nung isang guerrilla oh?!.”   While on the road trip going to Brgy. Alas-asin, we saw a school named, “Alangan elementary school.” Out of this world name but it really exists.

Friend 1: “Makakagraduate kaya ako kung diyan ako mag-aaral?”

Friend 2: “Alangan! “Kaso mukhang alanganin kung mag-aaral ka diyan” “meron pa nga

              akong nakita, ang pangalan nung school, Inuman elementary school.”

Travelling in the province is a long journey, free from hassles such as traffics, stoplights, and intersections. We met another four new friends (sir Jojo with his friends, sir Topher, mam Feresa, and mam Ruby) at Brgy. Alas-asin, and travelled by vehicle from the jump-off up to the DENR site where we were welcomed by an old couple.  Our trek started at the site after signing our names.

It was a fair weather, me and my sisteret were undeniably lucky charms. Some trails were already damaged by the previous landslides but it became more challenging to me in performing some of my wall climbing skills (kung meron man), did hopping on falled trees, and hugging huge rocks. I also met some creatures I barely seen or even not at all in the city, such as different variety of butterflies, earthworms, centipedes, a cloud rat and an almost 12 inches long, yellow orange-colored, hammerhead worm. I was thankful that no limatiks ruined my day. Though it was my first time to climb the tarak ridge, I was more confident to walk on the trail, but still, my thought about the succeeding trails was daunting.

Around 1:30 p.m, we arrived and had a stopover at the papaya river. I still don’t know why it is called as such, though I hadn’t seen any papaya tree around the river nor it was shaped like a papaya. But what I observed was the river was surrounded with rocks, and even underneath the water was filled with rocks, which resembles the countless seeds inside the papaya (okey, gawa-gawa ko lang yan, sa tingin ko lang naman). 

We took our lunch, had some rest for about two hours, and watched some topless virile bodies bathing at the river. What a nice view! Our newbie’s shoes were also fixed by thesapatero boys (sir Takumi with sir JR), who were zealous in applying their BMC kills. Because when she arrived at the site, her shoes were literally smiling. I think her new shoes, though speechless, were overflowing with joy for his first climb.   

At 3:30 p.m, we continued our trek from the papaya river up to the campsite of tarak ridge. The struggle going up already started, elevation was continuous from 45 to 80 degrees, while continuously telling myself, “Diyos ko! Wala na bang patag?!” But what amazed me during the ascent was the trail was naturally made like a stairway. I love ascents than going down, because I could hold the big roots, rocks and grasses when going up. It was like the trees were lending their roots and helping you going up, unlike when you’re pushing by the gravity when going down. I was the third to the last one that arrived at the campsite around 6pm. 

Night began to fall, when I already felt the plane surface of the ridge, so I experienced about a 10-minute night trek up to the campsite.  The surroundings were complete darkness. All I could see were lights from their headlamps. We ate our dinner together with ripe mangoes topped with bagoong as our appetizer, then we had our socials without the pampainit(alcohol), kaya tubig na lang ang  tinungga namin. It ended when the cold wind started to disturb us, which was measured at 17-18 degree Celsius, and further went down.

I was hesitant to pee that night when they talked about cloud rats running around the campsite, but though it was an open field, I walked just a few meters away and turned off my handed light. I needed to empty my bladder or else I would have a hard time to sleep holding it. But I still couldn’t sleep immediately. I didn’t know if I would blame it to the freezing cold or it was because of the wind that was whipping our tent. I feared to be hypothermic that time. I told myself that if my mouth began to stutter and my throat became contracted, “tapos kaming lahat dito.” But I observed that my body was warm so maybe it was just the wind that was disturbing me. The pole of our tent began to bend that we needed to hold it, and moved our bodies on the side to let the tent stand the whole night, but I just got tired. What else could i do with the wind? Nothing but to sleep, and stop bothering myself.

I woke up at 5 am, when I heard voices from the outside. The wind was still blowing hard, but I wanted to go out to see the sunrise. I was like singing, “I don’t wanna miss a thing..” I popped out my head from the tent and looked around. It was only windy, and it was warmth already. I went out and woah! I was overwhelmed. The sunrise with the 270-degree view of bataan surprised me that morning. I felt that I was being pleased by mother nature.

I could see myself standing taller than the buildings in metro manila, and I felt that I could still go higher than this. So, we had our breakfast, then, we started to go up from the tarak ridge up to the el saco peak at around 8 am.

 It started with a steep, grassy, trail, then going through some bushes of plants, walking on bended knees, and sliding our butts down, woooh! Kulang na lang siguro mag-egg roll hay…  Reaching the peak was about two hours at an ample pace. We were welcomed by a huge rock, and had some group pics.