Four-wheeling to Pinatubo

It’s… probably… a lot… more… fun… for the… driver…

That’s what I realized about half an hour into the 4x4 jeep journey across rugged, lahar-bleached deserts leading to the GMA Old Trail at the base of Mt. Pinatubo. This was a two-hour trek from Barangay Sta. Juliana in Capas, Tarlac, to the hiking point. And it was bouncy as hell. I’d heard previous trekkers say they’d been serenaded by The Smiths’ music during their two-hour nerve-jangling ride; we weren’t so lucky, though my wife, daughter and I did have a really excellent driver, one who had no difficulty getting us across rocky streams and up ravines that were nearly vertical; in fact, he was so skilled, he hauled three other stranded 4x4s out of the mucky-muck with his handy winch. This guy was my 4x4 hero.

The long and dusty road to Pinatubo

I just wished I could have had a crack at the wheel.

There’s something about off-road driving that focuses your attention and resources. Of course, my only previous personal experience was handling ATVs along the beach of Fort Ilocandia, Ilocos Norte. That and some pretty serious go-karting when I was kid.

But the Pinatubo trek is a blast in other ways. You feel like you’re in Star Wars, and half-expect some Tusken Raiders to show up and start throwing down with Gaderffii sticks. You feel like you’re crossing the desert with Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia. You feel like you’re on another planet, basically.

Lahar is weird. And dusty. We quickly adopted the desert nomad look, each of us cloaked in sunglasses and caps, scarves or bandanas draping our faces.

The journey began early in the morning (4 a.m.): from Metro Manila, we’d agreed to rendezvous at the Lakeshore Petron station along North Luzon Expressway at 5 a.m. After a quick McDonald’s breakfast fix, we joined a caravan of six vehicles to Tarlac. Watching the sun rise in these parts was a new experience for me. My 10-year-old daughter slept on the 1.5-hour journey as my wife DJed the music and I drove.

The only hitch, after the sun was already high and we waited near a field at Barangay Sta. Juliana to proceed, was a group of Zambales protesters blocking the narrow dirt path to the mountain base. The gripe was an ongoing, legitimate one: surrounding Pampanga and Tarlac collect fees and tolls and such, whereas Zambales, where the hiking trails to Pinatubo are actually located, receives nothing. The Aetas were granted a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in 2009, which does award them technical “ownership” of Pinatubo and is nice to frame and put up on the wall, but it doesn’t exactly add any money to the coffers. Maybe they need a good manager.

It took about 90 minutes for the barangay cops to arrive in jeeps, break the stalemate (some greasing was involved, suggested our guide, “Poch” Jorolan) and clear the road; by that time the sun was already starting to blaze.

As mentioned, the 4x4 experience is pretty rugged. The land settles frequently and unpredictably, so there’s barely a path; our driver seemed guided by muscle memory and instinct. The terrain is not unlike that encountered by Charlton Heston and his stranded co-astronauts in the original Planet of the Apes. It’s eerie here, and very still. We stopped to take in the bleached walls surrounding us, poking at it with sticks: it falls apart so easily. Signs warn us not to shout; that could trigger an avalanche. The earth is constantly changing here, yet remains stubbornly the same. It’s the kind of environment that could easily swallow up a few European trekkers in collapsing lahar (as happened a few years ago) without batting an eye. High up we could see large holes, places where Aetas have dug out sticks and tree chunks that were buried in lava flow and have since transformed into charcoal; these are collected, sold and used as an energy source.

Finally we reached the GMA Hiking Trail. Usually, trekkers are encouraged to take the full seven-kilometer hike from lower down in the valley, but the approaching afternoon heat (and a number of children on this kid-friendly hike) persuaded us to simply hike one kilometer up the base — through streams and across rock beds — to Pinatubo Crater Lake.

We’ve seen photos of Pinatubo’s wrath: rising plumes of smoke, locals dashing down the highway to safety; or helicopter views of the lava about to erupt. You wouldn’t recognize Pinatubo today. It’s like it’s gone through anger management counseling. A placid lake at the crater, formed by monsoon rainfall, makes it a gentle oasis. Climb down the plunging stairs to the beach, and locals and foreigners can be found chilling near the beach (the sand is gritty, nothing like Boracay sand); some have set up tents. There once was swimming allowed here, but no longer since a local got cramps after the two-hour hike and drowned in the less-than-buoyant fresh water. You can dip your toes and wade around a bit, though. (Wading in this volcano lake, in fact, was on my wife’s bucket list; she was glad to tick that one off.) If the Aetas could manage to finagle a few pesos from each visitor entering Pinatubo Crater Lake, and put it toward the welfare of the remaining population, it might prevent them from having to sell bananas along the dusty roadside, which seems to be their only other source of income from tourists.

After a painful ascent back up the crater trail — after which my legs stop cooperating completely — we return to our dusty 4x4s and start heading back down the dirt road to Bgy. Sta. Juliana: another 1.5 hours of dusty, jostling bliss. Driving back down, we pass the same Aetas grouped near tiny shanties along the roadside. Though it’s only 2 p.m., there is that peculiar feel of dusk hovering over the lahar zone. It feels like time is frozen here, offering its reckoning at a pace almost too slow and imperceptible for your senses to even recognize it. The Aeta boys and girls wave and smile shyly as we pass by, the old men too, and we wave back, and it feels like encountering someone passing through a dream of the afterlife.

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Our Mt. Pinatubo Trek was offered by Carlos “Poch” Jorolan. Fee is P2,200 per person (pay upon arriving, in cash). Fee includes 4x4 transport, conservation fee, one guide/porter per 4x4, one liter of water, snack bars, Kapampanga lunch from Everybody’s Café served at the crater. Contact 0917-5108961 to reserve.