Hot and healing

For most Filipinos, Mt. Pinatubo is synonymous to death and destruction, a lahar-spouting monster that wreaked havoc on countless of lives when it erupted unexpectedly more than a decade ago. Little did they know that the same volcano could also be a source of health and healing.

If you think a trek to Mt. Pinatubo means muscle cramps and aching joints, think again. For a lot of Korean tourists, a trek also translates into relaxing dips in hot pools, hot sand spa or relaxing massages. The best thing about this? One can have this under the shadow of Mt. Pinatubo. No, not out in the lahar wilderness, but in an honest-to-goodness spa resort setting.

Established November last year by the Pinatubo Development Corporation, with the cooperation of the municipality of Capas, Tarlac, the Clark Development Corporation and the Department of Tourism, the Mt. Pinatubo Wellness Spa is an idea whose time has come. A brainchild of Philippines-Korea Travel Agency Association members Patton Kim of Hana Tours and Chris Park of the Philippines Number One Travel and Tours, the spa complex was put up at Sta. Juliana, Capas, Tarlac, about two-and-a-half hours ride away from Manila. Apart from the great tourism potential, the project is also aimed at providing livelihood to the communities in the area by hiring residents for the spa resort’s operations. Thus, the one-hectare spa has around 80 all-Filipino staff manning the fort.

As far as the spa owners are concerned, trekking up the volcano’s crater is just half of the story. Having bodily aches and pains taken away by a relaxing spa treatment completes the entire experience.

At a formal launch recently, members of the media were given a taste of what the whole idea was all about. Except for a cancelled two-hour trek to Pinatubo’s crater due to rains days before, the planned trip to the sulfur springs and Lake Tambo pushed through. After a hefty breakfast at the spa’s spacious open-air restaurant, the visitors were asked to board 4x4 vehicles. These hardy units, which reminds one of those old Mad Max movies, can navigate very rough, highly uneven terrain such as lahar-infested locales. The heat was already bearing down quite harshly when the 14 or so 4x4’s made their way across a desert-like plain, formerly known as the Crow Valley Target Range used by American soldiers when the US Bases were still here. Crow Valley, according to Capas Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan, was the biggest target range in Asia then.

The vehicles navigated at least 10 kilometers of lahar land, which took about 45 minutes or so. It’s a dusty ride so be ready to be covered in white ash at the end of the trip. What looked like steam or smoke rising from the ground was just lahar ash being shaken up by a passing 4x4 vehicle. Never mind the heat; the beautifully surreal panorama is worth it.

Now, where does all this lead to? A series of hot springs at the foot of Mt. Pinatubo which the PDC has developed for tourists who are after the healing properties of sulfur. It is widely believed that sulfur helps in treating various ailments including skin diseases, asthma, neuralgia, arteriosclerosis, rheumatism, as well as shoulder, neck and wrist pains and also has a detoxifying and mucolytic effect, among others. Thus, a dip into one of several hot springs in the area is a must as far as health buffs are concerned. According to DOT regional director Ronaldo Tiotuico, the water at the hot springs was tested by the Department of Science and Technology and was found to have a high alkaline level — about 7.5 ph level — which can only be beneficial.

Those who are not too keen on dipping their feet or their whole bodies in the hot, sulfur-smelling and yellowish pool may choose to just boil some eggs in a separate pool, and happily while the time away eating the goodies. The springs are surrounded by seemingly snow-capped hills and rock walls. In the distance, the dark, faint outline of Pinatubo peeks out from behind the hills. For someone with a strong imagination, it even looked like Mordor from a distance, except that there’s no roving red eye here, nor hobbits and Gollum-like creatures scaling the rocky heights. Thank God.

A bonus to the trip is a sidetrip to Lake Tambo which, according to residents, was formed only after the Pinatubo’s eruption. Tambo is teeming with fish and shellfish and a typical day would have local fisherfolks half-submerged in its blue-green waters, holding unusually long bamboo poles patiently waiting for their catch of the day. PDA officials are looking at Tambo’s potential as a water sports leisure spot but it’s still under the planning stage.

The short tour of Pinatubo environs over and done with, everyone was just about ready to experience the wellness spa. Everyone eagerly changed into shirts and shorts and trooped to where the hot volcanic sand spa was being given. With black banners printed with Korean characters fluttering in the wind, the structure literally has no walls, no ceiling, no floor. Well, the floor here is covered with sand from Pinatubo, heated from underground by charcoal (the spa consumes 30 sacks of coal a day just to maintain the sand at an even 90-degrees Fahrenheit temperature). With this kind of heat, one definitely doesn’t need to build a wall and the roof is just there as a protection from the elements.

This process may not be for everybody, especially those with heart ailments or are suffering from claustrophobia. You are asked to lie down on the hot sand, then have your face covered with a towel. A couple of attendants then shovel sand on your body until you’re fully covered from the neck down. In other words, you’re literally buried under hot sand. It can get a bit scary the first few minutes as you’d feel the heavy weight of the sand bearing down on your body. It actually feels like cement hardening on the body and, with the heat coming from the sand, could easily launch a person into panic mode. But if one just breathes deeply and lets go, this is guaranteed to be one of the best dry sauna one could ever have. After only a minute under the sand, you’ll start sweating like crazy. Attendants are watching closely by and are only too willing to wipe the sweat off your face regularly. After merely 20 minutes, all those muscle pain and lamig will melt away, leaving you in a highly relaxed state.

After showering off the sand from your clothes, you can take a dip in the heated pool nearby for another 20 minutes. According to DPC officials, the pool also has sulfur content which is sourced from Pinatubo so for those who never got to dip in the natural hot springs they may also get the same benefit in the spa’s pools.

You may also choose to have a foot spa and massage or go straight to the shower rooms to change and prepare for the one-hour whole body massage. Located right smack at the center of the complex, the open-air massage center can accommodate around 40 people at any given time. Mats are provided and guests are asked to lie down on their stomachs first for the soothing shiatsu massage before you turn over for a short belly massage session.

According to Jun Villela who is managing the spa operations, the therapists are local residents professionally trained in massage therapy. Personally, we think the masseuses are quite good and are able to shift from soft to hard massage depending on the need of the guests. As an added treat, the pampered guests can look forward to a refreshing facial mud pack, again consisting of natural ingredients from Pinatubo. By the time the treatment ends and you are given ice cold green tea, you’ll have forgotten that you just came from either a back-breaking, leg-cramping trek up the summit and back or a wild ride in lahar land under the punishing heat of the sun. All those seemed like a dream and the pampering, the reality. Villela says all spa treatments costs P500 each, except for the foot spa which costs P250. Buffet lunch also costs P250. Walk-ins are accepted but for bigger groups, it’s best to make reservations. At the moment, the bulk of the visitors come from abroad, the tour packages of which are arranged by their respective travel agencies.

According to DOT Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, who personally tried the spa treatments, the opening of the spa is very timely as the Philippines is "now being recognized as a premium destination for wellness tourism. The Philippines as a potential wellness destination made its presence felt last March at the International Tourismus Borse in Berlin, Germany and in the International Spa Conference in Singapore this month. In these conferences, the country focused on its thriving spa industry and also introduced to the world the Filipino Spa brand featuring the locally known hilot and dagdagay or foot massage.

"What used to be a wasteland is today a place of vibrant economy because of these kinds of endeavors. For every tourist that visits a place, one job is created. Since it opened, 600 foreign tourists have already visited the Pinatubo Spa and it is expected that this number would grow to 2,500 per month soon. One tourist spends an average of $90 a day and when you multiply that to 2,500, you can just imagine the impact it’s going to create in the local economy," Durano says. He adds that with the spa resort, being located within the Philippine Air Force reservation, is paying a lease to the Clark Air Force Base. Hopefully, he says, this will help in its own small way in the modernization of the Philippine Air Force.

The spa resort doesn’t offer overnight accommodations but, Tiotuico says, the municipality offers homestay programs in Sta. Juliana. For P250 a night per person, one can stay with a host family and have free breakfast. But more than that, a guest would be able to immerse himself in the local culture. If not, one can also stay at a nearby Eco-Lodge after registering at the visitor’s center. As for apprehensions that lahar still poses a danger to the community, Tiotuico assures that Sta. Juliana is out of harm’s way.

Future plans involve the installation of cable cars going to the summit, overnight accommodation, swimming pools, children’s playground, carabao-carriage trekking, horseback riding up to the volcano’s summit, hot air balloon, to name some. If plans don’t miscarry – and as long as these facilities remain eco-friendly – we’d be seeing a thriving community with holistic wellness as its main reason for being. After all, the community and its residents have taken enough beating in the past and it’s about time they get their lives back. PDC president Patton Kim echoes the same sentiments when he said that "if only all sectors of society will unite, anything is possible. Together, we want to celebrate the courage, spirit and dignity of the people, and in our small way, we’d like to contribute to the rebuilding of this community and nearby areas."

It used to be that tourists troop to Capas to commemorate the infamous Death March during World War II. And for a time, after the Pinatubo eruption, they went there to witness the wretched devastation. Now, people are trekking to the place to celebrate their well-being. Clearly, the healing process has begun.

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For inquiries, call the Pinatubo Development Corporation at 0927-4013273, 0928-3410402, or the Department of Tourism’s Office of Tourism Information at 523-8411 to 20, or e-mail at webmaster@tourism.gov.ph.