Zambales gears up for Pinatubo adventure season
BOTOLAN, Zambales — With mostly sunny days and balmy weather this month, Zambales officially opened its Mt. Pinatubo adventure season to entice visitors to discover and experience what is billed here as a “beautiful disaster.”
Mayor Jun Omar Ebdane said the Botolan Tourism Office began bookings on January 13 for package tours to the Mt. Pinatubo crater lake, following a dry run on January 11 and a meeting with tour guides and drivers about safety protocols on January 6.
“This is a must-see attraction for everyone, especially within the context of history because the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 impacted not just the environment and economy of surrounding provinces, but also global weather,” Ebdane said.
“But what has been catastrophic is now serene; what has been disastrous is now beautiful, so we invite everyone to come and see it,” he added.
The Mt. Pinatubo adventure tour is an annual promotional project of the Botolan LGU that runs from January to May, said Gennessy Villar, who heads the Botolan Tourism Office.
The P1,950 tour package includes the 4x4 vehicle transportation, tour guide, environmental fee, and access to creek swimming area, swimming pool, and shower room at Camp Kainomayan, the jump-off point.
The tour takes off at 6 a.m. from Kainomayan near the Bucao River, with 4x4 vehicles taking visitors across lahar-silted rivers, and sand dunes and hillocks formed years ago by cascading volcanic debris. Drivers stop at certain spots to allow visitors to take their pictures amid a surreal landscape of hardened volcanic ejecta.
After a two-hour (somewhat bumpy) ride, the three-kilometer trek to the volcano crater starts. Trekkers reach the summit at about 9 a.m.
Villar said that over the years, as 4x4 trucks pushed closer to the crater, trekking time became shorter from almost three hours when the Botolan route was first established to just 45 minutes at present.
The ascent, she added, is fairly manageable, as the trek is open to visitors aged 7 years up to 65 years old.
“At the summit, trekkers would enjoy the majestic view of the crater lake, get down to the lakeshore and take photos, rest, and have their lunch (packed food is allowed to the site). Then the return trek to the parking area starts at 1 p.m., the ride back to camp at 2 p.m., and touchdown at Camp Kainomayan at 4 p.m.,” Villar said.
She added that while no food is sold at the summit area, trekkers could buy some from enterprising Ayta residents who have set up food booths a few kilometers up the ascent and sold hotdog sandwiches, buko juice, coffee and other snacks.
Mt. Pinatubo erupted violently on June 15, 1991, marking the second-largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century and blanketing the nearby provinces of Zambales, Pampanga, Tarlac and Bataan with ash and other pyroclastic debris.
Now a major tourism attraction, Pinatubo receives more than 500 visitors in a week during the five-month adventure tour season.
