Time flies by, and here we go again hiking in Mt. Tagapo! My last post about Hiking with the same mountain was last January 2022: An Adventurous Yet Fun Experience In Mt. Tagapo Philippines which actually happened on May 2021.
It was a fun story where we went in the wrong direction and spent hiking for roughly 4 hours instead of 1-2 hours. But at least we made it!
It is fun to share out the story with other people across the internet and today, here is another story and experience with the same place but different people.
This was a plan by my new classmates from college so I am excited to be with them since this is their first time going to Talim Island — as far as I know.
I woke up earlier than usual (5:30 am) and prepared myself to go to the other barangay where one of my classmates lives. It was a long and tiring walk because I did not choose to ride on a tricycle because I have to pay a much more expensive transportation fee if I do it.
After 30-45 minutes of waiting for my classmates, we finally met each other. Some of them were their first time riding in a boat and going to our place so they were thrilled and felt excited about the trip.
We went back to our classmate's house to prepare the things that we need to bring especially the food. I thought we can go to Mt. Tagapo immediately once they arrived, yet we spent more hours for preparation.
I cooked a Sisig Tofu for our ulam on the peak of Mt. Tagapo while some were busy with their phones. My classmate also cooked Adobo which we are going to eat for lunch.
The original plan was to hike in the morning but since they are a bit late and we have to prepare a lot of things, we decided to start at 3:00 PM.
We arrived at the foot of Mt. Tagapo at 4:00 PM, I told my classmates that I already went to the peak of this mountain but I am not that familiar with the path. Despite this statement, we still continued. I even told them, "Handa na ba kayong maligaw?" Translate: Are you ready to take the wrong path?
It was a joke. But I guess fate is playful. We saw two ways: the left and right path. The left path looks normal and a good path while the right path looks like a cliff but just a low cliff. The path is also narrowed. By judging the two paths, we decided to take the left path.
The left path has a high steep so it was hard for us to walk. Time goes by and we are still not reaching the peak. I was a bit nervous. I have a friend on the peak already and I was hoping to meet them while we are walking but it was already an hour but no sign of them.
I saw the rounded branches of bamboo just like on my past blog, thinking we were taking the right path, but we were wrong. We saw a middle-aged man carrying bags of coal and bottles, he has three dogs with him.
Note: Bold texts are the statement of the middle-aged man.
Are you going to Mt. Tagapo?
Yes.
Why are you taking the wrong direction?
It was our first conversation.
You are the 7th group who went in the wrong direction.
Ohh. How about the other groups? Did they go back?
Why are you going back? You are already near the peak.
He mentioned a direction to us. We followed him. But we already take every direction that we can but we always end up at a dead end.
It was already 6:00 PM and everything is getting dark so we already sit in the middle of the bamboo thinking about our next plan.
All of us are nervous about our current situation. I am also disappointed in myself because I want to give my classmates a good experience in our place and in Mt. Tagapo but I failed.
We decided to send a message to our friends and contact a person who knows the direction, and also the one who is capable of finding us. We are not missing actually, we just took the wrong path but we can go back to the start.
Finally, our classmate's uncle is a tour guide so they know this mountain a lot. I thought we won't need a tour guide because having a tour guide is kind of expensive for us.
It was over an hour of finding but no sign of the people who are finding us (they are two). So, we decided to cook the fish and hotdogs on fire so we can finally eat.
The clock is ticking and it was almost 9:00 PM, no sign of them. We are talking through a phone call and they said we should go back. It is hard for us to go down because of the steepness of the mountain. But it was the only way.
And finally, we met at 10:00 PM and took the right path at 10:10 PM. Yes, we decided to go to the peak despite our exhaustion.
Sadly, the two of us decided not to go anymore because they are already tired. We reached the peak at 11:40 PM. It was almost midnight and very exhausting, we actually spent 8 hours going into this peak which should be 1-2 hours only.
I was a bit guilty and disappointed because my classmates who are expecting to have a good nature trip, but said they will not do it again.
Anyway, it was funny that the tour guides said that the middle-aged man that we saw might be a tikbalang (a mythical creature from the Philippines). But I do not believe in their words because we just really took the wrong path. It was our mistake. LOL.
Our plan was to have a bonfire on the peak, cook food, and drink, but we end up selling the alcohol to random people there because our bodies cannot take it anymore. We just decided to have a conversation about horror and creepy stories that we experienced until we fell asleep in the tent.
In the morning, we went to the peak and wait for the sunrise. We also took a lot of photos of the memories that we had. Sadly, Mt. Tagapo doesn't look good at that time, there was a lot of trash and burned grasses that makes it looks bad.
It is because of many people who already went there during the holy week. It is one of the traditions of the people who live in this place, to go to Mt. Tagapo every Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
We went down the mountain with an adventurous, fun, and creepy experience with Mt. Tagapo. I hope they enjoyed it even a little bit of it.
This happened on 8th of April 2023.
About the author
Mark Laurence, also known as Laurenceuuu and anonymous02 is a student who is currently taking a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He is expanding his knowledge and skills by blogging where he mostly writes about digital marketing, productivity, and making money online.
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