Day 25 - Mt. Pinatubo, active volcano

On Sunday we left early and headed out to Mount Pinatubo just a couple hours away.  Some people from Baguio up north joined us (TI guy and some friends) and we were ready to hike an active volcano!  When we arrived we were promptly told that everyone who had gone before us that day had booked in advance (it's gotten really popular over the last couple of years due to TV specials and whatnot) and we were put on a wait list, but had an 80% chance of getting to go. That was enough to make us stay and wait it out (awkwardly on someone's front porch, because we're pretty sure the lady who helped us was a "fixer" or someone you hire in the Philippines to wait in line for you, do paperwork, talk to people, and overall get things done...for a price).  We did end up paying a little extra per person in the end of the things, but it was still worth it cuz we just lounged around, and ate bananas until we finally got to get in our 4x4 Jeep. (OK, that's the short story of it all.  We waited for about 4 hours all the while wondering if we really were on a waitlist, and if we were even going to get to go at all. But everything worked out in the end.) 

We hopped in our 4x4 that had no shocks left, but had a driver, a tour guide, and the 5 of us (the tour guide just sat on the back edge the whole time). Note the broken down 4x4 below.  Many of them would overheat, so we passed quite a few that were putting more coolant in (probably just water).

We set off across the lahar (or the riverbeds full of ash from the volcano eruption in 1991--the second largest eruption in the 20th century) called Crow Valley with huge ash deposits that at first we thought were little hills. We bought some face masks from the people whose front porch we waited on after I heard that we would be travelling through the lahar for a long time (an hour I think).  This is my fancy self below.

We wanted to do the 2-3 hour hike up and 20 minute hike down, however by the time we were on our way it was too late for the long hike so we just did the short one, and to be honest I was supremely happy that happened, because just the short hike up was insane (I joined the gym here at the apartment complex for about $20 a month so I can be stronger for all these swimming/hiking adventures, but I am still such a weakling and was the only one breathing way loud and trying to keep up at the end of the line).  Pitiful, but I did it!!  We reached the top, but still had a little to go if we wanted to go down to the Crater Lake and touch the water (no swimming allowed).  

 And of course, the effort and pain were all worth it...

We also enjoyed seeing the local Aeta people who have always lived in the mountains (some even stayed when it erupted because to them Pinatubo is a god).  These boys were in a river about halfway into our journey splashing water into all the Jeeps crossing to cool the engines down.  Each vehicle would tip them in either cash or food.  Now that was a local experience!

Yay, we survived the active volcano!!

Oh and also, I was so proud of myself when after we got back to our cars which had been parked in said family's driveway-ish area, there were 100 peso parking "tickets" on our cars.  The other TI guy from Baguio just paid up, but I and Chris remembered we had already paid for parking to our fixer so I told the lady, "no I already paid" - "Where at?" - "The tourism office." and I pointed at it just up the street. She went and talked to the lady of the house we had seen previously and came back out and gave a thumbs up, "ok".  
Ha!  I just avoided the "white person tax"!!  Go me!  (I didn't feel bad about saying no because we had already bought face masks and halo-halo from them so it wasn't like they didn't get any money out of us...)  And oh gosh, halo-halo!  I'll save that for another post!