Crater Lake at Mt. Pinatubo

I learned about Mt. Pinatubo soon after coming to the Philippines; however I couldn’t figure out how to get there easily. Mt. Pinatubo is one of the many active volcanoes in the Philippines that last erupted in a climatic eruption on June 15th 1991. The resulting eruption was the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th Century and resulted in the ejection of 10 cubic Km of magma. The eruption resulted in the formation of an enormous crater that soon filled with rain water forming a large crater lake. The lake has brilliant blue waters and is one of the tourist attractions of the region.
After much hunting online, we narrowed down on a travel group called Tripinas that did public group tours of Pinatubo. Most of the other groups did private tours which were quite unaffordable as it was just me and a colleague of mine on the trip. We paid the initial advance and got our instructions for the trip.
The trip began at about 02:00 AM early Saturday morning when we assembled at the McDonalds close to the Quezon Avenue MRT station. Here the balance amount was settled and we were allocated our vehicle for the trip. As planned we left at about 03:00 AM for the base camp. The journey took about 3 odd hours and by 6:00 in the morning we were at the base camp.

From the base camp, the only way to get to the trek start point is via 4X4 jeeps. These jeeps are run by the locals and take you to the trek start point. However, since the number of jeeps is limited, one needs to be early (like us) in order to get a vehicle. The tour organizers had planned this quite well and soon we were allocated a vehicle.

4X4 Ride to Pinatubo

The next one odd hour was one back breaking ride racing through lahar canyons through streams and valleys as the most desolate landscape (that I have seen) raced by. There was a raw beauty to the landscape in its single earth tone colours. At many times during the ride we had to hang on for dear life in the jeep hoping that the ride would end soon. Finally we reached the jump off point for the trek.
From here the trek was a long 7-8 km hike to the crater. The route weaved through a canyon of sorts crossing a stream several times. My new “trekking” sandals from Sandugo (a local brand) turned out to be quite handy and I enjoyed the sensation of water passing through the sandals as I crossed the stream.
The trek as such was quite simple, as the route was flat for about 80% of the way and involved minimal climbing. The last 20% or so involved a slight climb through some dense forest to reach the crater lake.
After reaching the lake, we hired a boat to take us to the other shore. Here it is possible to take a quick dip in the lake. While we had not packed swimming costumes (and the water was quite deep for non-swimmers or novice swimmers) we nevertheless did step into the water. The water was actually lukewarm due to several small boiling springs that fed the lake.
We then headed back to the other shore to have our packed lunch. After lunch we began the descent back. The way back was quite tiring as the sun was out overhead and the route had little or no shade. We finally made it back to the base camp, after another harrowing ride. The waiting vans then took us back to Manila getting us back well within the planned time frame.
Overall it was a good trek to go and see a natural wonder. What made it even better was that the organizers had planned the whole thing with clockwork precision. If you are looking to do a trip here I’d definitely recommend Tripinas.