Well while my mum was visiting we decided to make a hike up Mount Pinatubo. It was her third visit to Angeles and she still hadn’t really done much (Angeles not being much a town for a women to visit!). The previous year we had a failed attempt at flying over the crater but had to turn back due to low clouds.
The jump off point for the trips up Pinatubo is a Korean owned health spa at the base of the mountain. It’s about 1 hour drive from Angeles. The health spa pretty much controls/has monopoly on the trips going up Pinatubo it seems. it’s pretty straightforward, simply register there, pay your money and off you go.
The first 45 minutes is spent on a 4×4 toyota land cruiser. The drive takes you up one of the lahar/ash flows that came out during the last eruption. It’s a bumpy ride, and dusty as well. Some people were in open top jeeps and needed dust masks. Ours was enclosed but still as a fun ride. The route involves some steep inclines down and out through rivers flowing down through the lahar. After around 45 minutes of some specatcular scenery you are dropped off at the last point the jeeps can reach. The start of a deep lahar canyon that you hike along.
They advise the hike is 3 hours up, and 3 hours back down. But in reality it’s not, depending on how fit you are. We were setting a moderate pace as my mother is not an outdoors type person, but made good time around 2 hours 30 minutes. I think on my own I could make it in 2 hours or less. It’s relatively flat terrain following the lahar canyon. it’s only the last 15/20 minutes that it gets step as you come up to the crater.
You have a guide who can assist you in crossing some of the stepping stones on the river. You can’t really get lost and the guide is not necessary in my opinion, but it’s a requirement, and employment generation I suppose.
It’s quite a nice hike anyways, through a moon like landscape. It only becomes green and jungle/forested on the last section to the crater.
Once at the crater it’s been quite developed there is a pathed way, some nippa huts been constructed on the side of the lake etc. It’s quite nice, but definitely a tourist attraction rather than a wilderness experience. You can swim in the crater lake, the water was very cold at the point where I entered but quite refreshing after the hike.
We then took a rowing boat that takes you to another area of the crater. Here there is a lot of geothermal energy coming up tot he surface. The water is hot in some palces boiling. There is steam and sulphuric gases coming out of small vents you can see bubbling in the water and sulphur deposits in the mud around there.
Just as we set off back down the rain started. The lahar canyon is not a place to be caught out in the rain. people have been killed there during rainstorms. The sides of the canyon are unstable and heavy rains will wash large amounts of lahar and boulders down into the canyon, mudflows are common. Luckily the rain was only around the crater area and once we descended around 15 minutes we were out of the rain.
Back at the Korean spa there is a late lunch provided, quite large portions of food with a choice of Filipino or Korean dishes. You can relax after your hike with a massage and mud spa and hot ash treatment if you wish at additional cost.
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