It was just a split second of falling light. It’s around 3 a.m. on the summit of Mt. Talamitam and we’re still outside our tents, staring at the darkness of the night. Stars did not elude us and we were blessed with an endless sea of small twinkling lights above us. This time, the city lights below us are far too low to outshine the stars that seemed to hover near us. As we lie down in the open air, you can almost feel that you’re part of that piece of universe. In the stillness of the night, we’re between the earth and the sky, floating among the clouds and witnessing the death of a star…and another…and another. We’ve witnessed quite a number of falling stars that night.

We wanted to climb two mountains so we decided that the best possible way to do it in just three days is to climb Mt.Talamitam on the first day and Mt.Batulao on the second day. There were four of us in the group: Flor, Sarah, Miguel and myself.

It was one of those moments when we’re so tired of life and we just want to let loose and find our souls again…up there in the high altitudes.

The second night in Mt. Batulao turned out to be a crazy one. This time, there were no stars, but the downpour of rain was like a christening. We got drunk and danced in the rain to the tune of Pinikpikan band’s ethno-rock music. It was a truly magical night. There’s just us, the mountain, the mountain spirits, the body movements and the music that seemed to come through as a colorful, multi-layered prayer to Bathala.

When I decided to leave the Philippines to work abroad, I have left behind some five year’s worth (and it feels like a lifetime’s worth) of extraordinary experiences in the mountains with my mountaineering friends (I even consider them as my mountaineering soul mates).

Left with just some pigments of these multi-colored memories with my HAKAMS group, (Hakbang Kalikasan Mountaineering Society) I’m struggling to remember the essence of these experiences. I want to write about them and immortalize them all in my heart and my memory.

It will be a painfully sad and happy recollection, but the need to write about them had been gnawing at me for the last five years.

Here’s a complete list of mountains in the Philippines that I was able to climb:

1. Mt. Manabu
2. Mt. Daguldol
3. Mt. Batulao
4. Mt. Talamitam
5. Mt. Pico de Loro
6. Mt. Tayak
7. Mt. Sembrano
8. Mt. Romelo
9. Mt. Pundaquit
10. Mt. Gulugudbaboy
11. Mt. Susong Dalaga
12. Mt. Cabuyao
13. Mt. Banahaw – Guisguis Trail
14. Mt. Ugo
15. Mt. Pulag – Akiki – Ambangeg Trail

 Other Outdoor Adventures:

1. Bat Caves at Wawa
2. Camping by the Daraitan River
3. Tanudan Kalinga Province – Big Brother Big Sister Outreach Program

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 11:28 am and is filed under The Color of Mountain Trails. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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3 Responses to “I’ve left my footsteps on the mountain”

1. flok says:

   May 28, 2008 at 11:28 am

   lula, touched naman ako dto s blog na to..reminiscing the past tuloy ang drama ko..hay..if i could turn back time..i would rather choose backache than heartache…hahaha..tingkanting itu! ingat ka lagi lula! miss u so much! mwah
2. jessette.dayate says:

   July 19, 2008 at 12:24 pm

   Hihihi. Tingkanting ka nga! Hay miss you lola! I miss our escapades mapa-bundok o mapa-gig ni Cynthia Alexander at Pinikpikan.
3. aj says:

   October 20, 2009 at 5:50 pm

   jessette “that was nothing” dayate + mountain = master of the art of falling