Pico de Loro, Ternate, Cavite

I think it’s never too late to celebrate and welcome New Year. So, my first climb this year was at the highest point in Cavite and Batangas which is located at Ternate, Cavite.

Luckily, two of my friends joined me. We decided to meet at Robinson’s Pala-Pala because there are buses going to Trece Martires Cavite. From there, we rode a jeep to Naic. Also,we needed to arrange our transportation heading to DENR, because public transports rarely pass there. From Naic, a jeep can be rented with a fix amount of P600.00 (one-way). But because we’re just few, we decided to rent a tricycle instead. It only costed us P600.00, forth and back. We just have to split the expenditure in three. By the way, we’re trying to stick with a 500-peso budget for this hike.

The ride from Pala-Pala going to Ternate consumed us two hours so we got off in DENR Ternate at 10:30am. After which, we paid P20.00 each for registration and headed quickly to the jump-off point as we need extra time in case we get lost.

Reaching the base camp 1 was really a long trek. The whole area is well-shaded by trees. The trail was damp because of sudden rain showers.

Along the way, we met group of trekkers descending and they kindly greeted us with “Good morning, sir.” “Good morning, ma’am.” “Ingat po kayo.” They also gave us advice about the directions.

We stopped for a minute for water break and took some photos but quickly resumed to our walk. The trail is all upward and steep, but thanks to the small trees that helped us to make another step. Until, we saw a ray of light at the end of the forest. To our excite, we moved quickly and passed through cogon grass and we’ve found the exhilarating beauty of Pico de Loro!

Then, I paused. And uttered, “Teka, di ba dapat nandun tayo?” (We should be on the other side of that mountain, right?)” We trailed the area hoping that there’s a way to the other side but it was a dead end and a deep down-straight to the bottom.

We ate our lunch first then traced down the last ribbon we saw. So if you’re heading your way up and ended in a fork trail, choose the right way. After long hours of walk again, we’ve reached the camp and the summit was just a few climbs away. There’s a fine weather that time and some trekkers in the camp were busy setting-up their tents and some were just drinking and having a good time mingling with other group of trekkers. We’ve reached the camp past 2pm, so we better continued our walk to the summit because we have to descend by 3pm.

 At last, we’ve reached the first peak. At the other side is the second peak of Pico de Loro (Parrot’s Peak.) We didn’t dare to climb it because the rocks were slippery. Instead, we took some pictures at the summit.

 Not long after, it began to drizzle and it started to pour and because of that, we’ve decided to go back to the camp. Even if the rain was getting stronger and the wind was blowing hard, we came across a group of trekkers along the way heading their way to the peak.

Because we already estimated the time we’ve used all the way to the summit, we’ve thought that we’ll spend the same amount of time heading back to DENR. Only easier because we walked all the way down of a mountain however there were still ups and downs and rocky terrains.

It was already dark when we’ve reached the highway. Yes, it was tiring but it was another HOORAY for me.