2016 had been a great year for me. Looking back, I realized each month had "layags" and "ganaps", save for September for reasons I don't even know. Its been packed with travels and adventures both local and abroad, each of them is surely noteworthy. Its a lot of firsts for me, and even now I haven't had a chance to make an entry regarding those wonderful experiences, yet. Apologies for saying things with the least relevance on what this entry is about.lol

This year, I aim to make my travels more practical, perhaps exploring places nearby, places you can reach faster, while offering experiences like no other. Which lead me to deciding on this self-made OMOM (One month, One Mountain) Challenge.hahaha I know I should've thought of a cooler name for the challenge, but I'm low on creative juice lately. Basically, I plan to make at least one climb every month. 'nough said, let's get this over with.

Mt Tagapo is situated in Binangonan, Rizal where mountains next to more mountains are found. Which means most of my climb will surely be from the area, but who knows? What's nice about this trek is it required a boat ride to get there. A touch similar to how you go on an island getaway.

How to get there:
Ride a jeepney bound to Binangonan: P40
Alight at Pritil Port
Ride a passenger boat bound to several barangays of the island, and depart at Barangay Janosa: P25

You can find out more about the mountains details like ratings, and other technical stuff here. lol

We reached the port just as the sun begins to rise.
The ferry makes several stops to different barangays on the island. Be sure to alight to Barangay Janosa.

Once there, stopover at Mt. Tagapo basecamp to fetch your tour guide, and pay P400 for his service. Kuya Philip was our tourist guide.
The only picture I had of Kuya Philip. I guess I better work on establishing rapport with guides in the future.haha
Mt. Togapo's trail is sorrounded with abundance of bamboos, and other foliage as any mountains would. While venturing into the rough path, we stumbled with this gargantuan Gabi-looking plant. What is it called? I would appreciate if you can shed light to this.
Liters of sweat, palpitations, and muscle aches will always be a part of the entire trekking experience. Taking time to rest every now and then.
And there will surely come a time where you just want to wave the white flag and forget the whole thing. Pero ngayon ka pa ba susuko?

But you keep pushing...
Then little by little, you get closer...
And closer..
Then a rush of breeze getting cooler the more you get higher...
Revitalizing your senses...
I never understood why a lot of people get so hooked into trekking until now. Some do it to get over a broken relationship, others do it for the thrill and In my case, a quick escape.
Here's the rest of Mt. Tagapo, with poythobomber.lol