Warrior Pilgrimage

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on November 8, 2008

ON AUGUST 23, 2008, Cebu Mountaineering Society or CeMS celebrated its 19th anniversary by climbing Mt. Manunggal from its traditional starting point – in Tagba-o. There were fifteen of us that tackled her trails: Lilibeth Initan, Andrew Flores, Boy Toledo, Joy Tongco, Dennis Legaspi, Glenn Lao, Jon Consunji, Sam Lim and me plus member-applicants Canqui Potamio, Ernie Salomon, guests Nathan Cannen, Myla Ipil and Harold Alcontin of cebucityforum.com, and another guest, Blessie Alano of the Cuernos de Negros Mountaineering Club.



Actually, we started from another point farther away from the customary jump-off area and crossed the river that divides Cebu City from Balamban town on that sunny Saturday morning then resting for a while to gawk at the pools and rock formations of Pandong Bato. After that, we climbed about 500 meters uphill and rested beside a tributary of the Lusaran River. Some of us walked a hundred meters upriver to marvel at a part of this river branch that passed through a cave-like formation called Guimbuthan.



Satisfied with the sight, we proceeded another hundred meters to eat lunch underneath a house that stood partially with stilts to shed us from the noontime rain. After a good filling, we then begun the second stretch of the uphill trail that passed beneath Mount Mit-ol. From open spaces and farms the trail led us to thickly vegetated areas and unto a forested area populated by endemic...READ MORE (Press CTRL + mouse click)