Okay, before anything else, I just want to say—the trek was awesome!

Mt. Daraitan is located in Tanay, Rizal near the border of Quezon province, and it stands at 739 MASL. The mountain features forest trails, caves and rock formations and it is ideal for hiking and camping. It is also home to one of this country’s cleanest, free-flowing rivers, the Tinipak River, which is surrounded by large marble rocks that are great for bouldering. And SBCC Hikers conquered the breath-taking summit, the underground cave and the rushing river!

Now, let me introduce to you the team who conquered it. We’re starting from left, the one raising his hand is Pastor Clero– The #daddytype (haha!) in the group. He is our team leader and photographer and he is funny! The girl beside her is ate Zai, the artist and the singer. She’s the eldest among the girls so she’s the #atetype. (haha!) The boy standing next to her is Jondi, one of the rookies in this hike and he had a major slip! (Hahaha!) I am the person beside him. Next to me is Bea, the other rookie in the group. In front of her is Hazel and Hazel sleeps well. Haha! And the man in the farthest right is Kuya Jolo, he takes photographs. Oh by the way, the one who took our group picture was Toy, he’s the great deal and the real #daddytype! Hahahha. He’s our guide.


Daraitan is two to three hours away from Manila. Our group decided to have an overnight hike so we met at 7 a.m, on the 2nd day of November 2015 (haha sorry for writing so late!!!), at Santolan LRT station. Some of us slept in Trinidad’s Residence the night before so meeting up would be easier. From LRT, we took two jeepney rides going to Tanay and it cost us P58. From Tanay, we rode two tricycles that are worth 1000 pesos (we had 2 so P500 each tricycle). At 9:30 am, we set our foot on the jump-off, the barangay daraitan. For thirty minutes, we registered, set our things up, and were oriented. There, we met our super funny guide—kuya Toy—the energetic and restless guide.  We paid our guide P1200. We were seven so we divided all the expenses by seven.


The mountain is a forest trail and full of ascent. The 85 % of the trail is ascent. It rained while we were trekking and we enjoyed the rain! Hay, the view is such a beauty! From time to time, we see the river running around the mountain ranges of Sierra Madre, the big and strong tress, the rock formations that are scenic and spectacular! It was 12:30 nn when we reached the camp site. It was raining, still and we were blessed to have a bahay-silungan! We rested, ate our lunch, and pitched our tents. And we had the rest of the afternoon resting, enjoying the creation, and getting to know one another. The presence of my friends made the mountain more beautiful.

That’s my favorite spot. We often conversed there and the view was perfect. My friend said that when he looked at the view while we were sitting there, he felt hope– there’s still hope for this world.
We were in awe upon seeing the sunset in Daraitan. It’s always good to watch sunset or sunrise with good friends!

And that is the summit! I felt relieved when I reached the summit! Kuya kokoy, Jondi and I did not sleep because we can’t sleep due to coldness and we cooked breakfast for everyone. We had no big kawali and kaldero so we cooked everything by group! It really took time! So we were really tired when we advanced to summit.And it seemed like I’ve been renewed when I gazed on the summit and the 360 view!

After reaching the summit, we went back to the camp site and ate. We rested for a moment and then we traversed to Tinipak River. It is a rushing river, its water is cold and our journey to it was exhausting but still fun! We were laughing and counting our slips. Many things happened like the “leggings”, “major slip” and the “zipper” and only our group can understand that.

Also, we were able to see the beauty in darkness when we journeyed to the tinipak’s underground cave. There was a pool-like river inside of it and swam  play in there and we appreciated the limestone and the other kinds of stone present there!


Then, we washed our things. 🙂

We were in a hurry because we were late in our schedule. Atleast, we’re happy and we were able to do everything in out itinerary! As soon as we finished washing our things, we walked to barangay where we changed our clothes, settled all the payments, and departed. As we were walking, it was already dark and we just had flashlights, we saw a group of fireflies around a tree and they were so beautiful!!!!! They were flying around and their light was stunning! The night-sky was dazzling, too!

We thank the Lord for sustaining and protecting us throughout our trip! This is definitely for keeps! 🙂 God be glorified!
Photos from Jolo Siscar and Pstr Clero Matocinos