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| Mt. Puting Bato |
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| mountains of Samal |
In Samal, I hired a habal-habal (motorcyle) to take me to two locations: the Monfort Bat Cave and Mt. Puting Bato. On my way out from Monfort Bat Cave, I asked the volunteers if they have been to Mt. Puting Bato, they said they never been there. I asked if they are from Samal. They said they are. "You should visit the tallest mountain in your island!" I said. They meekly smiled. I guess they don't get excited anymore being on top of a mountain. All their lives they have been seeing and living with the mountains and oceans.
After Monfort Cave, the driver took me to a small barangay with nothing to see. He said it was puting bato. I don't know if he was telling the truth or trying to fool me. I adamantly said no. The puting bato I wanted was the mountain not a village.
While we were on the road, I asked the driver if he had been to Mt. Puting Bato. He said he had been to Sitio Tayapoc, the shorter trail to Mt. Puting Bato, but he had never been on the mountain. Great! So we're both tourists to Mt. Puting Bato. His only advantage is that he can speak the dialect and familiar with the road more than I do. I asked again what brought him to Sitio Tayapoc before. He said he attended a fiesta and that his sister-in-law lived at the sitio. He added that his brother and sister-in-law have been separated and living with their separate lives. The last time he was there was like 4-5 years ago. He had never visited the place since then.
I wanted to try the Guillon trail, which bloggers said would take 2 hours of hiking, but I opted for the Tayapoc trail for safety and security reasons. First, the driver is not familiar with the place and had never climbed the mountain. Second, I was hiking alone. There were no hikers that day. Third, it's already 2 in the afternoon. Hiking the longer trail would mean I have to hurry my pace, which is something I detest during hiking.
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| entrance to the peak of Mt. Puting Bato |
Travel from the municipality of Babac to Penaplata takes 45 minutes to an hour on a habal-habal. The road changes from paved to rough, especially the one nearest to the mountain. I had a bumpy ride that I felt all my internal organs had switched places. The ride lasted for about 30 minutes. Whew! I was soooo glad when we reached the basecamp of the mountain. We parked the motorcycle on the side and walked up on a slope. I was still a little dizzy from my habal-habal ride when we started our hike.
It is said that there are mysterious beings roaming Mt. Puting Bato and that these beings sometimes "play" with humans. According to the story, hikers would sometimes get lost, nowhere to be found, sometimes considered to be dead only to come back six years after like nothing happened. I only learned about this story AFTER I hiked Mt. Puting Bato. Good thing! I'll surely get paranoid if I learned about this BEFORE my hike. But, honestly, I don't believe the story. I think it was created to attract more hikers. I never felt anything mystical about the mountain when I hiked it.
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| a church on the road to the mountain |
Other Notes:
- I went there riding the Island City Express bus at Magsaysay Park. Fare is Php30.00. The bus will ride a barge (roll on/ roll off). Crossing to Samal Island from Davao City only takes 10-15 minutes. Going home, I rode a ferry. Fare is around Php20.00. The ferry will drop the passengers off in a pier near a wet market at Sasa, Davao City.
- Davao to Samal route and vice versa are now operating 24 hours.
- There are lots of mosquitoes at the entrance gate of Mt. Puting Bato. Don't know why. Better put mosquito-repellant lotion.
- Entrance fee is Php10.00 from 7AM to 3PM. Beyond that, it's Php20.00
- If you're going to hire a habal-habal, ask first if the driver had been to Mt. Puting Bato or the place you want to go. Most drivers there are only familiar with the beaches. I spent Php600 for the habal-habal ride.
