About Mt. Pinatubo during Rain Season

Pinatubo Spa Town

"Sometimes I'd like to quit;
Nothing ever seems to fit;
Hangin' around, nothing to do but frown;
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down"

- Rainy Days And Mondays by Capenters -

We decided to continue with our plan to visit Mt. Pinatubo (see also: Mount Pinatubo - Tousim Philippines) after Hundred Islands. We looked for a guided tour and found the website of Pinaykeypoint who offers tour packages incl. guide, entrance fee, transportation with a 4WD Jeep, lunch package etc. We contacted Juliet, the owner of the agency, via facebook and yahoo (ym: pinaykeypoint). She told us that the next available tour for Mt. Pinatubo for 12 pax (2,300php per person) will be in 3 days. Meeting point will be Capas in the early morning. Since there's nothing more to do and see in Pangasinan during rain, we decided to leave and booked that day tour in three days and prayed that it will stop to rain until then.  Well at least on the day we conquer Mr. Pinatubo. But where to stay the next two days? We opened the map in our LP and found out that Angeles City is not far from Capas and the next bigger city so far in that area. But at least it was a city where you can go around with a lot of options for the next two days. Before looking for an accommodation we first stop at Jollibee to get Kevin's Champ Burger...of course.

Capas Town House

Waiting for the our tour group

Worst case happened: it rained all the time in Angeles City. We spent the last two days only sitting in cafes, reading books, relaxed and had massages at SM. We still hoped that this damn rain will stop.  But as you can see on the pictures, weather didn't chang at all.

Registration Centre, Brgy Julianna

We went to Capas in the early morning where we've met Juliet, her team and our group. Somehow it stopped raining on that morning and we thought that we were lucky ducks. We cheered too soon...
Just a minute we arrived at Barangay Julianna where we have to registered at the Pinatubo Spa Town it started to rain cats and dogs again.  We tried to wait for an hour but then Juliet informed us that the tour has to be cancelled because the observation centre closed the roads. The water level in the lahars reached a dangerous mark. We were so disappointed especially Kevin... We got two options: postpone the tour or get our money back. Since we realised that weather won't changed the next few days or weeks, we took option two. We chatted with some of our tour mates. Some of them came from Hong Kong (Chinese-Filipinos) just to join this trek. Misery loves company...

our tour mates

Juliet told us later that this happens few times during rain season and even though it's forbidden to enter the area there are always some stupid people or foreign tourist who just go up by their own. Like few weeks ago where two foreign tourist has to saved by a rescue squad because they were trapped. Roads were washed out. One of the officers from the observation centre confirmed it.

2 months later back in Germany we read in the news about typhoon "Kiko". The torrential rains killed 20 people and three foreign French tourist. Those three trekked to Mt. Pinatubo by their own. They were trapped and died in the flooded lahar.

Bored guard

...

Juliet and her team drove us back to Angeles City and we promised to come back and book a tour during summer season. After we took a hot shower and got lunch, we checked the weather map in our LP and had to recognised that we have to skip the idea to go to Bicol to see Mt. Mayon or stay for another week in Luzon. Since our flight to Palawan will not be in a week, where to go next? We found out that Boracay might be our solution (less rain than Luzon on the weather map for June). So we booked flights for Boracay via MNL. We left Angeles City in the late afternoon and went back to Manila to overnight at my Auntie's house in Cubao. We took the first plane to Boracay the next day.

PinayKeyPoint

Mount Pinatubo Tour

Webpage: pinatubotrek.blogspot.de

facebook: pinaykeypoint