Mt. Paliparan + side trip to Tuoy (Dumagat Village)

Before 2016 has ended, I was able to experience the most thrilling hike in my whole hiking experience! Plus, I get to check another activity on my bucket list! This year-end hike is probably one for the books folks!

Baon ang sobra sobrang excitement, kahit aapat lang kaming babae ay pinush namin mag-year-end hike! :) Coming from Cogeo we took a Jeepney going to Sampaloc, Tanay. Terminal is inside the Palengke if I remembered it right. Just ask the tricycle drivers upon arriving at Cogeo Gate 2 about this.

Beware: Some tricycle drivers will offer you a ride going to Batanggasan or Cuyambay instead of telling you where the terminal is, and will insist that the jeepneys depart late so you will be persuaded to take the offer--but don't! Batanggasan or Cuyambay is still very far from there and it's too dangerous to travel via tricycle only! The road is very zigzag-y and very dark.

In our case, we politely said we'll check the terminal first and get back to them if it's true that the jeepneys leave at 8:00AM. And yes, you guessed it right, it's not true because the jeepney was almost full and is about to leave when we arrived at the terminal. See, you gotta explore more options first before grabbing some offers!

We haven't even arrived when the rain started raining. We were still cool we thought it would stop when we arrive or when we start trekking. Good thing though the rain stops for awhile then would pour again and the cycle goes on during the trek. So we're literally getting wet and would eventually get dried up then wet again. Imagine how the experience was! :)

We reached Tukduan or Tinukduan at 8:30 AM, it's the first view deck I guess and where the mountaineers usually take a rest. 

See, half wet, half dry!

Rain poured so heavily after passing through Tinukduan, the trail became so muddy and slippery which caused some of us to slip several times. The trail after Tinukduan is mostly made up of grasslands or talahib so we were really soaking wet!

A Rainbow at the first view deck!

Our reward after almost dying at the trail! Hahaha! De, joke. We reached the summit at around 11:30AM, not bad given that there was a storm we had to deal with! :) 

Oh, tired feet!

We had to go rock scrambling to get to the first view deck. Again, it was another struggle we had to go through because the stones are slippery because of the rain and we were already exhausted and hungry at that time. But we were no quitters so yeah, we did it!

Going up to the summit, you need to go rock rappelling. It's a bit high, and one wrong move, you slip, and you go down through a rocky cliff! Our friend San, is some kind of a dare devil so she went up! :P We didn't bother to join her as we were already starving.

Traverse to Sitio Tuoy

Mt. Paliparan from down below!

Since we planned to give small gifts to the kids of the Dumagat Tribe, we did a traverse going down to Sitio Tuoy. Good thing the sun came up by noon, it dried us up, no more shivering! 

After about an hour of descend, we crossed a river which marks the arrival at Sitio Tuoy. We were welcomed so warmly by the people. The kids are there, looking so curiously at us, I wanna deliver the news to them but we have to eat first before we faint because of hunger. 

They prepared Native Tinolang Manok and Sinaing sa Buho(Bamboo) for us. You can request them to prepare lunch for you if you plan to do a traverse at Tuoy, just tell the staff at the Brgy. Hall before you start your trek. Tinolang Manok is Php350 and rice is Php40, that's plenty of serving actually plus you get to help them in their living. 

We were running out of time, so we gave the toys to the kids right after eating, no more fancy picture taking or what. What's important is their smiles and eyes of gratefulness remains in our hearts! We planned on going to Tungtong falls but the time did not permit us to do so. It was late already and we have a New Year's Eve to catch with our families back home! :) So we decided to go back to Brgy. Hall and decided to go back to Cuyambay next year(yeah this January!) for our unfinished business!

Itinerary:

0400 Tropical to Cogeo

0445 Cogeo to Cuyambay(Take a Jeep with Sampaloc sign on it)

0600 Arrival at Cuyambay Junction, walk towards the Brgy. Hall(there's no habal habal that time)

0700 Arrival at Brgy. Cuyambay, Register and pay necessary fees

0730 Start Trek

0825 Arrival at Tinukduan/Tukduan, Take a rest

1130 Arrival at First View Deck, Photo ops, Rest

1145 Eat light lunch before traverse to Sitio Tuoy

1200 Traverse to Sitio Tuoy

1330 Arrival at Sitio Tuoy, Eat Lunch

1400 Socials with the Dumagat kids, Gift Giving

1430 Leave Sitio Tuoy

1600 Arrival at Brgy, Hall, Tidy Up

1630 Leave Cuyambay

1730 Home sweet home!

Expenses:

Tropical to Cogeo Php12

Cogeo to Cuyambay Php48

Registration Fee Php20

Guide Fee Php500 (Php125/pax)

Shower Php10/pax

Tinolang Manok Php350 (87.50/pax)

Sinaing Sa Buho Php40/pax

Tricycle to Cuyambay Junction Php30/pax

Cuyambay to Cogeo Php48

Cogeo to Cainta (on Ivy's account! Taxi :P )

Total: Php420.50

Guide Contact Number: 0907 101 8668 (Muhammad)

Watch our travel video here:

Uuwi na lang mapuputikan pa ulit! Haha

We left Cuyambay at around 4:30PM. We were the last hikers to left, we were already anxious about the time, will there still vehicles we can ride? Are we gonna make it before New Year? Haha! But yeah, we were still able to get home before New Year and that experience is something that would make our 2016 remarkable!