Mount Pinatubo Aerial tour and Trekking Package
With our Mt. Pinatubo Tour, you will experience not only a magnificent aerial tour, but also a one of a kind trekking adventure. You explore one of the wonders of the Philippines on the best Mt. Pinatubo tour package that you can get. Let us provide you with a comfortable and hassle free Mount Pinatubo tour that ensures client satisfaction.
Mount Pinatubo has a sense of calm and serenity. Mount Pinatubo has been the heartland of the indigenous Aeta people for centuries and is the focus of their beliefs. The Aeta, believed to be the original inhabitants of the Philippines long before the Spanish came, believe that at the foot of the volcano are numerous benevolent and evil spirits while their highest deity Apu Malyari (also sometimes known as Apo Namaylari) resides close to the summit of Mount Pinatubo.
The Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991 was one of the largest eruptions in world history. The eruption and two typhoons that entered the area while Mount Pinatubo was erupting turned the breadbasket of the Philippines into a desolate waste land. The damage affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and the ash cloud that circled the earth cooled it by 3 degrees. The social and economic effects are still being felt, but nature is well on its way to healing.
Upon arrival at the site, we will take care of the formalities of registering you for the trek while you enjoy a hearty breakfast. After which you will board a 4×4 for your ride to the starting point of your Pinatubo tour hike. The 4×4 rides follow the river bed and then off road. The ride is about 28 kilometers from the crater lake and takes about an hour and a half. We’ll stop about midway to take photos of the incredible landscape and probably some of the local Aetas. You’ll see many volcanic formations on the way: streams varied in color, depending on the minerals: there was ferrous red, sulfuric yellow, and algal green; there are cliffs of lahar that precariously stand tall against the remnants of a once tall (1,700+ MASL) mountain. The destructive force of the eruption is manifest wherever you would look.
After the ride in on the 4×4 Jeeps, there are two options for the trek. The first is called the old way and you’ll be dropped off about 7 kilometers from the base of the volcano. This is an amazing trail and the trek lasts one hour thirty to two hours through Crow Valley canyon. The other option is shorter hike, called the “new way” that lasts about 30 minutes, one way. The trek up to the itself is not a stroll through the park but does not require any great physical fitness level and is not highly challenging as there are no steep slopes to climb and no deep ravines to cross. Many of our guests take the old way in and then we move the jeeps up to the start of the trek and they take the new way back.
The Mt. Pinatubo crater lake is The highlight of your Mt. Pinatubo trek. With it’s changing color water inviting you to check its refreshing water, it’s easy to see why a lot of people are enticed on seeing it’s beauty. Not too long ago that same crater lake was very acidic (average pH level =2) and hot (average temperature = 40 degrees Celsius). But nature has it’s own way of turning a thing of destruction into an object of beauty. And this lake has had its share of admirers from here and abroad. The water in the crater lake is from rain. The caldera was formed by the eruption of the mountain which displaced its pre-eruption summit about 1km northward of the site. The crater lake is about 2 kilometers wide, is 600-800 meters deep and has a surface area of about 1.8 square kilometers.
Upon your return from the crater, it is back for another hour 4×4 trip to the site. Here you can clean up, even take a shower if you wish, before enjoying a refreshing merienda (snack).
On the return trip, we will stop at the Capas National Shrine which is the site of the notorious World War II Prisoner of War camp. This shrine has an obelisk inside it that marks the final resting place of all the Filipino and American Prisoners killed at the end of the famous Bataan Death March of the Second World War. Surrounding the obelisk is a ‘Wall of Heroes’, a three-segment black marble wall, where names of each of the perished soldiers are engraved. Approximately 90 hectares, the shrine also has thousands of trees that represent the dead.
Our Pinatubo tour is different than most tours you see advertised. Our tours are all inclusion – which means everything is included! You may want to bring some personal items like sunblock, etc, but everything else is provided. includes transportation from your Subic Bay or Angeles City / Clark area hotel.
