Mt. Pinatubo is located in Central Luzon, Philippines. Three provinces namely, Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga share the location of this volcano. It erupted in 1991, making its explotion the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century.
To get there, we travelled to Capas, Tarlac to rent a 4×4 car. There were many 4×4 cars available in the area meant to explore the surrounding of the Mt. Pinatubo crater.
The path to the Pinatubo crater is very long, so the need of a 4×4 car is very evident. There is no asphalted or cemented pavement toward the crater, instead a wide lahar area is the main road. This pieces of soil is what the volcano emitted in 1991, making a wide range of plain of sand-like soil.
Animals like carabao and cows are seen walking in group in this large playground-like area.
The ride on a 4×4 car was my favorite part of this adventure. The driver was intently making the ride more adventurous by occasionally playing with the direction of the car, thus the ride was like a roller coaster ride.
There is a prominent shape of mountain that you can see and identify easily when the wide range of lahar area has reach its end. This mountain has a shape of a Toblerone chocolate.
We took few minutes break from the long ride in the 4×4 car. Moreover, the ride was not over yet. There is still few minutes ride left, however, this time the road is much harder and the way is not that wide as the previous.
As we were taking a short rest, we took this opportunity to have a descent group picture. The car that we rented look old and rusty but it was functioning well.
The second part of ride towards the crater was obviously hard because of the presence of small rocks and water from the river. Our guide had told us that the level of water in this road elevates when it is raining so it is not passable by car. Good thing that during our trek the weather was appropriate and was sunny.
The trek is easy in my analyzation, because the way is just plain and has very few elevations. But i was really tired during the trek because of the scorching sun. There is barely shades of tree, and all through out the trek we were exposed to sun. I underestimated the difficulty of this trek. Addition to what make this trek harder is the presence of rock and its very long trek. It was approximately a three hour walk going to the crater.
Appropriate attire is very essential in this hike. There were river crossing, so sandals or waterproof shoes are the proper foot attire in this hike.
Natives in this landscape are the Aetas. Many of this ethnic group are living in here. We met some of the young Aetas in one of the river crossing, and they were playing and catching some fish.
After a long trek with no elevation, and just following where the current of water in the river is coming from, we reach the area where there is already an elevation. In this area, there is already a source of a potable water, where climbers can refill water.
A few minutes more climb, then we reached the top and can view the scenic spot of the Mt. Pinatubo crater. The view was really amazing. Not everyone can view this unless one put an effort to do so.
To get close to the sulfuric lake, a descent has to be made. As I was getting closer to the lake, the view has become more scenic.
Swimming in the lake is forbidden because there is no lifeguard available and the quality of the water in the lake may cause reaction to body. The guide had told us that previously riding on a boat in the lake was allowed and one of to do list there. Unfortunately there were incidents of drowning that was why neither swimming and boating was not allowed anymore.
The color of the water is green that made the lake very unique and pleasant to the eyes. It was like heaven and there was a feeling of fulfillment when we reach this destination.
The Insured Traveler 
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