Easter Boot Camp

"I should have learned from the enema!", Rae excalims as she refers to Rosan's knack for planning holiday trips. It was Maundy Thursday, the first day of Easter Boot Camp.

Rosan and I left Manila the day before and managed to propel our way through the NLEX and the new Subic-Clark expressway in two hours. Take away the time we stopped for topping off EC cards and searching for the off-ramp into the new expressway, then we would have made it to Subic in an hour and a half. Sweet! The new road is 97 kilometres long, and if you "...speed up a little bit" it can be covered in 30 minutes according to Charlie, who kindly escorted us through the first portion of the new road.

We were back on the Subic-Clark road in the early morning hours of Maundy Thursday making our way to the Mt Pinatubo hike. About thirty minutes after getting into the Subic-Clark expressway we exited at Dolores and was in Capas, Tarlac in a total of forty-five minutes. From there we snaked our way through a side road to what used to be the Korean Day Spa, our jump off point for the Mt Pinatubo crater. I say it "used to be" because the spa is now run by Filipino management. It seems that the Koreans who "owned" the spa had to leave for lack of a work permit. The spa, which offers volcanic ash, mud and massage treatments, is a welcome 'home base' for the tired and weary retuning from the Pinatubo crater.

The popularity of the Mount Pinatubo trek have grown the numbers of 4x4 off-road vehicles that cut through the lahar flats. It takes an hour's drive through the flats to the crater drop off point, and another 45 minutes by foot to the crater itself. I was concerned about the heat as we arrived at the crater drop off point at 9am. Fortunately for us, it was a bit overcast making the trek through the lahar pass bearable. Surprisingly, it was much cooler than I expected it to be, and the crater was gleaming a magnificent emerald gree-blue under clear and unpolluted skies. After the requisite picture taking and an early morning box lunch we trekked back to the 4x4s and and for the spa.

WS Entry: #7

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Good Friday was an active day. We started off at 6:30AM with an early run in Subic. After stuffing ourselves silly with a full-blown breakfast, we packed ourselves and our bikes into the SUVs and headed for the Bolipata's Casa San Miguel in San Antonio, Zambales. This drive should have taken 30 minutes, but was a bit longer as penitents took up nearly half of the roaday on Good Friday.

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Plet, our gracious host, made sure that just in case we burned up all the garlic fried rice, tocino, bangus - and I can't remember what else was on the breakfast table - we were well fueled up by offering a delicious lunch of latok (seaweed), crabs, kinilaw, and pinakbet . We waited to digest all that, and for the fierce heat to subside, before venturing out on our bikes for Barangay Pundaquit and San Marcelino. I was knackered by the end of the day after the early morning run and a 30-kilometre bike ride. I had to opt out of Haydn's "Seven Last Words" recital which was being performed by the Bolipata proteges that evening. Luckily I was able to hear a bit of their talent during rehearsals earlier that afternoon, as well as to see some of the works of Casa San Miguel's artist-in-residence Carlo Sambuco and Elmer Borlongan's (Plet's husband) work-in-progress.

The next day was a bit more relaxed with the morning spent at Anvaya Cove in Morong, Bataan. While there, Rosan finally figured out what the term "Knocked Up" meant as she watched the movie. Betts, Rae, Ricky and I howled out in laughter and in disbelief! We were now at the tail end of Easter Boot Camp, but we had one more early morning bike ride through Subic before our mid-day departure for Manila. Next time, I should make a note to bring a set of two-way radios so that I can be warned not to turn into a certain uphill slope leading into Binictican Heights.

I need another vacation from this vacation.

Mt Pinatubo Hike & Pundaquit Bike Ride

Subic Run

Subic Bike Ride

Related Links:

Mt Pinatubo: Pre-eruption photo

Mount Pinatubo's 1991 Eruption

• Read about the eruption that cooled the earth here.

• Listen to David Keith talk about a low-cost solution to global warming.