Beautiful Kibungan.. (Part I)

I was told that Kibungan would be a totally new and well-worth it experience... they didn't exaggerate.. it was simply amazing.. to be treated with such splendor is beyond words..

our trip started at 9pm here in Cubao.. on top of our multi-day load, we were asked to load hardbound books as well as notebooks for the children in Kibungan.. not only that, bajay not going meant that his load had to be distributed amongst the sweepers.. and since aries and i were invited to join their group.. it went to follow that we had to load our share.. (remember, bajay's bag is HUGE fully capable of fitting in one petite human being!!).. good thing the rice cooker wouldn't fit my bag.. i had to settle for bringing the cookset, 1.6kgs of meat and other condiments.. i gamely loaded everything in my bag.. the weight was a bit heavy but still manageable..

the trip was uneventful except for the fact that jhoana was left behind and had to ride the express bus going to baguio.. turned out she was there first before us.. we stopped over at Chow King session road for breakfast and for our packed lunch..

our bus going to Kibungan was sooo slow.. it took us five hours to get to our jump off point. Baguio to Kibungan is only 63km but the roads are not that paved.. and in some areas there were landslides. nevertheless, our driver maneuvered our bus well.

we were told that this IT was in reverse.. we will start where the previous TC ended.. and that meant going up very steep inclines, oftentimes almost kissing the ground ang going around walls of huge boulders.. with sheer drops behind... i was so glad for my size 5 1/2 shoes, aries being 13 found it hard sometimes to find a foothold.

the first hard leg of the journey was over..aries gamely called this "Alvin's Delight".. alman was already cursing alvin for this part of the IT.. apparently for him, this site was better going down than going up..for us that did not have any basis of reference, we simply accepted the fact... although it was difficult, the journey was well worth it.. you only had to glance back and you would see beautiful mountain ranges that appears and disappears as the fog and mists rolled in.

water sources were abundant in the area.. we only had to bring at least 2L of trail water and constantly replenish it from one water source to another.. we treated ourselves with a dip in the pool and cleansed ourselves..it was so refreshing especially since the water was so clear and cool. i felt happy frolicking in the water and rinsing off.. alvin gamely waited for us while i took a dip.

we reached the first campsite a litte over six pm.. we had to wait for Sansu, since the sole of her shoe got lost along the trail..james attempted to find it but couldn't find it anywhere.. at one point aloong the trail aries and i saw it but we thought it was left there by some locals.. (some sweeper we were!) so Sansu ended up wearing Paolo's sandals all throughout and it was several sizes bigger.. she found it a bit difficult but nevertheless she managed well.

once we reached the first campsite, we immediately set up camp.. and i proceeded to cook my Japanese curry.. yummmyy.. after almost 10hrs of trekking we were so ready to dig in.. one thing i noticed if you are in the sweeper's group is that you will NEVER ever run out of food..bajay packed enough for an army! there was pork chop, teriyaki, adobo, my curry, yang chow and pasta.. whew!! no chance of slimming down here...

since we were a small group, our socials was just in one area.. sir manny's camp became the focal social area.. kuya mar and alman kept the bantering goping and soon everyone was in stitches.. TL alvin extended the lights out by an hour.. and everyone slept well..