Trekking around mountain Arayat

Couple of days after reaching there, I joined Correy, one of fellow disciple of Gurudeva from USA  who visited him at that time, in a trekking adventure to Arayat, a mountain around 20 Kms away from Angeles City. The assignment from Gurudeva was to trek from Angeles City to mount Arayat and then take a round about the mountain and come back.

We started our journey at 7:30 in the morning after breakfast carrying enough food and water with us. At around 1pm we reached Santa nino, a village in foot hills of Arayata. From there the plan was to take a trail to walk around the mountain. Some inquiry let us find a trail; we followed it. After couple of hours walking down the trail, we realized that it lead us to nowhere. We tried to make our own way amidst the wild bush down the foothill. It was late in the afternoon and we knew that we would not be able to complete our assignment in one day. We decided that we will take help of a local guide from a nearby village. But it was increasingly getting difficult to go ahead through the thorny bushes. At that point we thought it would be better to go back and locate any village down the mountain. We turned our way back to reach our day one destiny. By around 6:30 in the evening we reached a farmer’s house back in the village Santa nino. We explained our “grievance” to them and asked for a guide next day to help us take a round about the mountain. The farmer family treated us like royal guest. They offered us to stay in a comfortable independent room amidst the nature. Correy went with the woman of the family to shop some bread & butter for next days, while I had great time with the children at home. We were not sure how many days it will take us to trek around the mountain as some said it might take up to seven days. All we were sure of that we will complete the assignment how ever days it takes as Gurudeva told us “I accept only success” and failure is not an option.

Next day early morning our host arranged delicious coffee for us. I enjoyed those moment to the fullest. I thought may be these are the moments that makes the life worth living. We started our journey at 5:30 in the morning. The day before numerous times we had to explain them our plan and finally we thought they understood it. But alas, they did not. Instead of taking us around the mountain they were taking us top of the mountain. Halfway through to top of mountain we climbed down. As we understood that nobody in the village seems to know the route that can take us around the mountain, we decided that we should go back to Malaganga, which we crossed the day before at 11 am and start trekking towards other side of the mountain. We reached the Malaganga and had lunch there, went to an internet café and got the map of the mountain and finalized a plan. We started walking toward the town Arayat to reach there at around 6:00pm. There were no hotels or lodging there, however fortunately we got a room beside a petrol pump to stay for free. It was a courtesy from the petrol pump owner.

By end of second day we had covered just two sides of the mountain, if you imagine the route around the mountain in rectangle shape. What left was another two sides and back to hotel.

Third day, the “best” day for us everything happened as planned. We got a good English speaking seasoned guide. We started our journey at 8 am. He guided us till Santa nino through the “back” of the mountain, thereby we completed a circle around the mountain. While walking back to hotel because of severe knee pain, I was walking slow. I asked Correy to go ahead with his own speed. He reached hotel at 8pm while I took couple of hours more.

In three days we should have walked more than 120 Kms.

When I reached there Gurudeva asked me, now can you go to disco for a dance. I said “yes, after getting fresh up”.  He asked “how does it feel like to be strong”.  I said good. He continued “It’s time to become stronger now”.