Pico de Loro

daniellecuaresma
Aug 16, 2014
3 min read

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity...” - John Muir

So I climbed my second mountain last July 12, again with Javier and some of my officemates. Had a hard night with them before we assembled at Alabang and waited for the others. Fortunately, it was a 2-hour trip from Alabang to Maragondon so everyone who were having a hang over got a power nap on the road. :P

So after the said trip, we've finally reached Maragondon. We had to stop at a DENR station to stretch and actually condition our body before the trek. Here we took photos:

Team CGI!

After getting ourselves ready for the trek, we started to walk towards the beginning of the trail. It took us at least a couple of minutes.

Then after walking on this asphalt road, we got our feet on the rocky, muddy, and slippery trail towards the peak. The trail is nice and 'first-timer' friendly. I can say that if you want to go hiking but you don't have enough experience, Mt. Pico de Loro suits you best.

We had a couple of short stops to rest our feet and breathe our lungs out then we continued trekking.

This is Chinie :)

And this is the view where we had one of our first stops (yes, we've had a few stops before the 'official' first stop lol)

We trekked for 3-4 hours until we reached the campsite where we had our rest and lunch.

After that we had a short rest and we started to trek towards the Parrot's Peak (thus, the name of the mountain, Pico de Loro). Going there wasn't easy because the trail is really steep but the view is very beautiful because you can see the whole scenery in 360 degrees.

There's the monolith in the background (left side)

After having our pictures taken in the first peak, I went to the monolith with Javier. Again, going to the second peak wasn't easy. I had to go down then make my way to the rocky trail then go up to the monolith.

This is me, about to go downI got scared for a second because I really don't know how will I climb down on these rocks. So I thought "YOLO". Kidding aside, I got myself together and went climbing down the rocks and up to the monolith. Going up to the monolith is a bit scary because you can actually see the cliffs, the rocks, and how high the place is. If it weren't for the boulders there, I really wouldn't know how to make it to the monolith. Then there's a rope where you can rappel yourself up to the top and a couple of more boulders then that's it.

Some of my friends went ahead before I did so when I got to the top, I saw them waiting for the rest. Then, when we're all set at the top, of course we took our photos.

The view there is really breathtaking and relaxing, we didn't even mind the heat. I got a photo taken doing some yoga pose ;)

This is how we looked like going down the monolith

After having our photos taken at the monolith, we climbed down and headed back to the campsite to have some rest before we went to another view of the mountain where we saw the perfect view of the Parrot's Peak.

The view there is also amazing because we saw the other side of the mountain. Another photo opp for us.

After a couple of minutes, we went back to the campsite to freshen up and fix our bags because we'll be leaving in a few. We left the site after everyone was settled and started to trek down the mountain.

I really like Mt. Pico de Loro. The scenery is so amazing and beautiful and the trail is really friendly. I got to meet new friends and have bonded with some of my teammates and officemates. I would very much recommend this mountain to my friends who would love to unwind on a weekend and I would be very much happy to go with them.