My friends and I spent three days trekking the verdant slopes of Mount Talinis, so that we could visit all the beautiful spots on the mountain. We followed the Apolong route, which is the second-longest trail going to the peak, with a moderately challenging difficulty level.
The monkeys warming up for the day’s trek. | Lake Nailig
Right after we decided not to summit the next morning, we packed all our stuff and went back to the same trail we were the day before. After a few hours of trekking, we reached the well-known Kaipuhan Sulfur River. Trekkers following the Apolong trail will pass by this river that is full of sulfuric acid, affecting all the trees in the river area. But, it was astonishingly beautiful to see that there were still green and healthy plants surrounding the river.
The living among the dead.
As you may all already know, the smell of sulfur is almost unbearable. We only spent a few minutes there to take pictures. We then continued trekking towards our last destination for the day – Rancho.
Rancho is one of the established campsites of the Cuernos De Negros Mountaineers. We were all thankful when we reached Rancho because somehow, the weather favored our arrival. It wasn’t wet at all! The sun was up and we did our best to hang all our wet stuff before the fog came back. There was also a water source nearby so I finally got to properly take a bath!
We arrived at Rancho way past our lunch schedule. Thankfully, we had an amazing trekker with us who can do wonders with all our food. He made all of us yummy spaghetti first before he proceeded to cook our lunch properly – sinigang na baboy. Thank you, Jayson. You’re the best!
The boys preparing our food.
Night came and right after we ate another sumptuous dinner, I immediately went back to my tent. My friends were still jamming outside, but I just wanted to sleep well that night because of the weather cooperating, unlike the day before. I would have wanted to join them because they were bonding with our guides, and they were also eating wild frogs, which is something I haven’t tasted yet in the past. And if you know me well enough, I like trying out exotic foods despite my stomach problems. 😛
My best friend , Charlyn, and I decided to a bit fun first before we’d go to sleep. It was already foggy at this time, so we decided to do a couple of choreographed dramatic shots inside our tent. Haha!
Our tent looked so spacious in this photo. Hah!
All of us loved our experience in Rancho, and in fact, we all wanted to stay one more night there. Oh, if only we did not have responsibilities to go back to! If I ever get the chance to climb Mount Talinis in the future, I would love to really go back to Rancho.
Also read: Mount Talinis Diaries: Trekking the Horns of Negros
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