Last April 22, we went hiking at Mt. Batulao in Batangas. As a spontaneous adventuress, I don’t research about the places we go to before going there, I do that after. That’s how spontaneous I am. Haha! While walking on the trail and talking to our guide, I found out that Mt. Batulao is the second highest mountain in Batangas and that the highest mountain there is Mt. Maculot. I was shocked because we climbed the highest one first before the others! (baliktad mamsh! Hahaha!) Check out our Maculot hike here. Mt. Maculot was the hardest climb I’ve ever done and Mt. Batulao is probably the third. My second hardest was trekking at Batad Banaue, Ifugao going to Tappia Falls (my second hike ever, early 2016).

I am so in love with the landscape in Mt. Batulao. The scenery and forms of the mountains are really breathtaking. The curves and rolling slopes are enticing on the eyes, but hard to climb.  There are two trails going to Mt. Batulao’s summit, the old trail from the east and new trail from the west. We went up through the old trail and went down through the new trail. The old trail is said to be longer than the newer one, but I didn’t notice it because I was really tired from the heat! It was so hot when we hiked that I finished 2 litres of water just on the trail! And then when we went down and had our lunch, I finished 500ml of iced Coke (goodbye diet)- that was how dehydrated and tired I felt!

The name Mt. Batulao was originally derived from the term “Bato sa Ilao”, when the sun sets right between Batulao’s two peaks and creates a light between the two rocks.

Below is our itinerary and the photo diary of our hike! Enjoy! 🙂

You can check my Instagram highlight (@itsleahrous) for the videos.

I have more hiking and travel blogs to post, so stay tuned! 🙂