Part1 Mt. Takliad traversed Mt. Lantoy sidetrip Argao Port Area

Inspired by our ill-will to climb the tallest peak of the Visiyas region, the gang woke up early June 19, 2010 carried full pack gears and headed off to Argao for some practice. Sir Lex Tyler the great, sir Ayanz Abay Uncle Marley, Sir Junie the fighter, Sir Eduy the wanderer, and Sperm the spermatiks , with 2 ladies Mam Kezia “the all for love climber”, Mam Angie with a smile came along with enthusiasm.

The meeting place. We took the 0730 ride from South Bus Terminal to Argao arrive at exactly 0930 and fled to Ybong’s tree house where we will be meeting our guide to Mt. Takliad and Mt. Lantoy. We waited for 3hrs for Sho who is supposedly our official guide, but unfortunately he never showed up. So we took our initiative to look for someone who can somehow just show us the trail so we can take it from there. Sir Leonard who was also trained to guide visitors became our man.
Brgy. Conalum to wherever. From Ybong’s place in Jampang, we took a couple of steps and then we got the tricycle driver cornered and was left with no choice other than to bring us to poblacion. Haha… On the way to poblacion, we were very lucky enough that the tricycle that we were on ran out of gas. See how karma works… From poblacion to Conalum the fastest way of transportation is thru our local version of motor-cross – the “habal-habal”.

I was caught in a limbo riding that stuff. First turn to the left, the tire got busted. Second turn to the right we were lost, went straight to Bugasok Falls which is not our destination… haha… but it was fun. Thanks to that driver we had to pay additional fees and had to walk straight back to where the group is located, nonetheless I had the chance to meet Sir Jothams, tourism official of Argao.
Since we lost contact from the group we asked the tourism official himself. He was very helpful and he was really in hand with his job. Kudos to our tourism official together with the locales for all the efforts of preserving Argao’s natural park – the Agta Cave, Bugasok Falls, Mahayay Beach and more must- see in Argao.
Trek on trail. You wouldn’t dare to underestimate a trail, how easy, steep, long or wide it is because you will never know what will happen. Like what happened to one of our comrades when we take our feet 600ft above sea level. He almost got himself into the cliff when the bamboo pole he was griping breaks and he got out of balance. Luckily, he fell on his back on a piled stone, his spinal column was cushioned by his backpack and managed to grab on to another branch.


I totally disagree to those mountaineers who would rate a trail. It would be far better to be careful while walking, and no one can stop us from doing what we love to do. As for ZETS, the trail is part of the package, the view, the sound and the serenity all comes with nature and we consider them being a part of life.


Kapalaran (Destiny). Jump off time 0030 we started getting our feet moving. We know that it is going to be a long hike. Maybe it was by fate that we would meet our friend there at Brgy. Conalum, Sir Jessie Mendez, a friendly locale of that place. He is like the muscle man of the mountain. Jessie is one of a kind, very unique, somehow special. I couldn’t blame Jessie for igniting the ice-cold heart to blazing fire of our very own “the All for love climber”, as mentioned above we only got 2 ladies Angie and Kezia. He hiked with us until we reached the peak of Mt. Takliad. Reached the peak at around 1530 and got a breath taking view of the panoramic scene of the east. We loaded our eyes with all the view that was offered. Took a couple of pose and felt hungry. So we needed to prepare our dinner and checked out for available campsite since the peak has limited space to huddle around. It was really meant for us to be on that place and on that time after all the things that we’ve encountered only for a day. It was rewarding.

Continued…