If you want to breathe fresh air, enjoy the silence and beauty of the mountains, but don't want to go far from the city, Mt. Naupa in Naga, Cebu is the perfect place for you to be.
Yes, it will only take you 1-hour drive to reach Naga City if you're coming from Cebu City and a 45-minute ascent to reach the summit of Mt. Naupa from the Cogon Chapel.
We explored Mt. Naupa on March 11, 2017. Despite the not-so-good weather, we still managed to go on with our plans. At 12:00nn we departed from Cebu City. We did not take a public bus or jeepney because our friend Jade brought his car all the way up to Naga. We stopped over in Chowking at Starmall, Talisay for lunch.
After feeding our hungry stomach, we continued our journey to Mt. Naupa. It’s no longer raining when we reached Cogon Chapel at around 2:30 pm. This is the starting point of the trek. A bunch of kids greeted us and offered to guide us up to the peak. Days before the trek, we were actually told by our officemates that a lot of supernatural beings live in Naga. I've also read some blogs that detail their paranormal experiences during their climb. I even dreamt of it the night before our hike. With worries that these might be true, I pinned a “luy-a” into my bra.. yes, you heard it right! lols! and also put "ahos" or garlic in my bag as they say these will keep the Aswang away. Haha! So with that in mind, how can you not pay single cents in exchange for your safety?? Lols. So we asked 2 kids to guide our way up to the top.
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Cogon Chapel
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In every start of our trek, we would actually ask for the divine guidance from above. After then, we started our ascent. The trail is relatively easy but there are still some slippery areas caused by the rain. The trail is kinda steep which leave us to pause and catch our breath every now and then. We also took a lot of pictures along the way as the view is irresistible.
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| Along the way, we dropped by at this small store to take a 5 minutes rest. |
Few meters from the peak, the kids told us to pay a 20pesos entrance fee to the man who is that time sitting in the Kubo. Kay hadlok man mi, okay hatag dayun! Lols. It was also this time when the rain started to pour.
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| This is where Kuya is waiting to collect the 20pesos entrance fee. |
I'm a little bit disappointed because one of my objectives really was to chase the sunset but I guess the Mr. Sun is so shy that time that even its shadow was not felt. But, our experience is not that bad after all. We enjoyed posing for pictures - both solo and group pictures. We were also entertained by the children of the vendors there. Yup, there's a small Kubo beside the campsite which sells chichirias and even sodas. The vendor is actually the mother of Albert, one of our kid guides.
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| Seeing their genuine smiles makes me realize the little things I took for granted. |
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| You can see the view after applying some filters! :) |
After picture taking, we started our descent. We had a little detour on our way back because the road that we took going up is a little bit slippery and might be dangerous as the road is already wet because of rain. I actually slipped on the rocks and my butt fell on another rock. Ouch! But that's fine, my friends enjoyed seeing me fall. I'm happy that they're happy. Haha!
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| Roads we took during our ascent and descent. Both have the same distance from the summit of Mt. Naupa. |
We have safely returned to the Chapel. No one got hurt except for some minor injuries. We gave 150pesos each to Sherwin and Albert for accompanying us.
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| Group picture before bidding goodbye! |
And this ends my Mt.Naupa Aiventure. I would certainly come back and hopefully, I would be able to witness the breathtaking view of sunrise and sunset in Mt. Naupa.
To more aiventures!
Check out the highlights of our Mt. Naupa trip on Panyang's Vimeo account. Just click the link below.
https://vimeo.com/208408274
Nice aiventure! Mosulay ko didto puhon. :)
ReplyDeleteyes yes, you should! :) sayang lang kay wala namo na witness ang sea of clouds since uwan pag adto na mo.. :(
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