Tinipak River Trekking / Mt. Daraitan experience (during COVID pandemic)

Like many of you, I’ve been cooped up at home ever since ECQ started last March. I do go to the office everyday, so it’s not like I’m going crazy staring at the four corners of my room, but still. It’s been a really long time since I last traveled anywhere for fun and relaxation and whatnot. (OK, I did go to Anvaya Cove earlier this year, but aside from that, nada).

So for November 1, as COVID cases started to dwindle down, my family decided it was time to go for a hike. Why a hike? Well, it seemed relatively less risky since everything’s open air, plus it’s a nice excuse to get out of the city and bask in nature’s beauty. As an additional selling point (for others, not for me), it’s good exercise.

But where to go? Originally, I was looking at Mt. Gulugod Baboy in Batangas, because it’s said to be relatively easy (2 hrs hike upwards MAX), with pretty good views for efforts exerted. FYI, my family fancies themselves hikers but we’re really not. The only mountains we’ve “hiked” in the Philippines are Taal and Mt. Pinatubo. Throw in Masungi Georeserve if you consider that a hike.

I’d already contacted the head tour guide at Mt. Gulugod Baboy – Sir Globert Sapunto 0921 573 9964, who was very responsive. He said there were minimal hikers, vaccination card is sufficient, and that the hike is pretty easy (he seemed to sense I needed reassurance).

But upon checking, damn, Batangas is far! My family is also not a family of early risers. From our house in QC to Mt. Gulugod Baboy would take 3+ hours one-way. Erg.

So we researched again, and we found… Mt. Mamara! It’s the chiller cousin to Mt. Daraitan, but you’ll be privy to the same views at the top. As a plus, on the way down, you get to bask in the beauty of the limestone formations and the rushing sounds of Tinipak River.

Only problem is – I didn’t know if the mountain was open or not! So we scoured the internet for contact details and finally hit upon the Tanay Rizal LGU number (wow, so desperate). Here’s the number for your reference – (02) 8655 2195.

Upon calling them up, they then referred us to the Barangay that handles Mt. Daraitan and Mt. Mamara. Specifically, we were referred to Sir Kevin -0906 884 7359.

Sadly, Sir Kevin informed us that Mt. Mamara and the caves were closed due to the rainy season (there’s a certain part that makes it impassable), but that Mt. Daraitan and Tinipak River itself were open up to 30% capacity. Hmmm… could we manage Mt. Daraitan? I doubt it. But we could just do a chill Tinipak River trek instead, that sounded waaay more manageable and picturesque too!

Once we as a group agreed to the plan, Sir Kevin gave us a reservation form – which is apparently SUPER IMPORTANT because we were actually stopped at a checkpoint, and they wouldn’t let us through without proof of reservation. Wow, so strict! Good thing we had booked in advance then, as we were initially thinking of just winging it.

People allowed at Tinipak River during the pandemic

According to Kevin, you needed to be:

• Aged 18 to 65 (well I should hope so, who hikes beyond this age range?)
• Vaccinated – bring proof of vaccination

And to our surprise, you also needed proof of booking with Mt. Daraitan – which we thankfully did c/o Sir Kevin. There was a booking fee of PHP 10/person, which we paid at the site itself.

What to bring for Tinipak River trekking

• Bag to bring up to Tinipak (small, light, water proof or resistant)
  • Alcohol
  • 1 Liter water
  • Packed lunch (sandwiches, in our case)
  • Wet wipes)
• Bag to leave behind in the car
  • Small quick dry towel
  • Extra change of clothes
  • Soap
  • Shampoo
  • Sunscreen
  • Slippers
• Outfit for the day
  • Sports bra / Dry fit shirt
  • Leggings or Loose shorts
  • Cap/Hat (seriously, the sun – it is unforgiving)
  • Shoes with a good grip that can get dirtied/wet

Who to contact for Tinipak River / Mt. Daraitan / Mt. Mamara trekking

Contact Sir Kevin at 0906 884 7359.

Basic Itinerary (which I will expound on afterwards)

• 5:30AM : Leave house (QC)
• 8:00AM : Arrive at Daraitan Barangay Hall (Waze Pin at Daraitan Parking)
• 9:00AM : Start hike (crossing the river)
• 11:00AM : Arrive at Tinipak Viewing Area / Head over to Limestone Rock Formation
• 12:00PM : Chill at the Tinipak Viewing Area / Eat lunch
• 2:00PM : Back at the Parking area
• 5:00PM : Dinner at Cafe Lidia
• 7:00PM : Back home (QC)

Take note: My group was a very very very slow group – so you can likely half all the trekking time, and just use that as the basis for the MAX amount of time it’ll take your group. Plus, there’s an option to take a tricycle to cut down the trekking time, which we turned down because the road’s pretty smooth anyway so we just hoofed it.

1. We aren’t fit at all. Imagine, we were with my parents who are nearing senior citizen age!!!
2. We (meaning the young ones. aka me, my brother, and my friends) are a bit too fond of taking photos. So… we would stop every few minutes to take photos, although in retrospect, they all kind of look the same to a certain extent at a certain point. Phew, in total, we took around 600+ photos!!!!

Tinipak River trekking experience

So first off – I am NOT a morning person. Waking up at 4:30AM practically killed me. I was a zombie for the first 30 minutes or so. But thankfully, I was awake by 5:30AM and we were off!

I was a teensy weensy bit worried that the roads to Daraitan would be bad. I don’t have much faith in local roads, and I had read blogs that talked about how bad the roads were. Thankfully it was A LOT better than I expected. There was only ~5-10 mins worth of bumpy driving as we approached the mountain proper, but everything prior was composed of nice highway roads. Very good for roadtripping actually! So, I asked our guide later on and he informed me that the LGU had invested in the infrastructure once tourism started booming. Good job LGU!

Now, along the way, as we were nearing the Daraitan area, we were stopped by a police checkpoint! They asked us for proof of reservation (which thankfully we had), as well as our IDs and proof of vaccination. I was pretty impressed by how strict they were, then was less impressed because they only glanced at the driver’s ID, and not all our IDs. LOL. Oh well.

Finally, at around 8AM, we arrived at the Daraitan Parking. But ohnoes, the parking was FULL!!! So many cars – I was worried they had reached full capacity already and we wouldn’t be able to trek!! (FYI – Mt. Daraitan typically allows 300 hikers per day, but because Rizal was under Alert Level 3, they were allowed to operate at 30% capacity only). Thankfully, it seemed these cars were overnight hikers (they’d been there for 3 days already), and that we were one of the first for the day! Thank goodness, apparently the day before (Sunday), there were a LOT of hikers. Bah, I don’t like crowding when hiking, especially because I’m slow and also vain (I like taking my photos without other people photobombing).

Unfortunately, when we got there, rain started to pour as in POUR! It made the roads and trails extremely muddy. On the plus side, it made our decision super simple. Goodbye Mt. Daraitan, hello Tinipak River trekking only 😛

So first order of business – bathroom break. Before you cross the water body with a raft, make sure to go to the bathroom first because there are no more bathrooms on the other side, at least until you reach the Tinipak River viewing area. The bathroom is decent – pretty clean, very basic – and will cost you PHP 10, so make sure to bring spare change.

Afterwards, it’s time to cross with a raft! The raft is cute – it’s essentially a bamboo platform lashed between two boats. A bit rickety, but it serves its purpose. Once you reach the other side, you have to pay PHP 10 per person.

Next, it’s time to go to the Barangay Hall. You have two options. You can either take a tricycle (PHP 60 per tricycle, maximum 3 people) or you can walk. We opted to take the tricycle because we didn’t know where the Barangay Hall was.

Once we got there, we met Sir Kevin! Wooo – how awesome to place a face to the name. First order of business, paying the eco-tourism fees. So for the environmental fee, cultural fee, and tourism fee – each person had to pay PHP 100 to the LGU.

This was also where we paid the PHP 10 per person fee for the advanced booking (super worth it! For my peace of mind, AND because this was actually required at the checkpoint. What a shocker)

From here, we were then guided to the tour guide area. Each tour guide can only handle a maximum of 5 people. Because we were composed of 8 people. we had to get 2 tour guides at PHP 500 each. It’s nice to have 2 tour guides though, because you have 1 in front, and the other 1 at the back. We felt very well-guided and they were nice enough to chitchat with us, because we had some chatterboxes in the group (myself included haha!) Plus, they take nice photos too!

Anyway, from here – you can take a tricycle so that you’re nearer to the Tinipak River starting point. Honestly though, the tricycle ride would take 10 mins, and the actual trek 30 mins. We figured we came here for the exercise, so proceeded to eschew the tricycle ride and start the trek!

And off we went!

The trail is honestly pretty okay. Generally smooth, well-worn. And you pass by such beautiful sights along the way. Honestly, I’m always so impressed by the master Painter. God is so amazing – to be able to create such wondrous sights with one flick of a hand? Such majesty! And so impressive to see how everything just comes together.

I’m pretty sure the Tinipak River trek is meant to take 1 hour max – from the tour guide place, to the River viewing area). It took us 2.5 hours though. Gosh we’re slow. We took so many pit stops for photo taking. Thank goodness there weren’t any hikers aside from us, everyone would be itching to overtake our group otherwise hehe.

Mid-way to the viewing area, we were informed that we had to pay another PHP 65 per person (although we paid out twice, PHP 30 and PHP 35 respectively), which was for the katutubo (?) I’m not sure for what honestly. And I do wish they would just add up all these fees so we can pay them altogether at the beginning of the trek, as it’s really quite a hassle to keep bringing out money in the middle of the trek (especially because it kept raining! So our money were placed in these ziplocks, inside the bag, then we had to keep taking it out). Oh well, I reassure myself with the idea that at least these money will go to the rightful people since we’re paying them directly.

Anyway, once you get to the viewing area, there are some makeshift “photo booths” which are quite pretty. We took advantage of them, but found out later on that we each had to pay PHP 20. Ahh, more add-on fees. There’s also a bathroom here, which you can use to freshen up, change etc. The bathroom costs PHP 5.

We did a quick pitstop here to eat our lunch because we were hungry! When you use their kubo, you also have to pay PHP 10 per person. But afterwards, we were off – heading for the limestone rock formation.

I thought this was the most difficult part of the hike (which doesn’t say much because the hike wasn’t difficult at all). It was made difficult because there were a lot more step inclines, rickety ladders to use when traversing certain areas of the path, plus it was quite muddy and slippery at this point since it had been raining.

Anyway, we made it! And thankfully, we were once again, first to arrive. (Typically the day hikers who trekked up Mt. Daraitan would start arriving at the limestone formation around 1PM, so we made good time).

Beautiful!! I am continuously stunned by how beautiful our country is. There’s a tendency to forget this when you’re surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city. But wow, so many hidden gems still, and I really pray our country will take good care of all this beauty.

By the tail end of our photoshoot, the other hikers started trickling in so we decided to scram. We headed back to the viewing area, and debated whether we would go for a dip in the river. Unfortunately, because it had rained, the river was rather muddy and we decided to forego the dip and just head back. I think our guides were a bit sad – they really wanted us to experience the whole thing 🙁 But we were telling them the photos and memories were more than enough! I, for one, was very pleased we made it to all the photo spots before the other hikers came along.

So back we trudge. Yet even as we trudged back, we still took multiple photos. I think the guide was probably wondering, “didn’t we pass through the exact same area awhile ago?” Thankfully, they were SUPER patient. I really like them. Apparently, because of the pandemic, Mt. Daraitan had officially opened just a week or two ago. Even on that day, they were only expecting around 20 groups of people! Grabe noh? From a peak of 300 hikers, where they had to turn away folks who came in past that quota…

Thankfully, our tour guides were telling us that they managed to survive the pandemic through farming. They’d help plant in other folk’s farmlands, then they’d get a share of the food. And I was also equally glad to hear that they had all been vaccinated! Sometimes when I hear the news, I worry that the country is a bit too NCR-centric. It certainly feels like we get all the good things first, then it slowly trickles down to the other provinces. While I definitely benefit from this, since I live in NCR, I do look forward to a day when our resources will be split more equitably.

Anyway!! We finally made it back! Before heading down to Manila, we freshened up first and changed into fresh clothes.

At this point, we were feeling quite hungry, and were eager to try out the restaurants dotting the area. Unfortunately, they all seemed to have kitchen issues!!! Arghhh, so we ended up at Cafe Lidia instead, which was quite nice still. You can read more about our experience here.

Budget Breakdown for Tinipak River trekking

• Raft fee: PHP 10 per person (one-way)
• Tricycle: PHP 60 for 3 people (one-way)
• Booking fee: PHP 10 per person
• Eco-tourism fees: PHP 100 per person
• Tour guide: PHP 500 for 5 people
• Katutubo et al fees: PHP 65 per person
• Kubo fee: PHP 10 per person
• Photo fees (at the viewing area): PHP 20 per person
• Bathroom fees: PHP 5-10 per visit

In total, our group of 8 spent around ~PHP 3200, so around PHP 400 per person. Not bad!!

Overall, I’d highly recommend this river trek – especially for folks who are beginner hikers. It’s chill, but you’re still surrounded by pristine clean nature. Thankful we got to do this despite the pandemic, and in fact, because it was the pandemic, we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves 80% of the time!