We are sticking to our resolution of doing at least one hike a month, so on March 1st we went up Mt. Pico de Loro. According to Wikipedia, it was named by Spanish sea-farers as the summit resembles the shape of a parrot’s beak, and when seen was taken as a signal to turn east to get into Manila Bay. We had to book in advance with DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) as they allow only 90 hikers per day (it was closed for 6 years due to the volumes of trash left by visitors, degradation and soil erosion) – but when we arrived our payment hadn’t appeared on their system…so our hike started with a bit of stress (from me). However the hike was pleasant – not too steep with lots of forest cover and really old trees (the area is protected) which I would have loved to have stopped to sketch.

Sat-1-Mar-2025