Along the national road we saw colorful abaca thread hanged for drying. Abaca is a type of plant used in making ropes, baskets and many other decorative and native house materials. In the next 5 meters, we found abaca half-finished products lining up the road ---trays in uniform sizes! These trays can be turned into attractive food trays or baskets if decorated with other intrinsic materials, I thought. We just stopped to get you these pictures. Though I yearned to know what could be the final look of these trays, I wasn't able to get any information because there was no one looking after them. So we proceeded to our intended destination.
Mayon Volcano National Park is likewise accessible by public transport. It's a 20-minute jeepney ride from Legaspi City to the town of Sto.Domingo in Tabaco, Albay (just ask the driver to drop you off at the national highway near the old cement plant called Indoplex). From there a 1 1/2 kilometer stony road will lead you to the gate of the park, a distance you can walk in 15 minutes or reach by tricycle ride in 5 minutes. Walking is pleasurable especially that you'll pass by living streams which waters flowing over the jagged roads. I imagined how refreshing the water was.
The park is a well-preserved mountain equipped with essential camping facilities ---a visitor center, camping grounds, picnic areas, biking and hiking trails. Campers can put up tents in the spacious grounds, and use the park's indigenous stove in cooking foods. Once you enter the gate, chirping of birds and murmuring of the tree branches and leaves will welcome you.
An area of the park more than 59 thousand square meter is under a tree-planting project, participated by government and non-governmental organizations, as well as private companies. These groups, now totaling to 64, plant their choice of trees (whether fruit bearing or not) and have the exclusive right to harvest. I wasn't able to ask if visitors are allowed to eat fruits from these trees, because when we came there were no fruits yet.
The park also serves as a gateway to one of Mayon's trail, the Lidong, Sto. Domingo trail. Having the park as a start off point, Camp 1 (the first stop for the hikers), can be reached in 3 hours. There are 2 more trails to Mayon--- the Buyoan and Mabinit trails, both in Legaspi. The last trail is where we you'll find the marker built in respect to the 75 farmers who died during the eruption in 1993.
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