Mt. Mantalingajan or Mantalingahan is situated in Rizal, Palawan, more than 4 hours travel from Puerto Princesa City. Since Manta (another name given) is located on a secluded municipality, its beauty remains hidden to many hikers, thus, its richness is well preserved. A few hikers I met said that it is a combination of Mt. Halcon in Mindoro and Mt. Guiting-Guiting in Romblon.
Things to Remember: Height (2,086 MASL), Trails, Campsite, and Difficulty: The weather was not well during our hike. After getting off the van, we walked on a muddy and rough road to Balin-Balin village. This village has a few families with farming as their source of income. Their houses are made of nipa and wood. From the village, it’s another muddy trail ascent to Mamamahin, the spot where the tall Manguis tree (called Ginoo) is situated. It is also the place where I heard noises of a festival from the Taw’t Batu tribe (photo below) nearby. They were having their wine party. Then, it's a continued ascent to Magtangob and Sir Buldog’s house.
Tau't Batu (people of the rock) are indigenous people located in some high lying areas on Mt. Mantalingahan. Today, most of them are still using the ancient ways of living such like hunting and farming. They also use caves as their home but some already have houses made of light and sturdy materials like nipa, coconut leaves and woods. During our visit, I noticed that most of the women use cloth to cover their bodies while shirts and G-strings for the men.
We passed on the trails and spots such as Mangamot, Camp 1 or the Kabwan Community, Mangkopa, Kawayanan, Dikloy-Dikloy which is still part of Ransang, Palawan. Next spots were Polango area, bonsai area (photo above), Gunob and Paray-Paray camp site. The trail from Paray-Paray to the summit. Another challenging part was trekking to the summit. It wasn’t easy because there's rock scrambling but the trail has virgin forest and the ambiance was cool. Another part was another Bonsai area, which is perfect for photo background.
During our one night stay at Paray-Paray, sleeping in a tent was a challenge because it's really cold. On the other hand, to descend, the trails are downhill, uphill with mossy forest, rock scrambling, loose rocks and soil with cliff hanging on the side. Trails to descend are Lapong, fork trail to Kamantian trail, Nagringgit range, Karim, Kawang-Kawang, and Kupang area. We also passed on the community called Perataw.