Mudspring - Mt Makiling's Mystical Crater

Dr Abe V Rotor
On the trail to the Mudspring with the author's family

It's a long trail if you start at the foot of Mt Makiling,
take the road with a four-wheel drive, 
then stop where the road ends and from here starts
a long trek you really have to strive.  

Among the huge towering trees you're but a dwarf
among creatures crawling or flying,
searching far beyond of what they are looking for; 
theirs for survival, yours meaning.  

Mudspring Crater, author with children.

Incessantly the crater pops scalding mud 
and gases that boggle the mind,
a mystic shroud where mist and cloud meet, 
    a spectacle of a different kind.  

Everybody loves this legendary mountain,
though fiery inside to be free;
Lofty is her majestic pose be near or far 
reclining in peace and beauty.  

Wonder the young mind thinks of this world,
  a hybrid of  fantasy and reality,
where spirits live and mortals dare to tread,
in a lifetime journey to infinity. ~

Mt Makiling is a dormant volcano in Laguna, site of the historic University of the Philippines at Los Banos, and the International Rice Research Institute.  The mountain has a profile of a reclining deity, Maria Makiling, for whom this mountain is named.