By HENRY EMPEÑO

BOTOLAN, Zambales — The popular adventure trek to the Mt. Pinatubo Crater Lake remains available to adventure-seekers and nature lovers through the Botolan route.

This was the assurance made by the Botolan Tourism Office here, as stakeholders operating the Capas, Tarlac route tried to resolve complaints by some Ayta tribesmen that recently sidelined trekking from that side of the mountain.

“The Mt. Pinatubo Adventure via the Botolan Trail remains open and is available for booking,” the Botolan Tourism Office announced in a post at its official social media account on April 18.

“We encourage all adventure seekers and nature lovers to explore the beauty of Mt. Pinatubo through the official Botolan route,” it added.

The Botolan Tourism Office also clarified that the video circulating online, which depicted some Ayta folks barricading the trail to Mt. Pinatubo, was not taken from the Botolan side.

It said the Botolan route “offers a safe, guided, and scenic experience.”

The Pinatubo trekking season runs from January to May. Through the Botolan route, the crater lake can be reached after a two-hour 4×4 ride across sand dunes, lahar rivers and cogonal hillocks, followed by a three-kilometer hike along a trail that largely followed streams flowing from the mountainside.

Among the latest visitor to the popular tourism draw was Filipino-American Miss Universe 2022 R’Bonney Gabriel, who posted stunning shots taken at the Pinatubo crater lake on April 4.

Meanwhile, Mayor Jun Omar Ebdane said the Botolan local government unit has organized a special voluntourism hike to Mt. Pinatubo on Labor Day for the benefit of Ayta folks along the Pinatubo trail.

Dubbed as “Pinatubo Grand Hike 2025: A Journey with Purpose,” the project aims for trekkers to meet, connect and share blessings with Botolan’s indigenous people at the upland village of Villar.

The special hike will be limited to only 200 outreach volunteers, the Botolan LGU said.

The voluntourism project is part of the LGU-organized Pinatubo Festival that kicked off on April 27. 