The sky was sullen gray as we entered Sira-an Hot Spring at the town of Anini-y in Antique. Actually, it was the ideal weather for taking your clothes off and dipping down at the steaming pools of Sira-an. Add in a bit of drizzle and it would’ve been perfect.

Well, except that there were too many people who probably have that same thought; the resort was almost filled to brimming when our group from Antique’s Katahum Tours arrived.

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THE RESORT FACES THE SULU SEA

I once thought of dropping by Sira-an Hot Spring some months back when I first checked out the neighboring Anini-y Church. Unfortunately, time was something I was lacking back then and I had to be content on looking at its gates as the bus I was riding on sped past.

Lining the coastal highway of Barangay Buruun in Iligan City are several cold spring resorts. Dubbed as the Timoga Springs, it’s a popular weekend getaway for Iliganons looking for an affordable way to cool down, especially during the hot summer season.

To be exact, there are five cold spring resorts along the Timoga highway; the Maravillas Swimming Pools, Mimay Spring Way Resort, Dela Mar Resort, Timoga Spring Pool, and El Laurentio Swimming Pools. Each one having clean spring waters gushing in varying sizes of natural and artificial pools.

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Our 4x4 emerged from a cloud of dust and was eaten by a narrow gorge. We were rumbling through the lahar-laden wasteland east of Mt. Pinatubo, our destination a lone resort at the foot of one of the most destructive volcanoes of the 21st century.

Looping around North Luzon for a week, we have seen some pretty spectacular places and most of us were really not expecting much for the last day of the Lakbay Norte 3 tour, I mean what else can they throw at us? A whole lot more, as it turned out.

The jump off point to Puning Hot Spring is at Sapang Bato in Angeles City. Dubbed as Station One, it’s where we chose our 4x4’s. We piled on the back of the trucks and within minutes were racing across the road, passing Station Two and rumbling down the dusty landscapes of Porac.

Apart from the beautiful coves and dive sites surrounding Coron, the town has another ace up its sleeve; the therapeutic waters of Maquinit Hot Springs.  This is the only saltwater spring in the whole of Asia and its waters sprouts from the nearby Dalara Mountain, a dormant volcano.

To get there, we rented a two-way ride tricycle for Php300.00. It’s a good thing we did too as we originally planned on hiking all the way to the resort thinking it was just a stone’s throw away from the town; at least says the peeps at Tita Esh Eatery. The trip took a total of thirty minutes.