When we reached the mouth of Mt. Pinatubo’s crater lake, I was amazed.

I was only six when its epic eruption had happened. My only vivid memory of the event was the ash fall that I had woken up to thinking, in my young mind, it was snow — and growing up in a tropical country where there is no winter, imagine my awe at the thought of having snow. My mother had to correct that, though, much to my disappointment.

And looking at how large the volcano’s caldera is was so unbelievable, that I could not wrap my head around at just how big the volcanic eruption was in 1991. On our way up the crater, we trekked 7km along the valleys of building-high lahar walls that had somehow formed its own range of hills. I could not believe that all those things, the sands and giant rocks that we were trudging on, all came from it. And I wonder what are beneath all those sands. For years I had seen and heard stories about how its mudflows had almost wiped towns out.

But despite all the ghosts of devastation lurking beneath those sands and rocks, I can’t help feeling awed at the sight of this crater. Even if how this came to be was caused by a destructive explosion, it could not discount the fact that Nature does what it does best — creating views that could take your breath away.