Banaue & Batad - hiking through rice terraces

In the north of Luzon island there are mountains called "Cordillera". From more than 2000 years ago, the indigenous people have been growing rice on their slopes. It is a perfect example of how nature and human intervention can be combined to produce beautiful scenery.

From afar you can see the "steps" going up the mountains. Farmers take advantage of every little corner to grow their crops. They sow and harvest all year round, but at this time of the year, most fields are getting ready for harvest, most plants are turning less green and more golden (don't say yellow, please, golden sounds more poetic).

After a 10-hour bus ride from Manila, we arrived in the town of Banaue. A small village with a population of a few thousands perched on the slopes of a mountain and surrounded by rice terraces. The view from Greenview lodge where we were staying was fantastic: a river running far down below, simple houses hanging from the side of the mountain in front of us, and rice terraces everywhere else. We could also see a foot bridge crossing to the other side; we tried it, not for the faint of heart.

The rice terraces are like a maize: you can see where you are going, "that little hut up there", but once you start walking through the terraces you end up going up and down, and never seem to find the right path to your destination. We decided to get a guide. Mikel guided us through rice paddies around Banaue and Batad during 3 days.

Batad is an even smaller village of less than a 1000 inhabitants reachable only on foot. Regardless of its low accessibility, it has guesthouses and a fair amount of tourists (some of them day-trippers from Banaue). We stayed overnight at the Batad pension: simple, but with an amazing view of the village and the amphitheater shaped rice terraces. We visited the very refreshing Tappia waterfalls nearby. It's easy to get there, but climbing back up to the pension was strenuous. Undoubtedly, we earned that fried chicken with rice that we had for dinner that night.

The last day we hiked a good portion of the way through the jungle literally. It wasn't long after I announced my fear of snakes that I had a long one a couple of feet away from my head. Fluo-green, thin, long, bright. The guide said it wasn't dangerous and insisted on a photo. No matter what he thinks, no photos of snakes will be uploaded on this blog.

Weather has been great so far. That means no rain, but high humidity. We enjoyed lots of hiking (not so much the sweating). Now we are moving on to Sagada, another village about 4 hours by jeepney from Banaue.

Mercedes