Four jam-packed days of hiking through the giant-stepped rice paddies of Ifugao. We visited four clusters of rice terraces, three of them World Heritage Sites, and passed countless others while toploading on the roof a rushing jeepney through the province’s snaking roads. Here’s a quick summary of the goings on at PHILTOA’s Ifugao Heritage Warrior Caravan Run.

D A Y 1 : B A N A U E

Manila to Ifugao
Banaue Hotel
Banaue Rice Terraces
Banaue Ethnic Village and Pine Forest Resort

D A Y 2 : B A T A D

The Road to Batad Rice Terraces
Batad Rice Terraces

D A Y 3 : H U N G D U A N

Banaue’s Native Village Inn
Banaue to Hungduan
Hungduan’s Hapao Rice Terraces
Roaming Around Banaue’s Poblacion

D A Y 4 : K I A N G A N

Kiangan’s Nagacadan Rice Terraces
Kiangan Shrine

 

P O S T C A R D S

Stairways to Heaven
Batad Harvest

The Ifugao Heritage Warrior Caravan Run is a four-day familiarization tour around the province of Ifugao organized by PHILTOA [Philippine Tour Operators Association].

Five months ago I got to visit the Rice Terraces of Hapao due to the insistence of a guide I unfortunately got introduced to. He kept on insisting that I should visit Hungduan since it was the greenest of all the terraces at that time. With really no other choice, being low on cash, I finally agreed.

It was my second time to check out Hungduan’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hapao’s sprawling rice terraces, this time with the cast and crew of PHILTOA as part of the familiarization tour in Ifugao.

I was puzzled as our jeepney passed the Hapao Rice Terraces viewing deck. Aren’t we going down the terraces, I asked myself as my ass bumped merrily against the hard metal deck of the jeepney’s roof.

We were riding topload again on the way to Hungduan for the third day of terrace-hopping. But before immersing ourselves into the rice paddies, it seemed we would be having a little detour first into the municipal hall of Hungduan.

The view from the top of the jeep was dizzyingly beautiful but we were forced to have a seat inside as it began to drizzle. I think the sour weather in Manila is finally catching up with us.

After being offered a one-way ticket and partial room accommodation by a fellow travel blogger J for a next day trip to Baguio, I was up and about on an impulsive trip for a supposed one-day affair at this year’s Panagbenga Festival which unexpectedly turned into a seven-day epic journey.

One quiet and two festive days in the City of Pines, I then travelled to the highlands of Sagada and spent three days walking its rough slopes. Low on cash and clothes to wear, I still decided to extend my journey further by spending two more days at the shadows of the massive Banaue Rice Terraces.

It’s been one heck of a week; new and old friends met on the road, hundreds of dogbarks from Sagada and Banaue, indescribable vistas seen, cheap and expensive meals from carinderias and posh restaurants, scary lodges and swanky hotels, four thousand five hundred pesos, three heavy cameras, a few clothes on my backpack and my battered trek shoes along the roads and non-roads of Baguio, Sagada and Banaue.

This has been one of my more memorable trips to date, and I’ll tell you all the dirty details in the coming months. Right now, I have to rest.