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].

Drenched both in sweat and rain from our Nagacadan trek, we clambered up to our jeepney for the chance to topload one last time before our bus drives us back to the plains of Manila.

We went back to Kiangan Shrine for the day’s lunch and final words, but before that, we took the time to check out the park where the infamous Japanese General, Tomoyuki Yamashita, surrendered to the Philippine Forces and effectively ended the war in the country. You read that right; he’s the Yamashita of the Golden Buddha fame.

It was our last day in Ifugao and I’m having a major hang-over. The night before was a whirlwind of hotel rooms, jumping over the next one as soon as the booze and stories ran out. After the nth room, my vision swirled, I lied down on someone’s bed and promptly passed out.

I awoke in my own room with only a few minutes left to pack up, take a bath, rush up, have breakfast and run to our bus. I didn’t make it, the bus left without us. Luckily only to town, they’d be back again for the long haul to Ifugao’s oldest town, Kiangan.

I slept most of the way over, opening my eyes only as our bus entered the Kiangan Shrine. My head still throbbing a bit, we transferred to a jeepney and zoomed away to the town’s own rice terraces.

After being slave-driven to see the verdant stepped terraces of Ifugao for three straight days (which we really didn’t mind by the way) we were finally given some free time to walk around Banaue’s town without a guide holding our hands.

Fresh from Hungduan’s Rice Terraces, we hurried down from our nest at the top of our jeepney as it passed Banaue’s Poblacion where we would be spending our afternoon pulling cash from our wallets in exchange for some hand-woven fabrics and the thing “travelers” abhor the most, ref magnets and keychains.

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.

It was the third day of PHILTOA’s Ifugao Heritage Warrior Caravan Run and before the group headed towards Hungduan for the third cluster of Rice Terraces in the itinerary, we first took a detour to the Native Village Inn at Banaue’s Uhaj Village.

Similar to the Banaue Ethnic Village and Pine Resort, the Native Village Inn also offers authentic Ifugao hut accommodations. They have seven native huts available and one spacious log cabin-like restaurant. Rates range from Php1,800.00 for a single hut good for two persons to Php2,100.00 for four persons.

After more than an hour of hiking through sticky mud and light rain, the amphitheater-shaped terraces of Barangay Batad in Banaue finally came into view.

The Batad Rice Terraces is said to be the most beautiful of the five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ifugao, scoring points against its other counterparts in Banaue, Hungduan and Kiangan. Although I’m not one to compare, I’d have to agree that Batad’s raw beauty is just breathtaking.

The path was muddy and the sky gray; it was constantly drizzling and it was not helping at all as we navigate the not-so-easy path to the amphitheater rice terraces of Batad in Banaue.

The PHILTOA crew started the day with a hearty breakfast at Banaue Hotel’s Imbayah Restaurant with hot mountain coffee, pastries, fried rice and regular morning Filipino fares. Clouds were rolling between the mountains across the window as we chowed down, storing up carbs for the long day ahead.

On a solo backpacking trip I had years ago, I was asked by a group of travelers to join them on a journey to Banaue from Sagada; they said they’d be staying in traditional Ifugao huts complete with swimming pools. I had to decline then, having itineraries of my own and thought they were joking until I saw the same village they’re describing with my very own eyes some years after.

The second destination for PHILTOA’s Ifugao Heritage Warrior Caravan Run was in Apa Nga-O Viewpoint where the Banaue Ethnic Village and Pine Forest is located. The village is about six kilometers away from Poblacion and can be accessed by renting a tricycle or habal-habal from the town.

The cold midday breeze blasting through our faces was not telling of the current time; it was almost twelve noon yet it felt like it was six in the morning. We were on roof of a jeepney, zigzagging up the Nueva Vizcaya-Ifugao-Mountain Province road on our way to the famous Banaue viewpoints in Ifugao.

Our first stop was the Dayanara View Point; pretty strange title for an Ifugao viewing deck if you ask me. The place was named, as you probably guessed by now, after the famous beauty queen Dayanara Torres. The Puerto Rican stunner had a photo shoot at the deck and the locals promptly titled it after her, very Filipino right?

The morning mist was trying to envelop the mountains of Banaue as we alighted from our ten-hour bus trip from Manila. We were welcomed with warm glasses of lemon grass tea by a hotel staff dressed in traditional Ifugao garb as we entered the lobby of the Banaue Hotel.

My initial impression of the hotel was that it was pretty old. It is the only hotel of its kind in the whole of the Ifugao province and it is huge; 81 rooms, a 200-seater restaurant, a conference hall and a swimming pool. Built in 1974, it is owned and operated by our very own government.

It was a hard fight to catch my ticket to Ifugao.

The night before, I got an invite from PHILTOA to join their Ifugao Heritage Warrior Caravan Run as part of the media group. I have a scheduled shoot somewhere in Ayala on the date of departure and I have only three hours to spare to hurry back home, pack, have dinner and leave for the rendezvous point.

It wouldn’t be as hard if the rain didn’t pour. I got stuck in Ayala as I was wrapping up my shoot.

Second time in Ifugao and first time to hike Batad. I’ve heard about how it’s not your regular walk in the park; the trail was fog-ridden and the ground was wet and muddy. Ifugao farmers bringing in meticulously harvested rice pass us once in a while as we made our slow way through the narrow steps of the Batad Rice Terraces. I was torn between watching my footing and the fantastic view beyond the chasm.

THE IFUGAO HERITAGE WARRIOR CARAVAN RUN IS A FIVE-DAY FAMILIARIZATION TOUR ORGANIZED BY PHILTOA

I found myself thinking about my travels a few days ago while having my morning coffee; it has exactly been a month since I last had a real long trip. Later that same afternoon, I got a call from PHILTOA asking if I wanted to join a tour of the Ifugao the next day. The answer of course was obvious, most especially since I won’t be spending a single cent for the trip.

Fast forward 36 hours later and I’m staring dumbstruck at the veranda of our room in Banaue. The photo above is a tribute to my very first camera, my Canon Powershot S3IS which had been an invaluable tool that literally changed the direction of my life. The photo is one of the last photographs it captured today as its internal sensor finally gave out.

THE IFUGAO HERITAGE WARRIOR CARAVAN RUN IS A FIVE-DAY FAMILIARIZATION TOUR ORGANIZED BY PHILTOA

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.