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.