After yesterday’s long drive we wake up at 6am to the most beautiful view from our balcony. A town of 27,000, Banaue, is hemmed in on all sides by dramatic rice terraces. The local mud-walled rice terraces are World Heritage listed.
We meet our guide Nathan and driver Charles at 8am. We’re not in a truck today but a jeepney.
The iconic jeepney is up-cycled from leftover U.S. Willy Jeeps used during World War II. In the early 1950s, jeepneys began making their rounds in Manila and quickly became a solution to the post-war public transportation problem. Filipinos lengthened the American vehicle to accommodate more passengers, and attached a roof to protect them from the scorching Philippine heat. The seats were removed and replaced with two benches that stretched lengthwise on either side, allowing more seating space, and leaving a narrow space down the middle for an aisle. Jeepney drivers started to adorn their new vehicles with striking colors and images of anything that took their fancy, from holy Catholic imagery to pictures of the Philippine countryside to word art and their favorite cartoon characters.
Today we have our very own jeepney to transport us around.
As we leave town, Nathan asks if we’d like to ride on the roof of the Jeepney, no brainer, and with a bit of assistance we climb up top and sit on squares of cardboard. It’s great fun and a bit scary as we barrel around bends and travel up and down steep roads sometimes above the clouds.
We reach Batad the starting point for our rice terraces trek. The rice paddies are truly a mesmerizing sight and form a majestic amphitheater, with Batad village at the bottom. The first terraces in Batad were carved out of the surrounding hills by the Ifugao people at least 2,000 years ago. These were eventually built upon and expanded generation after generation.
Today, these terraces have been expanded along the steepest slopes to reach the very top of the hills.
We begin our trek and ascend via paths, piles of rocks and walking along the rice terraces. We walk past refreshment and souvenir shops, through a local school and beside local houses. Its a vertinegous landscape with everything appearing to cling to the side of the steep hills. The view from the top of the hills is breath-taking and enables us to truly appreciate the continuous labour that goes in to cultivating and harvestung rice in this unique landscape.
Traditional Ifugao houses
We walk for around 3 hours in total with a number of stops to admire the landscape it truly is quite breathtaking.
We return to our jeepney and to our hotel. En route, we stop in town at Banaue to stock up on supplies.
After a shower and a snooze with have Filapino food for dinner. A spicy beef and rice dish for me and for Brownie tasty fried unidentified pork bits and rice. It’s been a good day but we need to pack tonight as we’re on the move again at 8am.
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