This gallery contains 10 photos.
After three active days around Banaue, we now had a travel day ahead of us. We left Banaue in the late morning for the 50km trip through the mountains to Bontoc. En-route we had a couple of stops, to get … Continue reading
On our way back to Banaue we took a slight detour, to get a view of another village with its unique, this bowl-shapped, rice terraces.
The rice terraces of Bangaan are – as the ones in Batad – part of the UNESCO world heritage Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras.
From here it was back to Banaue – and back to civilization (including a hot shower), gin and some incredible magic with coke bottles 😉 .
Per the itinerary the walk to the falls should have happened yesterday afternoon. Though with the rain all afternoon we decided, to defer the walk to this morning.
We left the guesthouse after breakfast and – once more – made our way through the amphitheater criss-crossing the rice terraces, to then descent down towards the river (the same river, that we had a dip in two days back in Cambulo) and then following the path upstream, until we reached the waterfall. Overall a walk (one-way) of about 2km.
At the falls there was again an option for a quick dip / swim (I was in up to my knees) – followed by the walk back – this time up (about 200m of elevation gain overall).
After a quick lunch in the guesthouse we took our packs and left Batad and got onto the trail leading out of Batad, to cover a good km until we hit the road and changed back to our jeepney.
This gallery contains 16 photos.
New day, new hike. We left Cambulo in the morning, to make our way to Batad, the next village down the river – and when it comes to rice terraces, probably the most famous one – and of UNESCO world … Continue reading
After our arrival to Cambulo we spent some time to settle in and rest – before heading out for a tour through the (admittedly small) village, to then get into our first little rice terrace encounter. We then continued down to the river, where we had the opportunity for a quick swim.
In the evening – after dinner (and over gin) – the local school was treating us with a show of traditional songs and dances, plus a bit of a Christmas-theme, as well as Mexican folklore.
This gallery contains 15 photos.
We eventually made it to the starting point of the hike. In the past this used to be a trail head with a hiking trail heading towards the village – meanwhile however there is work underway, to convert the trail … Continue reading
Today we were heading out for our three day trek through the back country of Banaue – and into the world of villages and rice terraces.
We kicked it off with a tour through central Banaue, had a stop at the market (where we also stocked up on some vegetables, to go with dinner tonight), the town hall and the local fire station (also to see, who could have come to help the night before).
We then made our way down to the bridge crossing the river and got into a jeepney, to get to the starting point of our hike.
