Nature Trip

Banaue : The Ifugaos 0

May 25, 2011 by Admin in Adventure Travel, Budget, Nature Trip, Travel Tips Tags:

In Banaue, the balcony of a rustic shop on the roadside allows tourists to shoot expectedly, the uniformed Banaue rice terraces photo and even old Ifugaos in tribal wear pose for pictures.

Banaue : The IfugaosGazing at the paddies, the answer on how the Ifugaos can water the terraces with mountain rocks all around them is hard to come by, unless someone gives it to you. It soon appears that there is an elaborate natural system at work here. The hilltops and the surrounding mountain slopes are covered with trees. The tree roots hold the water level up and thus keep the supply going.

By gravity fall, water is channeled to the paddies through a series of dams, floodgates, channels and bamboo pipes. Underground conduits are laid under the paddies for drainage. The drained water is passed next to the paddy below it. And to the next. Until all the used water finally collects in a stream at the bottom of the valley. Water supply is equitably apportioned. The irrigation work is communally shared.

It now makes sense why the Banaue mountains are constantly forested. Communal forest, or muyong, rings an Ifugao community where the paddies comprised the center. It is a forest that is closely guarded and fiercely defended by the villagers. It is the layout, as much as the lifeline, of their community. If anything, the Ifugaos rely on, while benefiting from, a naturally-functioning ecosystem.

Since they have a forest to keep, the Ifugaos inevitably settled down on a fixed farming territory unlike the hunting and thus, wandering, tribes. Nowhere to go, they led a sedentary life with a farmer’s faith and habits. Rice feasts and rituals evolved. Woodcarving went into the production of Bulol images, the rice god. Not for nothing why the Ifugaos stand out as the most skillful woodcarvers of the Cordillera region. And the settled life also afforded them the finest skin texture and body built among their ethnic kins.

There are a number of lodgings in Banaue to choose from. Banaue Hotel is the top accommodation. It is centrally located with a view of the terraces. But wherever you checked in, take time to go out. Hire a local guide to show you around.

Largely schooled by American missionaries, much of the middle-aged Ifugaos speak English well than in any other language.

The village behind Banaue Hotel is frequented by tourists who want to catch a glimpse of Ifugao life. The native hut is stilted high above the ground, box-like in shape, and topped by a large pyramidal roof. Genuine huts are constructed without saws or any other tools. Decorative carvings adorned the beams and moldings.

It is a single-room house. Don’t be surprised to find skulls and human bones inside perched over a shelf. That could be a deceased father or grandmother. Ifugaos bury the dead in an earthen grave and cover it with a mound of rocks. After a time, they dig it up and bring the bones home. They believe that the dead will keep them company.

Christianity is wiping out this interesting native practice. Instead, they now bury the dead at the backyard in concrete graves topped by a cross.

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Manila: A Past Unknown 0

May 21, 2011 by Admin in Adventure Travel, Nature Trip Tags:

There is no better place to start your Philippine journey than in Manila. It offers the best introduction to the variety of cultures and experiences that await you in the islands.

manilaLike any developing city, Manila’s rapid growth does not come without the typical urban issues of pollution, overpopulation, and traffic congestion. But even in a traffic snarl, something amusing can divert your mind away. Colorful jeepneys, a Philippine trademark, honk and race for a square meter of space to pick up passengers. Some, for practical reasons, have switched to rust-resistant chrome bodies. Left by the thousands by the American GIs after World War II, Filipino ingenuity has refashioned the former military 4x4s into a rickety but dependable stretch limos with bench seats for the common man. It is the popular public ride not only in Manila but in the whole of the archipelago.

Filipinos have a knack to learn and adapt things even without formal instructions. The Spaniards saw it among the natives and called it oido, to “play by ear.” Until an American-styled education, properly taught in the English language, was introduced. The training comes with lessons in social manners so that any American will feel at home in the Philippines today.

Soon, a highly-skilled English-speaking workforce is produced that is now widely demanded in many jobs abroad. Not less than 10 percent of the Philippine population works overseas. The paychecks they send home keep the economy supplied of its crucial dollar reserves and a sizable portion of the populace from collapsing into poverty that the government cannot arrest.

Working overseas is not entirely a 20th century phenomenon. When the first Manila galleon sailed for Mexico in 1565, Filipino labor gangs had constructed the big four-masted ships, Filipino crews manned the decks, and Filipino marines battled the pirates, keeping the Pacific a Spanish Lake over the next 250 years. Filipinos today, however, only see the spectacular sunset when they look out to Manila Bay. They cannot see the adventurous and romantic voyages of the Manila galleons that once captivated the imagination of the world. Or the naval power that the Philippines has been.

In the Philippines, the sunset takes down every history of the day with it so that Filipinos wake up in an ever present. History and the many great Filipino moments get trundled under a too American-styled education. Philippine history textbooks are thick with naïve nationalism but impoverished of the rich, but no less than touchy details, that even professional historians avoid handling.

Only travelers with budget to travel can see what every Filipino ought to see. The 2,000 year-old Cordillera rice terraces stand as proof to the antiquity of the Filipino civilization. The lowlands and coastal towns distant from Manila are the complex progenies of the complex Spanish colonizers.

Our cities are like metaphysical circles whose center is nowhere and its radius everywhere. The Visayan islands are lessons of the Mother Nature that Filipinos have spurned but still, it occasionally administers its wrath and grace. And Mindanao, particularly Muslim Mindanao, is a dark mysterious land that still awaits comprehension before its fulfillment is realized.

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Vigan: A Woman’s Fidelity 0

May 16, 2011 by Admin in Adventure Travel, Nature Trip Tags:

It is impossible not to feel overwhelmed by a sense of quaintness when in Vigan. The hotels, for instance, are old houses converted to business. With fully air-conditioned rooms, Vigan Heritage Mansion at Liberation Boulevard still retains the old world appeal. But it is Villa Angela at Quirino Boulevard that has the most distinctive character. Local filmmakers have shot movies more than once in the house. Hollywood star Tom Cruise even stayed here while filming “Born on the Fourth of July.”

viganCrisologo Street, which begins at Plaza Burgos next to the cathedral, is the most touristy and most photographed section of the district. But there are, at least, 26 blocks to be explored. A calesa ride for Php150 an hour around the place can give the feel of a slow passage through time… A rusty window iron grill of an empty house … A tiny white flower between the plaster crack swinging in the breeze … Certainly, there is more beauty to the sadness of an unpainted woman than an overly made up matron.

After the tour, take a bite by sampling the local delicacies. There are low-cost eateries around the cathedral. Vigan Empanada is a deep-fried bread stuffed with strips of papaya, onions, egg, garlic and longganisa (or native sausage). Also try goto (rice porridge) with callos (oxstripe).

Or you can walk into Cafe Leona. A hangout for tourists and locals alike, the restaurant is named after the statue across the street, Leona Florentino, the first Filipino poetess. Here, you can have good tasty meals and ice cold beer. And if the local historian Damaso King is around, you will certainly hear of some old and interesting Vigan stories.

One moving real-life story is about the local Jap commander during the war, Capt. Fujiro Takahashi. As the US forces raced toward Northern Luzon, Takahashi was ordered by the high command to burn and leave Vigan. His worst fears came true. So, Takashashi begged the Vigan Seminary procurator, Fr. Joseph Kleikamp, a German SVD, to give protection to his mistress, a woman from a prominent local family, and their lovechild on his departure. As one Axis ally to another, Fr. Kleikamp agreed on the condition that Takahashi would spare the town from burning—or his family would suffer the town’s wrath. Takahashi acceded. And he left Vigan quietly with his troops in the night.

The next day, the townsfolk discovered the Japanese were gone but left drums of gasoline at the plaza ready to blow. Quickly, they spread out a large American flag on the square grounds—and warned the American bombers just in time from wrecking Vigan.

Other places were not as lucky. And you cannot agree more than when night falls and the streets are deserted. A lone calesa clipclops on the cobblestones. And Vigan wears a different aspect.

At Plaza Salcedo, Gabriela Silang, wife of assassinated rebel leader Diego Silang, was executed before a terrified crowd under the shadow of the cathedral in 1763. For leading his husband’s army, she is now revered as the first Philippine amazon. But the faithful wife is shaded in a corner.

Truly, the fidelity of a Vigan woman can even break stones.



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