This write-up is originally a post I made on my Multiply a couple of months back. For your leisurely reading.
"See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold" - Sting, Fields of Gold
…but we were too tired to run really…so we walked..and took our time trekking on this what I would now claim my heaven.
We left Manila at 2am of March 19, Wednesday to embark on a tiresome but fulfilling 16-hour journey to Sagada in Mountain Province, 395 kilometers north of our nation’s capital.
Arriving in Baguio at 8am, we stopped by Starbucks at the Baguio Country Club to regenerate, stretch our muscles, and cool our warmed butts from the hours on hold inside the AUV from Manila to this city.
Kuya, who is generally a people person, once again demonstrated his extroversion by befriending a man who would map our route. He wanted to know how to get to Halsema highway, which would get us to Mountain Province, and the person posed as a suitable candidate being a local. In their short conversation, he told my brother of his harrowing experience with a native tribe, which because of his ignorance of their customs, almost killed him.
Fast-tracking a couple of hours later (including a 30-minute stop over at a Shell depot to re-grease our vehicles ball joints), we stopped by the viewing deck of Halsema Highway at the highest point of the Philippine national highway system, 7400 feet. From here all one can see is the vast mountainous landscape with patches of farm terraces extending all the way to the horizon. The green mountains and blue sky dominated this mise en scene. (more…)
