Monday, October 20, 2008
the banaue adventure (banaue-sagada part 1)
it was sometime in the middle of the bar month when krizna invited me to go to banaue and sagada. i didn't give it much thought until probably a week after the bar exams were over. before i finally said yes, i recalled krizna's invitation. she said we were going to banaue, do some TREKKING in batad then go to sagada.
a few days before 15 october 2008, i confirmed with kriz about who were going to the trip. it turns out that a bunch of ateneo human rights center (ahrc) interns finally decided to relive their immersion experiences (and, well, hardships) with a couple of friends.
so on our scheduled departure date, we boarded a florida bus bound for banaue (florida has only one trip daily to banaue at 10:45pm) and arrived in banaue the following day. the entire trip lasted for approximately 8 hours, including around 3-4 stop-overs. upon arrival, we had breakfast at the halfway lodge and then proceeded to brgy. batad for our supposed and much-awaited TREK. from banaue town proper, the bumpy ride to batad took roughly an hour and a few minutes. once in the batad saddle (the jump-off point to go down the batad village and further down to go to the tappiyah falls), we had a few pictures taken and ate irene (our guide) proceeded to lead us in going down the mountain. after 20 minutes of walking we started to see glimpses of rice terraces. we reached batad village (where we ordered lunch) after less than 2 hours. we continued the supposed trek, this time actually walking IN the majestic rice terraces. the view of the rice terraces and the lush mountains was simply breath-taking. after a few more hours (i stopped asking/checking the time at this point) of going down the slippery trail and countless stops to breathe, we finally reached the end point - tappiyah falls. this was not without any risk. at some point, ate irene instructed us to go in pairs. then pointing to a part were rocks supposedly fell, she told us to cross that part by pairs and as quick as possible. thank god, no rocks were due to fall when we were all crossing. anyway, we got to the falls and swam/waded in its icy-cold waters. the currents were quite strong and we were careful enough not to fall down lest we would follow ona's disposable camera which got washed away. haha!
after 45 minutes or so, we decided to go back. and that meant going up the mountain. so much for trekking. hahaha! we went through almost the same path going back. and while going through the terraces, it rained. we were quick to put our valuables inside ziploc's and plastic bags. the rain was refreshing, to say the least. when we finally reached batad village, we had our lunch. this was around 3pm. an hour after, ate irene told us to get ready to go up again. we were apparently only halfway to the saddle. with heavy stomachs, we started our hike back (read: hike). each time we looked at our destination (the batad saddle), it seemed so far up the mountain. i'm not sure how to accurately describe the entire hike. hmm... eto na lang, mark asked for a piece paper for a number of times so that he could write his holographic will. hahaha!
once back at the saddle around 6pm, we headed back to the halfway lodge to get our things and to have dinner. we then proceeded to the banaue ethnic village where we finally called it a (long) day.
despite a blister in my right foot and the aching muscles after the hike, i must that the hike was well worth it and i enjoyed. i would love to go back there to hike again when i'm more fit for the whole thing. (oo na, krizna, nag-enjoy ako. haha!) this ended part 1 of our banaue-sagada trip.
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end note: ona got hold of a brochure, which described the hike up and down the batad terraces and tappiyah falls as "recommended only for strong hikers" (to kriz: TREKKING pala ah. hahaha!). and oh, according to ate irene, the mountain was 1,800 km above sea level. ayan, sige, mag-trekking tayo! haha!
