Back to Baguio

In just six months, there aren’t many places I’m going back to more than once. Mindoro, to see Mary (and her project, and her nice beach, which might be the closest one to Manila anyway). San Juan, to surf again. And Baguio. The last time I was there, it was cold and there was a downpour. I went to that great museum and to Burnham Park, but there was more that I wanted to do.

We ate lunch, showered, and got on our first non-air-con bus. The air-con buses are way too cold, and the non-air-con was quite hot, but it was leaving, so we hopped on it. That is, it was quite hot until we got closer to Baguio – it was cool in the mountains, and rainy again! We got there late in the day, but we did get to what was next on my list – Tam-awan Village, a collection of mostly Ifugao huts, some of which you can stay in. Except that all of the Ifugao huts were washed away in Pepeng! There were people staying in two of them that weekend, but because of the rain, they decided to leave early. And in the wee hours of the next morning, their huts slid down the hill, along with the wishing pond. When we arrived, there were still two Kalinga huts – octagonal wooden structures; we were able to stay in one of them – and the art gallery. They are getting more Ifugao huts and were supposed to have everything rebuilt by this week – I hope they managed it!

We went back into town for dinner at Café by the Ruins. I had eaten here the last time – maybe you’d call it Filipino-fusion-healthy cuisine? Last time I had a salad and a sticky bun (all right, it’s not all healthy) – this time I had mango shrimp curry and dark bittersweet chocolate, maybe the richest hot chocolate I have ever had, decadent and dreamy. Why didn’t I have that last time? Big mistake on my part is the only explanation I can think of. I wrote down the recipe for that too, but since it calls for carabao milk and moscovado sugar, I think I won’t be able to really duplicate it, even though I bought the tablea chocolate (which, it turns out, is a Filipino specialty product – blocks of cocoa powder made from cacao beans…maybe I should get some for folks back home!). However, I can look at the recipe and dream.

Back at Tam-awan, the artists were sitting around and talking with the other hut-guest, huddled around a fire. We joined them for a while, everyone relaxed and laid back. And then slept in a hut! It was quite cozy. The next morning, I walked the Tam-awan grounds and just sat for a while, enjoying the moment. In the light of day, an early start didn’t seem that important. In fact, I had a brilliant idea – to go back to Café by the Ruins for breakfast. Of course, it was self-serving, so I could have more dark bittersweet chocolate, but it was also a good idea, since we had a long bus ride ahead that turned out not to have good lunch options at the rest stop. I had not only the chocolate but French toast, fruit, and a taste of civet coffee (supposed to be especially smooth after the beans go through the civet cat’s digestive tract, but I am not enough of a coffee person to have really tasted a difference). I suggested to Julie that we go back to Café by the Ruins on our way to or from the surf weekend (I’d like to see more of Baguio, too, if we catch a non-rainy day – but if we spend more time at the beach, that’s okay too) – it’s a little out of the way (about an hour and a half to two hours out of the way, that is) but worth it!