The Ifugao Rice Terraces

We left Sagada early in the morning for the jeepney ride to Bontoc – another twisty mountain road with magnificent views on both sides. We went to the local museum - more huts, weavings, baskets, carvings, photographs of tribal elders – and a nice gift shop, where I bought a buong (good luck symbol) necklace and earrings and a bulol (rice god or rice guard, depending on who you talk to – either way it keeps out pests and prevents calamities). We headed for a 10:00 jeepney only to find out it was a noon jeepney! Did the travel luck run out? No – we walked to the edge of town, where I had spied a footbridge on the way in, crossed it and sat by a terraced rice field, talking, eating Yoghurt House cookies and be-ing. The driver had said to check back at 11:00 and when we did, they were waiting for us – we got on and took off, on yet another fun ride, this time to Banaue.

From the UNESCO site (and also from an entry posted long ago): The Ifugao Rice Terraces are the priceless contribution of Philippine ancestors to humanity. Built 2000 years ago, reaching a higher altitude and being built on steeper slopes than many other terraces, the Ifugao complex of stone or mud walls and the careful carving of the natural contours of hills and mountains to make terraced pond fields, coupled with the development of intricate irrigation systems, harvesting water from the forests of the mountain tops, and an elaborate farming system, reflect a mastery of engineering that is appreciated to the present [sic].

Banaue’s rice terraces are featured on the 1000-peso bill (so now I have seen the kasbah on the back of the 50-dirham bill and the view on the back of the 1000-peso bill); we took a tricycle up to the view point (actually several view points) and marveled. We’d seen rice terraces already, all along, but this was on a scale we hadn’t seen yet – a huge valley with the mountains all around terraced. And they’ve been doing this for 2000 years! We then went down to the tourist office, where we arranged a hike for the next day (some of the PCVs in Sagada had gone to Banaue on the way up and recommended two guides – two volunteers left Sagada earlier, didn’t stop in Bontoc and were trekking overnight with one, Johnny, and we took the other, Rachel, who had, as the volunteer who recommended her said, “good female mojo.”) Then we went to a restaurant with a terrace view (hard not to have one) and I had vegetable fried rice! It’s a special – tasty – red rice that grows there. We then went to our hotel, the Banaue View Inn (the other Tam-awan hut-guest had recommended it, but description of the owner as the granddaughter of a Yale anthropologist had already piqued my interest). It was time for single rooms – the pension was fun but I didn’t sleep that well there. It was also time for a hot shower, but due to some heater mixup, there was none to be had that day….

The next day, Bill, Rachel and I went on an hour-long tricycle ride to Batad Junction – after that it gets too steep for the tricycle. Luckily, Rachel hitched us a ride on a jeepney up to Batad Saddle, and she had brought along walking sticks. We hiked down the trail to the top of Batad village, and I decided it was my favorite place in the Philippines so far, if not my Best New Place of 2009. The amphitheatre of terraces – this with stone walls as opposed to Banaue’s earth ones – made it seem a magical, special place.