In the bosom of the Cordillera -1

SUMMER is here and Metro Manilans are now in a tizzy

as to where to spend the sweltering days. In the next few

weeks, some will fly to the mountains, others will cast off

to sea on the whim of a wind.

An oft-heard but seldom-explored summer hideaway is

the rugged North. No, not Baguio, silly, but the more

dangerous Cordillera.

If your first destination in those parts is Banaue in Ifugao,

that would take 6-8 hours from Manila, depending on the

time of day you travel and the type of vehicle you’re

using. We suggest you take off late at night, when traffic is

light, and only when you know the road like the palm of

your hand.

Because along this way is the proverbial "bituka ng uwak," those road turns

that are as zigzagging as the entrails of a crow, more vertiginous than any on the

way to Baguio. Only a few hours after leaving Balintawak in Quezon City,

you’ll encounter the first of these dizzying roads: Dalton Pass, the historical spot

in Nueva Vizcaya memorialized by Edilberto Tiempo in his fiction.

After a brief stopover on the Santa Fe Trail and a quick look-see at the

souvenir shops lining the roadsides, proceed slowly and marvel at the twinkling

lights of the town in the blue mist below.

The portal to Lagawe, capital of Ifugao, is a mammoth rock formation

straddling the highway. As you pass through, it’s like entering a Gothic

cathedral, it will leave you craning from side to side, not a little afraid everything

will fall on your head.

Glow and fragrance

Banaue, memorialized by Gerry de Leon in a movie pageant, is a quaint town

overlooking the world-famous rice terraces.

The streets are narrow, sloping or terraced. To get to the highway from the

market, you have to bound gasping like a rabid dog up hundreds of stone steps

with your basket of grocery just in time to catch your jeepney going to the

interior.

The place has become a tourism zone. Las Vegas Inn and Restaurant looks

desultory outside but gives off a rich glow and a sharp fragrance inside from all

those pinewood paneling, walling and flooring, and molave furniture and

artifacts.

A double-bed room is P300 a day. The inn has a shop replete with

bargain-price (vis-à-vis Manila standard) wooden artifacts. The restaurant

serves garden-fresh vegetables, the veranda offers a first-row view of the rice

terraces a stone’s throw away, while the air is crisp with the incense-like odor

of pine resin.

For a wider variety of artifacts from the whole tribal culture of the Cordillera,

go to Viewpoint a few kilometers away from the town center, and marvel at all

those woodcarvings of Ifugao, weavings from Sagada, knittings of the Ilocanos,

basketry of the Bontocs, silvercraft from Benguet.

But as with the Santa Fe Trail shops, you have to do your bargaining here only

on the way back to Manila. Because the goods are so well-crafted yet

low-priced you might get tempted to load down your vehicle and risk breaking

it apart before getting halfway on your journey.

Native accommodations

On the way to Uhaj, 45 minutes from Banaue by jeepney, the road is so

narrow (as in, one-way) it necessitates that all vehicles to enter only in the

morning and exit only in the afternoon. A little rain and this will be transformed

into a virtual maelstrom. It’s quite a struggle, but the reward is incalculable.

At the Native Village Inn, guests are housed in six traditional-style Ifugao huts

on stilts perching on a ridge, with a top view of the Hapao rice terraces. Aside

from the native accommodations, the inn offers trekking tours and excursions

by jeepney, motorbike or plane.

The hut is made of hardwood and thick thatch and provided with a detachable

ladder. At P350 a day, it can accommodate three persons. You have to bend

when walking around inside, though, as the roof beams are low, and you have

to lie close together on the floor when sleeping, but then you have to huddle,

anyway, as the night is exceptionally cold on top of the world.

The main building has a restaurant with an open fireplace in the center, where

an earthen jar of the famous rice wine of the Igorots, tapuy, is fermenting. A

small piece of fossilized pinewood loaded with resin is being used as kindling as

in olden times.

A favorite among guests even in the frigid weather is the thick creamy fruit

shake, especially the banana. To one’s astonishment, the big serving of adobo

has been simmered with potatoes and bell pepper in a thick sauce, so that it

looks like afritada and tastes like menudo.

The rice terraces spread out and stretching from end to end below are among

the several scattered in the region that are said to be more beautiful and steeper

than those in Banaue but just not as famous as they’re located in the interior.

The terraces of the region, included on the Unesco list of the world’s cultural

heritage, are considered the greatest agricultural achievement in human history.