Rice Terraces and Caving in the Cordillera
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009The rice terraces of the Cordillera in North Luzon are usually hailed as the most beautiful in the world, and we’ve wanted to see them for many years. Unfortunately, we’re not here at the absolutely best time of the year to see them, which is a couple of months from now, but there’s not much we can do about that.
Banaue is the most famous of them all, but partly because the rice hasn’t been planted yet and partly because I didn’t think the setting was that great anyway, it was quite a big disappointment. Luckily, nearby Batad was far more impressive and lives up to the hype as the most picturesque of them all. Rising up from the tiny village below, the stone-walled terraces climb up a near vertical mountain and remarkably resemble a Roman or Greek theatre when seen from above. It’s planting season now in Batad; most of the terraces are already planted and it was nice to see the remainder of the planting going on while we were there. You can only access Batad by walking for 40 minutes from the nearest road, so it’s very isolated and beautifully set among many mountains.
From Batad, we moved on to Sagada. It’s a nice, unspoiled mountain village, there aren’t many foreign tourists at this time, and it’s refreshingly devoid of the bamboo café / banana pancake scene that typifies the Vang Viengs and Chang Mais of Southeast Asia.
This morning we walked with a local guide to Sumaging Cave on the outskirts of the village. We’ve been into a lot of caves in the last six years of traveling together, especially in Southeast Asia, and most of them aren’t anything particularly special. We thus entered with low expectations, apparently confirmed when the first 10 minutes inside the cave were slippery, dirty and generally difficult. But after that the scenery changed completely – the cave was filled with pools of fresh, crystal clear water and bizarre rock formations, and we climbed, waded (waist deep at times) and rappelled our way through it, one of the most exhilarating activities we’ve ever done.
Having now been to the three most popular destinations of the Cordillera, we’re heading to two off-the-track places – the rugged, traditional province of Kalinga and the village of Kabayan, where mummified bodies lay in nearby caves.
Meanwhile, photos of Batad and Sagada are here.
Nick