People and the mountains

I'm back! Also check out the pictures and most of all enjoy!

Baguio was fun, and although there were not very many mind boggling sights to see, it was still entertaining and way much cooler than Manila (the temperature cool). The highlight of the stay was the family gathering one of my many aunties arranged at their place. It gave me the opportunity to add faces to the many names my dad, mom, sister and brother talked of back in NL and also I could finally place many members of the clan in some kind of mental family tree. The stories told tells me how prolific the family is. This family of bunnies will not die out soon....

Sagada and Bontoc came next. Both are reached via a long and winding road, which of course reminds us of this song. Sagada is famous for it's trek's and sights and is somewhat a touristy destination, but because it's 12 hours from Manila not many day trippers from the capital are spotted there. No members of the family in Sagada, but coincidentally the curator of a local museum used to live next to us in Baguio! You can do a lot of trekking here or you can just relax and detoxify your lungs after the pollution of Baguio and Manila. We did all three.

Bontoc is where we stayed a couple of nights after Sagada. It's just an hour's ride from the mountain town. As it was the birthplace of my mom we of course have relatives living here and where relatives are there is care. One might think that sometimes there is too much care, but it's all with heart and love in mind. Seeing the uhm... interesting preparation of pinikpikan was one of my major wishes while being here, luckily we have members of the family still residing nearby, so we set out to Alab and thus 'swatted two flies in one go'. Yey!

Kalinga, infamous for it's former day head hunters and still famous for it's rice terraces was our next stop. We met a terrific guide, well actually he 'met' us, and for our trek through rice terraces and villages in mountains near Tinglayen he hooked us up with John and Johanna, a wonderful couple from Sweden. Later Charlie, a great Brit who travels the world on his mountain bike, joined our band of merry women and men and we climbed even higher mountains, swam at a thundering waterfall, relaxed at a hot spring and met even more people who lived lives very much like there ancestors. Our stay in Kalinga we finished with a meal, partially prepared by yours truly, I bbq-ed a hen meant for boiling only..... Thankfully we had enough beer and rum to wash away the chewing gum chicken.

The sights were great and the hikes fun, but the people I met meant the most. Our guide Francis showed us a Kalinga not many see. Over there we couldn't have wished for better company than John, Johanna and Charlie. The softly killing of a chicken skillfully done by a relative in Alab and the gathering of clan members in Baguio was an excellent up beat to this wonderful part of the Philippines.