Near death in the Philippines: Part 1

The next day we were off to Batad. At two hours down the "road" from Uhaj, we happily splurged on renting a jeepney for $75 for the day.  Plus, the last 45 minutes aren't even passable by trike! Jodi mentioned that the previous week it rained non-stop and we must have brought the good weather with us. I can't even begin to imagine these roads in the rain.

Just a pretty view along the way...

Unlike the gently sloping valley of Hapao, the closer we got to Batad, the more moutainous the surroundings became. As if real estate didn't already take a back seat to the terraces in Hapao, here it was even more pronounced, with homes literally hanging off cliffs.

Could you sleep soundly here at night?!

Even though I'm pretty comfortable with my crouching tiger technique, I prefer a western-style pay toilet almost any day of the week over many of the free public squatty potties that look like murder scenes. I was glad though, that I had no need of this one.

That's right. The trailhead's pay toilet hanging over the cliff. Don't walk under it!!

Click to enlarge the photo and you can just see Batad at the start of the 2nd ridge.

The hike started with 403 uneven, steep, STEEP, steps. Straight down. Talk about quivering loins! The photo below is from the bottom of the stairs. We weren't so confident of making it back out! And this is coming from two people who have survived 1,000 Steps in Bonaire with scuba gear on. Luckily, we wouldn't have to think about this final stretch of the hike for many hours to come!

An hour later we made it to the top ridge of Batad. We put an order in for lunch at this pension and continued on our way--they watch for you to return in the distance and have food ready and waiting.

Much to our legs' chagrin, we continued down the valley to the village of Batad. Sadly, we came across a burning hut just as the fire was being doused. Men had scrambled up the thatch roof and were tearing off the burning portions with their bare hands. I felt so helpless but luckily the fire was out almost as soon as we came upon it. PeterPaul said this is unfortunately common as many families still cook inside over semi-open fires. Many families are therefore switching to corrugated steel roofs. Plus, a good thatch roof only lasts three years. The steel roofs certainly don't have the same charm though.

The individual terraces were very tall here, especially compared to Hapao--about 8-10' versus 3-4' tall. Batad is also much cooler than Hapao, so the terraces were further behind in the planting process.

We wandered through Batad and headed up over the next ridge. Which meant we had to go down. Again.  Boy was it worth it! We followed a river and came to an incredible waterfall. We had a nice long swim in the ice cold water. It possibly saved our lives!

Feeling rejuvenated we started on our way back. Sadly, within about 1 minute we were both strongly entertaining the possibility that we might not make it out and would have to sleep along the trail that night. We made embarrassingly frequent stops and in the 90 degree heat (not so sure we believe Batad is cooler!) we went through nearly 2 gallons of water, but we eventually did make it back to the restaurant for lunch, completely exhausted. We'd ordered huge meals and finished them completely. In Brian's words, "we hiked the terraces, died, then ate hot soup." In my delirium I found this incredibly funny. But it's true: you always get served dissatisfying, piping hot water or tea to drink in the summer, because the Chinese believe cold water is bad for your stomach and your chi. Yet, here we were snarfing down boiling soup as if we hadn't eaten in a month!

Armed with 2 more liters of water we slowly made our way back to the trailhead. We were constantly put to shame by people of all ages trotting by us in flip flops with a load of groceries or even concrete on their shoulder. 

Almost there! Click to enlarge and you'll see Batad atop a ridge. The falls were beyond the landslide.

PeterPaul told us he could get from Batad to the trailhead in 30 minutes via the stairs. We opted for the longer but gentler switchback trail and made it back in 80 minutes. But what a sense of accomplishment!  Another beautiful, remote corner of the world we feel so lucky to have experienced.

Victorious!

All too quickly it was day 3 and we were departing that evening on the bus. If we got to do it again, we would stay for 5 days or more. We'd definitely add on Sagada's cave hikes. Instead we took our sore legs for some easy sightseeing and souvenir shopping in Banaue.

Banaue

Trikes waiting for the bus to arrive from Manila

Build wherever you can...

Banaue Bus Station

There is only 1 bus per day to Manila and we forgot to buy our return tickets when we arrived in Banaue, so we were lucky to get the last seats available. The last row on the bus, they didn't recline at all, but how picky can you be over a $10 bus ticket? At least we would be back in Manila at 4am (who sets this timetable?!) with plenty of time to catch our flight to Puerto Princesa.

Or so we thought....

Around 10pm we limped in to a gas station. Off came all the luggage and several men started rummaging thru a tangle of hoses and wires. Luckily we seemed to be at a large junction, as there were three other buses destined for Manila. The other drivers were trying to help ours make the necessary repairs and lingered a long time, such that it seemed they were either waiting for our bus to be repaired, or to cram us all on their buses. No such luck. One by one the other buses departed and we got word a new bus was being sent for us. Thankfully we were on the road by 2:30am and in Manila by 8am with time enough to grab our suitcase and breakfast at Ethel's and screech to the airport for our next adventure.

One Year Ago: 

A Knitwit abroad