Another UNESCO World Heritage Site for Gracyn and Alan

We've been on the move the past few days, and wi-fi hasn't been readily available, so this might feel like a digest of the week, but here we go.

On Tuesday, we set out for Baguio in the car we're borrowing from the Logans. Driving through Manila traffic was a somewhat harrowing experience. Drivers in The Philippines don't seem all that concerned with lanes or most traffic laws. Throw in motorcycles weaving in between the cars, folks riding motorcycles and bicycles with a sidecar attached, and random pedestrians, and you get one big mess. Thankfully Craig kept an eye on us in his rearview mirror and didn't leave us behind. Once we left the city behind, we still had to maneuver the two lane highway up the mountain to Baguio. Vehicles of all speeds are on the road, so there's a lot of passing and weaving around. We've decided that we might be more patient with drivers in the United States after our time here.

Thankfully we arrived safely in Baguio and checked in at the Prince Plaza Hotel, which is run by some friends of the Logans. After getting settled, we explored a local park that included a lake and some nice roses. There were also people leading the modern equivalent of Jazzercise classes.

On Wednesday, we set out for breakfast at a local cafe called Cafe by the Ruins. The decor was interesting, the food tasty, and the coffee made in glass orbs heated by flames from a burner of some sort.

The rest of the morning we hiked around Camp John Hay, a former US military base turned nature area/golf course/restaurant area. We were impressed at how well Ashlyn, the Logans' four year old daughter, kept up during the hike. In the afternoon, we found a local market area where one could buy clothes, meat, fruit and vegetables, electronics, and just about anything you might want. In the evening, we went to a favorite restaurant of the Logans, called O Mai Khan. You put together your own stir fry dish and it is cooked for you-- all you can eat.

On Thursday morning we joined Michelle for a walk/hike near the top of Cubayao, a mountain overlooking Baguio. After our hike, we packed up the car and set out for Banaue, where we planned to spend the night. Well, not all went according to plan. It took us longer to get out of Baguio than we thought, we took a wrong turn at one point, and then we ran out of daylight, so we ended up at The Highlander Hotel in Solano, which we happened to spot along the way. This place had a ridiculously nice entryway, and the room was really nice for what we paid. We ate dinner in the restaurant there and watched a recap of Pope Francis's arrival in The Philippines.

Friday morning we drove the rest of the way to Banaue and the on to Batad, where we hiked 45 minutes out to a great view of a mountainside of rice terraces. It was a bit rainy that day, but we still saw some beautiful scenery. We drove on to Sagada and arrived around 5:00 on Friday afternoon, and it was a mob scene. None of the inns had rooms available (we had tried calling and e-mailing while in Baguio but had little or no luck getting an answer or securing a room). In the end, we drove a few kilometers back to a town called Bontoc and found a nice, affordable, clean room for the night.

Dinner in Bontoc was kind of a silly experience. We saw Spaghetti w/Burger on the menu, and we figured that meant the sauce had hamburger meat in it, but it actually meant that Gracyn received a plate of spaghetti and a burger. We've been adding "with burger" to various menu items ever since.

"More pictures of rice terraces!" you say? Check back in a couple of days for a post about our final days in The Philippines, including more pictures of rice terraces, stories from yet another UNESCO Heritage Site, and the trip back to Manila on the same day the Pope leaves the country.