Banaue Hiking Trails

January 8, 2009 at 5:42 pm · Filed under Industries, Investing and tagged: industry, Investing, tourism

One of the most breathtaking trails in the Philippines can be discovered in the interior villages of Banaue, high up in the Ifugao hinterlands. Tucked into these mountains are grand rice terraces, gorgeous waterfalls, lush forests and an ancient culture still steeped in its time-honored ways. The trek demands effort as the path wanders through valleys and up across high mountain passes. But the rewards are larger-than-life postcards, where the landscapes and memories are etched forever in the minds of those who take the less travelled path.

There are numerous trails linking the many settlements of the Ifugao highlands. Primarily used by the locals travelling to and from the central market in Banaue, these footpaths also serve as scenic routes for intrepid travellers seeking to explore the grandeur of the Cordilleras. Here?s a comprehensive three-day hike starting in UNESCO heritage site Batad and continuing on to the traditional villages of Cambulo and Pula and finally back to Banaue.

How to do it:

Get to Banaue via the 10pm Autobus Liner. Its Manila terminal is located in Sampaloc, along Espana Avenue, near the University of Santo Tomas. There is normally just one bus daily for Banaue, though additional trips are added on certain holidays. Just the same, try to reserve seats a few days before your scheduled departure. As of March 2005, the fare is P342. Expect to arrive in Banaue at 7am the following day. (The air conditioning can sometimes sink temperatures to arctic levels, so be sure to have your sweaters or blankets.)

Once in Banaue town center, look for jeepneys on their way to Batad Junction. Ask for other tourists headed for Batad. Chances are you will save money if you can negotiate with more people for a single jeep. On good days (during the summer/dry months), jeepneys can ride up to the saddle point. This will save you one hour or so of walking uphill, though would of course cost extra. Chartering a tricycle for the junction can cost you P250 or more. Haggling would be fine. There are regular jeeps plying the route to Mayoyao and Bangaan, though these arrive in Banaue at around 9am and don?t start their way back (passing the junction) until after lunch. Batad Saddle point is one hour from Banaue poblacion (though this depends on the condition of the road).

At the saddle, you may either follow the stone stairs or the winding path down to Batad proper. Whichever way you take makes little difference as both converge farther on. There are several choices of accommodation in Batad. Hillside Inn, Rita?s, Simon?s, Batad Pensionne are all located on a foothill overlooking Batad. Foreigner?s Inn and Green Hill are located down in the village proper itself. Hillside Inn would probably be the recommended choice as its balconies afford the best unobstructed views of Batad?s Rice Terraces. It cost P100/per head/per night.

Tappia waterfalls is about one hour of walking away. You will pass through the village center, across the amphitheater terracing, and finally down a trail by the mountain side. The hundred feet high falls thunders down to a numbingly cold pool. Take a dip in the chilly waters.

The following day, start your way for Cambulo. Amble to the top of rice terraces and cross the high ridge to the northwest. Ask the locals you meet for directions. Two hours to Cambulo is generous and you should find yourself in Cambulo Friends Inn for lunch. You may opt to have some of your provisions cooked if nothing on the menu attracts you.

The trail to Pula begins with a walk up cantilever steps to the middle levels of the rice paddies You will pass by two bridges. The second hanging bridge spans Wang-wang river and also directly brings you to a tall flight of stairs. Take the stairs to the house far above and ignore the intersecting trails. Once at the top, follow the trail to the left to the small collection of houses on the rocky ledge. You can verify directions here. Continue along the stone path as you cut across the valley. The walk is long but the scenery of all the rice terraces carved out of the mountainside is simply stunning. Precarious at certain sections, trekking poles will be handy in steadying your balance along the narrow path.

If you leave Cambulo just after lunch, you should have no problem arriving at Pula with daylight to spare. Pula is just a number of houses nestled in the middle of a mountain. Look for elderly Cham-ag Bentican or his daughter Aurelia. Their home has rooms for travellers for P100/per head/per night. Aurelia can also cook for you. Although Pula, like Cambulo, has yet to be serviced by proper electricity, Cham-ag?s house has solar charged batteries to power the lights at night. If you arrive with time to spare in the afternoon (and if you still have energy for a little bit more walking), you may cool-off at the small waterfalls and swimming hole down the river.

On your last day, start early and head back to Banaue. From Cham-ag?s house, take the path downhill to the river (passing by the falls) and get to the trail up to the mountain ridge. The climb is quite an effort but the views of Pula and it rice terraces will be awe-inspiring. From the shed on top, the trail is fairly easy as the way snakes under cool forest cover. Continue on to Awon-Igin, the PNP detachment along the National Highway, where you can hop on jeeps going to Banaue. (If you?re lucky, you can hitch a free ride on the trucks bound for the poblacion.)

The Autobus liner leaves for Manila at 5:30. If you can?t wait, you can take a jeepney to Bagabag or Solano (fast food chains and ATMs here) in Nueva Vizcaya and transfer to a Manila-bound bus.

Hiking times:

These are generous hiking durations. A physically fit individual with a good sense of direction will probably need less time.

Practicalities:

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Whale sharks put Philippine town on the tourist map

January 8, 2009 at 5:33 pm · Filed under Industries, Investing and tagged: industry, Investing, tourism

JIM GOMEZ | DONSOL, PHILIPPINES – May 31 2006 10:11

Cocooned in rural seclusion, Donsol, a placid little town, long kept a big but unintended secret: In the first half of the year, the sea swarms with the world’s largest fish.

Whale sharks — some as big as a bus — have put on an annual show for local folks for generations, roaming close to shore and seemingly unafraid of humans, who left the fish alone.

Then in 1997, a group of visitors got wind of the creatures, known locally as “butanding.” The visitors were enthralled by the sharks’ gentleness, swimming like gigantic dolphins, Donsol Mayor Salve Ocaya says.

Word got round, helped by the internet, and before long tourists began descending on laid-back Donsol, tucked amid coconut groves and hills away from the main road in Sorsogon province, about 580km south-east of Manila.

Then-United States ambassador Francis Ricciardone and a few other diplomats visited last year. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came in April and left ecstatic after a 20-minute encounter with a mammoth whale shark.

“The whale sharks brought us to the limelight,” Ocaya said.

The town is still adjusting.

“We’re trying to cope with the arrival of so many visitors, many of them from as far as Europe. But we don’t have enough resorts,” the mayor said.

“And have you seen our bridge?” the mayor added, referring to a long, narrow span that can handle only one car at a time crossing a mangrove-lined river to the village of Dancalan, the staging area for boat trips to watch the whale sharks.

Donsol is among the latest to organise in-water viewing of the big fish — a sometimes nerve-racking attraction offered in a few places like Australia’s Ningaloo Reef, Belize in the Caribbean, Mexico and the Seychelles.

Whale sharks, which can grow as long as 18m and weigh up to 34 tonnes, are an eye-popping sight up close. But they don’t eat meat, surviving by sucking seawater into their gaping mouths and sieving plankton and tiny crustaceans on their gill-rakers, marine experts say.

Little is known about the nature of whale sharks, which roam warm tropical seas. They congregate in Donsol’s murky waters from January to June, probably because of the abundance of plankton, says the local branch of the conservation group World Wildlife Fund.

For the Philippines, which is struggling to lure foreign tourists amid law-and-order problems, Donsol has become a surprise draw.

Just 900 tourists visited the town in 1998, the year after word of the sharks got out. Last year saw 7 600 visitors — a third of them foreigners, said Donsol’s tourism officer, Salvador Adrao Jnr.

On a recent day, sports utility vehicles rumbled down a muddy hillside road in palm-lined Dancalan and disgorged dozens of tourists at the small, government-run visitor centre, which collects boat rental and guide fees and arranges day-long expeditions. Villagers rented snorkels and rubber fins and peddled souvenirs. Police armed with M-16 rifles watched over the early morning bustle.

A motorboat set out with five tourists, laden with life vests, snorkels, dive masks and fins. A whale-shark spotter was perched atop a pole, shading his eyes from the sun. After about an hour, he yelled, “There! There!” pointing to what looked like a small, grey submarine just under the waves.

The boat erupted in sudden commotion as the boat manoeuvred close to the whale shark.

Carlos Pendor, a stocky, sunburned guide, cajoled two jittery tourists to jump off the boat. He dragged them to the side, yelling “Look down!” A 7m whale shark, its grey-green back dotted with faint lines and pale, white spots swam tranquilly, its flat head and body gently swaying.

At close range, the whale shark was so huge it was hard to see in its entirety. But by the time the tourists grabbed a breath of air, it was gone.

Twenty-three other boats bobbed in the waters off Donsol. Most sputtered back to shore by lunch, each encountering five to 10 whale sharks.

“It was sort of scary because out of nowhere came this huge, square face,” said Eliot Bikales, a housewife from Hamden, Connecticut.

“It was like Jaws,” her 10-year-old daughter, Maral, butted in. But she said that after her fears eased, “it was OK. It felt like they were my friends.”

Sid Lucero, a young Filipino actor, said facing such a huge creature nearly moved him to tears.

“It hit me straight in the heart,” he said. “Looking at this huge creature reminded me that there is a higher being.” Thanks to the new tourism, the sharks have created about 1 000 seasonal jobs in Donsol, a poor farming and fishing town of about 40 000 people once said to have been a communist rebel stronghold.

A construction boom fosters a new sense of hope.

On what used to be a barren beach stand five small inns. But their 50 rooms are inadequate for the hundreds of tourists who flock in the peak months of March and April, prompting plans for construction of a hotel, along with a concrete road to Dancalan.

There is talk of a small airport.

Donsol, however, is wary about damaging the pristine conditions that lure the sharks. Projects like a pier have been junked. Only 25 dive boats — down from nearly 50 — are allowed at sea at one time, the mayor said.

The town is also waging war against poachers, helped by the World Wildlife Fund and the United States Agency for International Development. Poachers hunt the sharks for lucrative Asian markets like Taiwan, where there is a strong demand for pricey shark-fin soup.

Although Donsol has been designated a sanctuary, whale sharks face danger when they slip beyond its waters. Villagers say they have seen sharks with spear wounds and slashed fins or tails. One — dubbed “Lucky” — has a long nylon rope dangling from its tail, indicating it may have escaped from poachers.

Dancalan’s seaside visitor centre has become a conservation outpost. “The whale shark has only one natural enemy — your appetite for shark-fin soup,” a sign says. Tourists are required to watch a video about whale shark protection before going out to sea.

The whale sharks, however, seem to be their own best ambassadors. Many visitors return to shore transformed into advocates.

“They are national treasures that need to be protected,” said Bikales, the Connecticut housewife. — Sapa-AP

On the net
Department of Tourism: www.wowbicol.com

Sorsogon Whale Shark: www.sorsogontourism.com

World Wildlife Fund-Philippines: www.wwf.org.ph/main.php

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2006-05-31-whale-sharks-put-philippine-town-on-the-tourist-map

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