Banaue

Last Saturday - our first official trip for the year finally happened! We joined Barefoot travels with seven other adventure-hungry and early-morning-risers for a trip to the UNESCO Heritage site, Batad. 

But first, we loaded up on protein and carbs and bananas (!) in our pit stop - Halfway Lodge in beautiful BANAUE. 

time check: 6:10 am

 

The lodge's wall clock read 6:10 am, but in Alan's watch, it was still 5:59 am. It was a bumpy and rather death-defying eight-hour drive from Manila to Banaue. Kuya Driver wanted to get his job done the fastest possible way he can and boy, he did, with FLYING colors.

Christmas Village in February?

The lodge is perched on higher grounds and is overlooking the village. The clouds were not yet ready to reveal the sun when we arrived. It was a foggy and cold morning when we arrived but I am 98% percent sure Banaue mornings are almost always like this.

i'm seeing colors! and faces!

L-R: 1 Banaue Tour Map| 2 Rice Wine. Pretty Pink| 3 Woven Fabric| 4-5 Faces

breakfast time!

 L-R: 1 Hamsilog (but I think it was more like SPAMsilog)| 2 Longsilog (more like SHORTsilog) haha! both meals are included in Barefoot travel package. Bananas are a must!!

After the quick breakfast and quick brushing of teeth (no showering!), we boarded a van (I was hoping for a top-load ride on a jeep, oh well) that took us to the saddle point where we shall begin our trek. It was while zipping through the curves of the mountain when I was made a witness to the different versions of the sunrise and filtered by the van's light brown tint for an instant instagram-like effect. :)

i cannot decide which one's my favorite!

clockwise: 1 tangled in the electricity wire sunrise shot| 2 drowned by the clouds sunrise shot| 3 it's somewhere at the back of this mountain sunrise shot| 4 hidden by the trees and shrubs sunrise shot| 5 fully risen sunrise shot| 6 filtered by the pines sunrise shot

By 9:00 am, we were ready to conquer the close to two-hour trek to Batad. Miss Universe (ze other blog) will chronicle the rest of the story or the beyond nine in the morning stories (haha!). I'd end this post with pictures of my feet (and my lungs and my back too!) - my most used and abused body part in this why-in-the-world-am-i-even-doing-this BUT nonetheless beautiful adventure  - thank you dear feet and legs for not failing me, for forging on and for bringing me to places which are reminders to how beautiful life and the world is. :)

Lovely. 

Lovely morning indeed. :)

All Sunshiny,

Tina