Banaue: Window to paradise
It is only on a truly dark night that one can see the stars. I whisper this to myself as I marvel at the picturesque sight. Imagine this: I sit on the ragged edge of a bright yellow-green giant rice terraced paddy in Banaue, located at a rising altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level. I am cradled in the embrace of ethereal clouds above that serve as soft pillows and blankets. The crisp mountain air incites an exhilarating surge. My friends and I share tapuy (sweet native rice wine) as we begin to identify the constellations one by one. The night gets deeper, the hooting of the owls and symphony of the cicadas become even more enchanting. This is total bliss.
Banaue, one of the 11 towns of the province of Ifugao, derived its name from Banawol, a night bird that used to dwell in the area. Nestled in the hinterlands of the Cordillera Mountains, 333 kilometers north of Manila, it has an estimated expanse of 400 square miles of rice paddies or terraces that appear like stairways to the sky. They curve and cling to the glorious mountainsides that they embrace.
In December 1995, the World Heritage List of UNESCO listed the Ifugao Rice Terraces — covering 20,000 hectares that span the towns of Banaue, Hungduan, Mayaoyao and Kiangan — as the first living cultural landscape, having been hand-carved by the native Ifugao tribes some 2,000 years ago. Streams and springs found in the mountains were ingenuously tapped and channeled into irrigation canals that run downhill through the rice terraces. The Banaue Rice Terraces is the grandest manmade monument of antiquity not built by slaves. It is believed that its length, if connected end to end, would encircle half the globe, 10 times the length of the Great Wall of China.
It was actually at the recent “Windows to Paradise” extravaganza held at the CCP — where Filipino musical and dance performers were exhibited before officials of various consulates, embassies, hotels, resorts among other stakeholders in the local tourism industry — that my dear friends Clang Garcia, publisher of Colors magazine, ace photographer Yvette Lee and I decided to embark on a local trip to Banaue. Our indefatigable Tourism Secretary Ace Durano and dynamic Undersecretary Edu Jarque encouraged the international community to travel to the country’s priority destinations through native songs and dances. “Windows” transportedthe enthralled audience to the cities of Laoag and Vigan, bustling streets of Manila and even to the Visayas. Our country has so much to offer to the world. Our Department of Tourism invites the local as well as the international community to experience our sights and sounds and make it their destination of choice. We unanimously decided to visit a destination in our lovely country and Banaue topped our list. Truth is, it was my second time to be in this paradisiacal place.
In retrospect, the very first time was when my best friend and two-time Catholic Mass Media Awardee Bum Tenorio — whose first-ever job was as a researcher-writer for an environmental agency in Lamut, Ifugao in 1991 — brought my sister Michelle and I to Banaue Rice Terraces in 2003. Bum’s familiarity with the terrain aided in our jovial exploration. Unforgettable it was when he broke into song while we crossed a bridge in the middle of the terraces that resembled the one in the film The Bridges of Madison County. With resolute nostalgia, he quoted a line from the movie: “This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime.” We giggled like high school girls as we repeated the line, admiring the vast expanse of the terraced paddies. While suspended on the bridge, we brought out camote bread, foie gras in honey orange liqueur and Gruyer cheese from our picnic basket. We became giddier as we felt the tapuy kicking in. That solitary moment in time, surrounded by the exhilarating terraces, felt like knocking at heaven’s door.
The Batad Terraces, forming a breathtaking, amphitheatre-like structure, is one of the best examples of the stone–walled type. Hungduan and Mayaoyao also host a number of these. From the Batad Terraces, we proceeded to the Tapia Falls. We descended down a steep flight of concrete stairs to reach the village of Fubloy, located at the bottom of the valley just 40 minutes away. The sight of the cascading water that dramatically falls from a 40- to 50-foot elevation is awesome. The Mayaoyao rice terraces are just 41 kilometers away from the town of Banaue. Perched in the heart of the Central Cordillera mountain ranges, Mayaoyao is known as “The Land of Eternal Spring.” Stone-walled terraces stretch from the mountain-perched barangay of Chaya to the banks of the legendary Penangah river that flows downstream. Each terrace wall is carefully paved with stones.
The use of differently sized and shaped river stones to shore up terrace walls integrates art and science, a skill so highly esteemed that a good number of the paddy builders have been sought throughout the country to build retaining walls along the nation’s highways and even private residences. Other tourist attractions here are Mt. Ammuyao (being the eighth highest mountain in the country), the fabulous Mahencha and Tenogtog waterfalls, the mausoleum containing bodies of the town’s native warriors and Mt. Nagchayan — a town where Japanese troops under Gen. Yamashita fought fierce battles during WWII.
The best time to visit Banaue is between February and August. February is the beginning of the planting season while July and August, despite the damp weather, is when the grains ripen and turn the otherwise green landscape into fields of saffron and gold. Visitors to the terraces will notice plants with bright crimson leaves planted along the paddy edges. These are used to demarcate property boundaries, as fields are handed over only through family members, generation after generation.
We can never forget how the sun begins to set in Banaue as evening falls and the blanket of stars is strewn across the surreal sky. Like magic, the constellations come alive before our very eyes. There are many things in this world that we take for granted, perhaps because they are just within reach. Yet little do we realize that the most sparkling diamonds are in our very own backyard and yes, we only see the stars when the sky is pitch black. Like a scintillating diamond displayed on the black velvet of a jeweler’s showcase, Banaue is an opulent testimony to God’s grace located right here in our country.
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For further information please call the Department of Tourism.
How to get there: By bus - Autobus (+632-740-7959), Florida Trans (+632-731-5358 or 743-3809), Victory Liner (+632-833-0219). Where to sleep: Philippine Tourism Authority-managed Banaue Hotel & Youth Hostel (+63-74-386-4087 to 88); Native Village Inn, Uhaj Village (+63-916-4056743 or 0908-303-9810).
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E-mail the author at miladay.star@gmail.com.
