Day 734 - It's all about the rice

As the rain tends to come every afternoon, we set off bright and early this morning for our adventures amongst the fields. The first 10 minutes were spent wandering along the road past small shops but we quickly descended into the rice paddies below. We stopped off in Tam-an, a tiny village, where we got directions into the paddies, and started our way to Poitan, where the odd traditional Ifugao house still exists. In Poitan we were greeted by a group of men, and a pack of barking dogs - most elderly villagers work the fields, while the younger generation are more keen on being guides, driving jeepneys, or getting an office job. A 67 year old man who we met along the way told us that this makes it harder to keep the fields maintained and the crops harvested.

On the way down we were mesmerised by the rice fields and their different colours: from light green to golden yellow, accompanied by dominant dark green. Being out in the open and having full vista-like views was the reward for being out in the burning sun.
From Poitan it was a climb back up to the road, and the higher we got, the more fierce the sun's punishment on our tired bodies became. Each time we entered the forest, the break from the sun was magic.

Even more magical was arriving at a waterfall that spouted from the paddies above and fed the ones below. Here we took a well earned break and cooled off under the waters, and had a picnic lunch that we'd been lugging along the way. At Bocos we got our last directions to the view point, and happily set off following the irrigation network as instructed - this served as our makeshift guide and path, though it did require a fair amount of balancing. While walking along the skinny edge, we occasionally fell into the water, our eyes having been distracted by the astounding views. After ascending higher than the view point, and winding in and out of a number of valleys, we soon found ourselves shadowed in the forest and far from any rice paddies or farmers to point us in the right direction.

Since Adam's shoe had broken more than an hour ago, and we'd already been walking for 6 hours, we decided to head back through Bocos and down to Banaue. Adam's barefoot wander got a number of comments from the locals, but as an old man commented, it's how it was done back in the day!!

In Banaue we got some well deserved food and drinks, had a refreshing shower and cleaned the mud off our gear!

Adlibing a rice world.