Sagada

We arrived in Sagada yesterday after two fun rides on the jeepney roof to take in the amazing panoramas of the mountains. It was the girls' first ride on a roof. Just after we arrived it started raining and rained all evening. We had lunch at St Joseph's restaurant and dinner at the Yogurt House.

Today we took our first hike thru local rice terraces. We stopped at two cave sites en route, then continued to a small village named Suyo at the end of the road. From there we crossed the river and climbed the terraces thru Ankileng, Balabag, and finished in Ambiseng. Most of the routes between the villages are paved with a narrow sidewalk about two feet wide. We saw our first native miniature pig sitting in its stone lined pen. These were everywhere when I first visited in 1982 but have almost completely disappeared. They have unfortunately been replaced with piggeries using full size pigs. The down size is that the much larger pigs (probably at least ten times as large) require imported feed to sustain them and consequently produce vast quantities of manure. Of course, this results in a fair amount of odor, to put it mildly. The new pigs in no way fulfill the role of the native pigs, whose pens served as toilets for residents. (Yes, one would truly climb into the shallow pen and poop. It was essential to carry a stick to fight off the pig as they could be a little aggressive.) I suspect this habit may have offended some sensitivities but it was a very sustainable system. Of course, the little pigs were also fed leaves and other foodstuffs, but it was all locally produced and manure was scanty and there were no noticeable odors that I recall.

It appears today was election day. We met several groups of filipinos on our walk and were told that they had voted at the local schools. They had not yet received the results.