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Baguio Is High County With Pine Trees
Baguio City The time Josie and I spent at Baguio was some of the best times of my life. We stayed at the Colonial Hotel which is median grade place with a pretty good restaurant. The hotel is centrally located and it is an easy walk to city center and shopping and the park. We often walked out late in the afternoon and bought or dinner along side the street cooked by street vendors. Everything you can think of is available that way. All kinds of foods and really wonderful. I liked it there because it was cool and I could not believe that I was in a Pine Forest. We went up to Mines View Park which is at pretty high elevation and walked a great trail down to an abandoned gold mine. Late we met a man who was selling hand woven tapestries. I bought many of them and later we became friends. He took us to his modest home and we saw how his family produced the woven hangings. Today we have about 7 of them about our home at Pinetop Arizona. It is remarkable how much some of them look like Navajo Native American weavings. We ran out of time while there and did not get to do all we wanted to. But I have to tell you a really neat story. While at the Colonial Hotel we met the front desk day clerk. She was really nice and we got to know her real well. She told us that she too was in love with a man from Chicago and was in the process of trying to immigrate to the United States. She had met him at a "mixer" the hotel put on a few years earlier and they fell in love. Later she was able to get a visa to enter the country and she went to Chicago and married the guy. They live there today and have a nice family. We email all the time. Recently she graduated from nurse school and became a nurse. It is situated amid pine-covered hills, with its cool climate, it is the Philippines' summer capital. This city lies within Benguet Province and is about 45 minutes flight from Manila or six (6 hours) by land. It is a major tourist destination and the nearest thing to a mountain retreat this tropical, humid country possesses. Like I said The City is unusual and unlike the rest of the country because of its pine trees and cool temperatures which average 20 degrees centigrade all year round. There are many tourist attractions here including numerous religious landmarks such as Baguio Cathedral which add to the city’s charm. Shopping is another favorite activity. Mines View Park, St. Louis School, Narda’s Handicrafts, The City Market and the Good Shepherd Convent sell souvenir items from wood carvings to fruit preserves. Tourists can visit the many beautiful spots in the City starting with Burnham Park and Wright Park. It is home to the Philippine Military Academy, the "West Point" of the country. The city market is one of the country's best, overflowing with handicrafts, strawberries and vegetables from the surrounding highlands. Camp John Hay was formerly a rest and recreation station for US troops and has the best recreational facilities. he Philippine Military Academy puts on a spectacle every Saturday morning with a parade of uniformed cadets. Mansion House is the official summer residence of Philippine presidents and nearby Wright Park is popular with equestrian riders. Baguio’s Botanical Garden has been converted into an open air museum displaying the architectural styles of tribal dwellings of the Cordilleras. Recommended day trips include strawberry picking in the Trinidad Valley and a visit to Asian, a wood carving village located 3,000 ft bellow Baguio and 2,000 ft above sea level. Nearby Asian Hot Springs has a swimming hole, natural streams and a relaxing steam bath. A side trip to Sagada is recommended for it is dotted with caves, many of which are burial sites of the Ifugao. There are also lakes and waterfalls to visit and swim in. Kabayan, seven hours from Baguio is also famed for its burial caves containing 500 year old mummies which dot the cliffs. It is best to visit these burial caves with a local guide. Coming from or going to Baguio or Ilocos, you will pass through La Union. This province is a favorite destination for beach lovers and is a jumping off point for scuba diving in the Lingayen Gulf.
Once we took off the scenery was fabulas and the airconditioning came on. And landing in Baguio is an experience you really need to do. Baguio is high in the mountains and when you see the runway on approach you think it is a "down hill slide". We went up there to look at the possibility of buying some Philippines Real Estate thinking that maybe Josie would live up there after she retires in 20 years. We knew we could rent it out to tourists by the day or by the week and pay any mortgage. When we got there we changed our minds. |