Maligcong Adventures

We arrived in Bontoc at around 2pm. And what else do we do while waiting for Dona and Michelle, eat Bontoc’s version of halo-halo. 

I love halo-halo! When eating in another town and I see a halo-halo on the menu, I will most probably order it. This one contains pink-red gulaman, ube, buko, nata de coco, with just a small amount of ice shavings, but a generous amount of evaporated milk. It was sold by a friendly lady in her small refreshment store in Poblacion at P15. Naimas, wen!

Elderly Ifontoc women rocking their woven skirt and traditional tattoos.

Ifontoc wit. Momma is like a cigarrette for the Cordillerans.

Then Michelle took us to her hometown’s Jack Rice—(I forgot the name of the restaurant) where we had our late lunch, before heading to Maligcong.

Going to Maligcong, I was deeply amazed by how we got into the place. Ang taas-taas ng lugar, and from the jeepney, you can actually see the downtown in tilted view! (Wala akong picture pero amazed na amazed ako.) Was also amzed by how all the stuff brought from the town were kept from falling off every time the vehicle goes up the steep road. Defying gravity, man. And to think meron dun mga gasul, cases of softdrinks and liquor, etc.

We were kind of panicking when several of the passengers already got off and it seemed that we’re still far from our destination. We told the driver several times where he’d drop us and some of the passengers kept saying, “malayo pa” and points to the driver and the little girl. It was only when the driver dropped us infront of the inn that we learned that they own the inn.

Suzette’s Maligcong Homestay was our home in Maligcong. We were welcomed by Manang Suzette (I prefer to call her manang, instead of Auntie because she’s not that old yet) into their lovely inn, and offered us coffee and tea.

Manang Suzette grows a lot of veggies

We would've wanted to go hiking that afternoon. However, we were a bit late. We were told that there was a group that climbed an hour earlier, and it is not advisable for us to go since it's since it will be nightfall soon. What we did was just arrange for a guide to take us to Mt. Kupapey in the morning, and if we still have enough time, to Mt. Fato as well.

In such places, time seems to move slow, so we killed time by going for a walk at the payyo (rice terraces). According to Michelle, the Maligcong Rice Terraces are not as ancient as the ones in Banaue. She said these were built in the 2000s, when we were in high school.

Funny story. We were already slumped in our respective beds, getting ready to sleep early for the hike the next day. From my bed, I saw Manang Suzette placing plates of food at the table facing the terraces, where we stayed that afternoon. I was thinking, "Oh great, they are going to have dinner here. Maiinggit lang kami." Because we decided to skip heavy dinner. Then I stage-whispered to my friends, "May food, may food!" And gestured to the window. They looked outside and got excited as well. Then Mang Suzette called us. Apparently, the dinner was for us. We immediately got out of our beds and went outside to devour this delicious meal. Walang diet-diet pag ganito kasarap ang pagkain.