I woke up around 5 in the morning, had some coffee, and took a shower. We were leaving for Baguio. From Baguio, we would drive to Hundred Islands.

It has to be noted that we paid for our stay until 10:00 in the morning of that day, December 22. Imagine my annoyance when, at 7:30 in the morning, while Lee was still snoring in his room, the owner sent a maid to evict us so that she could clean the rooms. What an impolite way to treat guests whose money they were living on.

“Please tell your master that we are not leaving before 10:00 because our payment is up to that hour. And tell her that it is very impolite of her to send you here while we are still sleeping.”

Lee got out of his room a few minutes after I sent the maid away. He heard my ranting in the hallway. He told me to just shake it off and he instructed me to pack up; we were leaving as soon as possible. I told him I already packed up the night before.

After I settled the bill at the main guest house, I wanted to talk to the owner to tell her how impolite she was to us. I did not see her. I insisted on talking to her but the young woman at the counter must have noticed my anger; she said that the lodge owner would get up at around noon, as usual. I did not want to upset Lee so I had no choice but to go away in haste, happy to be leaving the place.

We had not had breakfast yet so we headed for Strawberry House. Lee had been telling me about this wonderful restaurant since we first met in 2015—only to be disappointed when we found out that it was closed due to the holidays.

“We drove all the way from Quezon City to this place to taste your famous food but you chose to close on a peak season like this…” I said to the young lady, with mock annoyance.

Having no other choice, we headed to the nearby Yoghurt House. As usual, the service is quick, the crew are polite, the atmosphere was cozy, the breakfast was warm.

After we settled the bill and said our thanks, we once again hopped in to our Toyota Avanza and headed for Baguio, our stopover. The road was, of course, lined with pine trees.

I was excited for our trip back to Baguio because I was thinking that once again, I could see the very high waterfall that we saw on our way to Sagada. I wanted to take time taking pictures and probably wait for someone to pass by and tell me the name of the waterfall and where exactly it was coming from, and maybe even tell me the exact height.

After about an hour of driving, we realized that Waze gave us a different route. The surroundings looked different. The mountains were not as high and as imposing as the ones we saw on our way to Sagada. We all know that the higher a mountain, the younger it is. Where we were was not that far from where we came from so I wonder why the tectonic movements of the earth millions of years ago did not create the mountains at the same time. Well, anyway… the trees were not as tall either, and there were lots of ferns on the roadside. I did not see a single fern on our way here from Baguio  a few days before.

The signage THIS WAY TO BANAWE confirmed that we were indeed being directed to a different route. We did not plan to go to Banawe but anyway, we would take whichever road Waze would instruct us to take. It’s a road trip, after all.

After a few minutes, lo and behold—there we were, looking at the magnificent, millennia-old rice terraces of Banaue. I believe that we were not at the prestigious side of Banaue Rice Terraces, because it did not look like the ones I had seen in other travel posts, there were no signages, and the surrounding areas were full of mulch and bushes. Nevertheless, I was happy because I was looking at a piece of history. Thousands of years ago, people were driven from the lowlands, so they had to come this far in order to make terraces for farming. Imagine the intense labor they had to endure to make these terraces considering that their tools were primitive. I was not only looking at history, I was looking at the evidence of survival.

After taking some pictures, we continued on our journey. The morning air was crisp and suddenly, it was cloudy again. Alarmingly cloudy.