Thursday, April 06, 2006
Places to visit this summer
By Henrylito D. Tacio
SUMMER is here! If you are still trying to figure out, which places to visit, try any of the following: Bohol, Ifugao, or Palawan.
Majestic Bohol
An oval-shaped island province is Central Visayas, is known for its terrain that is rolling and hilly.
"Beneath the rustic charms of Bohol lie a thousand and one adventures just waiting to unfold."
Carmen, an interior municipality, is the home of the world-famous Chocolate Hills, an amazing geological curiosity that can only be found in this part of the world. The hills consist of nearly two thousand highly regularly shaped hills, between 30 to 50 meters above a mainly flat land.
"The Chocolate Hills are best observed at dawn or dusk," maintains Juny Binamira, who has written an extensive tour guide on Bohol for the Bookmark.
"At these times, the sun is low and throws dramatic highlights and shadows onto the hills, making them leap out of the background in bold relief. Dawn is especially breathtaking. Usually, there is a thick white mist, which lingers around the base of each hill. This magical moment lasts only seconds."
Boholanos are a deeply religious people, and the island has eight fine churches, including Baclayon, seven kilometers southeast of Tagbilaran (the island's capital). Baclayon is said to be the oldest stone church in the country. Built by the Jesuits in 1595, it has a 21-meter-high bell tower, intricately carved altars, and an organ, which was installed in 1824. Baclayon is the only church with a museum in Bohol.
Like most islands in the country, Bohol is also noted for its fine beaches. Some of the well known beaches are found on Panglao Island, among them: Alona, Dolho, Momo, and Dumaluan. The popular beaches in Tagbilaran are Kaingit and La Roca. Of course, there's the Bohol Beach Club.
Enchanting Ifugao
People flock to the province of Ifugao because of the gracefully contoured rice terraces around the majestic Cordillera range. "The breathtaking grandeur of the Banaue Rice Terraces never fails to awe visitors," writes Conrado Lancion, Jr. in his book, Fast Facts About Philippine Provinces.
"The terraces showcase an irrigation system, which uses gravity to bring forest waters from about 1,800 meters high down to the lowest tiers," marvels one American engineer. Filipino architect Augusto Villalon, the commissioner for cultural heritage for the Philippines, considered the rice terraces as the country's "supreme symbol."
"No other national site comes close to the terraces as a Filipino achievement," Villalon explained. "The site is most outstanding because it has not been abandoned." Until today "the site lives, owing its life to the same constant interaction between inhabitants and nature that has gone on for centuries," according to Villalon.
Nestled within the rugged Cordillera mountain range, the rice terraces reach up to heights of 1,500 meters and if stretched end to end, will extend to over 20,000 kilometers.
In 1995, the Ifugao Rice Terraces became the second natural site in the Philippines (after the Tubbataha Reef off Palawan) to be included in the World Heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco). It is under the Unesco's "Continuing Cultural Landscape" category.
The rice terraces can be viewed from the town of Banaue. However, the more spectacular terraces can be found in Batad and Mayoyao. Batad rests snugly at the bottom of a magnificently steep circle of terraces, which resembles an amphitheater. With no visible encroachment of civilization, the place is home an authentic Ifugao village.
Mayoyao, on the other hand, is a three-hour ride from Banaue along a road, which dips and climbs hundreds of meters among picturesque terraced hills, forests and villages. Houses here have huge roofs and a neater, less crowded layout. The views of the terraces along the route are awesome.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 6, 2006 issue)
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