Weekend in Baguio

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Saturday morning we took a six hour bus ride to Baguio, the last part up a windy mountain road. The bathroom stops include “the bus stops on the side of the road” – which was preferable to the one stop where there was no water in the toilet.

Here are some photos of the drive. I was surprised how, once out of Manila on a freeway, it felt a lot like California.

I saw this familiar face:

Caribou in the field:

Typical rural scenery:

Rock carving:

Baguio City is located some 1,500 meters above sea level – out of the tropical heat – with year round highs in the 70’s and lows in the 50/60’s. I was ready to cancel my return flight and stay there.

The famous American architect Daniel Burnham, one of the earliest successful modern city planners, laid a meticulous plan for Baguio in 1904. The Americans declared Baguio the Summer Capital of the Philippines on July 1, 1903 and The American Residence as the residence of the American governor-general to escape Manila's summer heat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baguio_City 

We walked up the 252 steps of Lourdes Grotto, a religious shrine housing the image of the Lady of Lourdes, where pilgrims brave the steep climb to offer sacrifices, devotion and prayers. Here I am at the top:

We visited Wright Park, a pine tree park reserve for horse rides.

 

The weather was amazing - note the jackets and long sleeves at around 3pm:

 

 

We visited Botanical Garden - also called the Igorot village - which features native huts typical of the Cordillera architecture. We took the photo which we used for our first Christmas card near here:

 

We visited the "Summer Palace of the Philippines" - several of these photos are scans from prints from Aurelia's father's camera.

And we visited Mines View Park Lookout. First a few photos from the web taken in 2007. The same table that I relaxed on is still there. (I was relaxing on the table because I was not ok - I had a fever.)

From this time I was feeling fevery and weak, probably from the water. We return by bus to Manila the next day.