Baguio, Part Dalawa

Location: Baguio City, Philippines.

Photos taken by Jason McKenney

This is the second part in a 3-part series.

If you missed it, read the first part here. 

 

Visiting Baguio Botanical Garden

Andok's fast food

Day 2
 
We woke up early the next morning, checked out of the hotel, and drove through town to the closest Andok’s Chicken for breakfast. In the Philippines there are three fast food combinations that can be ordered for any meal of the day and can satisfy any hunger. The first is called longsilog. This is a combination plate of langgonisa (Filipino sausage), itlog (eggs), and si nangag (garlic-fried rice). The second is tapsilog. This is a plate of tapa (fried beef strips), eggs, and rice. The last on is tocsilog made with tocina (sweet pork) with the obligatory eggs and rice. Fast food restaurants like Andok’s, NE Bake Shop, and Jollibee’s specialize in such simple dishes.

Strawberry Farm

After breakfast we put on our “tourist” hats again and went to the very popular Baguio Strawberry Farm. The cool, damp climate of Baguio is perfect for growing strawberries, and a large field of them has been maintained on one of the few relatively flat parts of Baguio for years. Right next to the fields are little stands lined up and run by women selling strawberry jams, jellies, preserves, syrups, candies and just about anything else you can think of that can be created from the little red beasts. A man walks around pushing a metal cart and ringing a bell. He’s selling freshly made strawberry sorbet and you can have a scoop in a sugar cone for just a few pesos.

The courtyard of the Bell Church

Statue at Bell Church

After leaving the strawberry patch we descended down another valley into the more urban part of Baguio. Driving through the city is different due to the topography of the mountain tops, and there are some areas where in order to make any real progress from one part of town to another requires zigzagging back and forth through different streets that ascend or descend to different levels of the city. It’s kind of like a classic arcade game in that way, and it creates some very congested traffic patterns.


After fighting traffic and exhaust through the industrial zone we arrived at the Bell Church Buddhist Temple in the small China Town area. The Bell Church is located north of the downtown area of Baguio and located within a gated compound filled with statues, Chinese memorials, and a set of steps that climbs seemingly forever up a nearby hillside. The compound structures include intricately designed arches and buildings adorned with flags, bells, and dragons. It has a pagoda, some fountains, and wonderfully landscaped gardens.

The diveway leading up to Bell Church

No photos are allowed inside the temple. I went inside, lit an incense stick, and said a prayer (or at least kept quiet for a few moments pretending) to commemorate my first ever visit into a Buddhist temple. It was a very relaxing experience.

Steps leading up to the Grotto

We departed the Temple and headed straight for the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Grotto in order to balance out all the Buddhist Dharma with some Catholic confession.  The Lourdes Grotto is one of several Catholic shrines and places of meditation in Baguio. It is located on a high hill in the western part of the city where you will find the image (or figurine) of the Lady of Lourdes.

The market near the Grotto

The grotto is a favorite pilgrimage site during Holy Week most especially during Holy Thursday and Good Friday. In order to reach the top of the grotto one has to climb the 252 steps that seem to go straight up to heaven (lots of steps in Baguio), or one can take an auto up through a winding, narrow paved road. We took the steps and had to stop to catch our breath once or twice (remember we were already at a high altitude), and we also bought some trinkets from some Igorot children who were camped out on the steps and who will play you a little tune on a flute if you give them a few pesos.
Many of the people who travel up to the grotto to pray also light up a candle at the altar below the image. There are vendors at the shrine who are willing to light up a candle for you and say a prayer for whatever personal intentions you might have while also attempting to sell you a wallet, a t-shirt, a crucifix, or some hand-woven clothing.

Lit candles at the Grotto

The image of the Lady of Lourdes

As it is in many other similar shrines, the grotto was constructed to commemorate the numerous visions of the Virgin Mary by a 14-year old French girl named Bernadette Soubirous. This happened in 1858 from February 11 to July 16 in the town of Lourdes which is in southwestern France. The visions were declared authentic by the Pope in 1862 and this also led to the authorization of the cult of Our Lady of Lourdes.  By following the road a little further up and behind the Grotto you will see a strip of Naguilian Road and a beautiful panoramic view of a part of the province of La Union down below.

Igorot children play us a tune

After departing the Grotto, Kuya Bert drove us off to Burnham Park located in a busy market area of Baguio. Burnham Park is somewhat akin to New York’s Central Park except smaller. There is a large pond manned by several paddle boat vendors, a never ending stream of children on bicycles (bike rental shops are all over the park), a roller rink, bumper cars, and the Orchadium, a walled-off orchard filled with beautiful flowers and fruit trees.

For lunch we drove to the nearby SM (Shoe Mart) City mall where we ordered Filipino food in the mall food court. We ordered from a place called Dokiks and feasted on tocina, langgonisa, tuna belly, sinigang (soup), bangus (milkfish), and squash in a coconut curry. We fed the five of us for 307 pesos (about $7.50 which included a 12% VAT).

Guess where we are!

Jason mingling with Igorot locals

Stuffed to the gills, we headed to our next stop, the amazing Baguio Botanical Garden. The Garden is located east of Baguio's downtown area, and is roughly the same size as Burnham Park but with a completely different vibe. Burnham is more kinetic and active while the Botanical Garden is more contemplative and peaceful. Being tranquil and quiet, it is a nice place to just sit down and relax, take a leisurely stroll along its many winding pathways and also enjoy the landscape where you will find numerous types of plants, statues, a dark cave to explore, and memorials including the Japanese-Filipino Peace Memorial. You will usually find a group of Igorots at the main entrance who are dressed in their authentic native attire, and for a couple pesos they will be more than happy to pose with visitors for a souvenir picture.

The Lion's Head. So long, Baguio!

Japanese Zen garden

Our second day in Baguio was running short and we had a long drive ahead of us if we wanted to make it back to Cabanatuan that night. Kuya Bert got us back out to the main road and we made our descent back down the mountain, passing the famed Lion’s Head along the way. The Baguio portion of this trip was finished, but we weren’t quite ready to go home yet. A long drive and a night in Cabanatuan still awaited us.

To be continued . . .