A few weeks before the holy week, I received an invite from a friend asking me to come with her on a trip to Kalinga. Without even checking where exactly to go or what to expect, I said yes told her that I'm okay with it.
A few days before trip, I browsed some of the stuffs from the blogs on the internet but I really didn't paid much attention. I just want it to be surprising.
We took an 8-hour bus ride (not sure if it was longer due to traffic) to Banaue. Then from Banaue, it was an hour or more going to Bontoc. I'm not sure if it was the last trip but we took a jeepney ride from there going to Tinglayan. I guess it was the longest three-hour-ride I had since I wasn't sitting comfortably going there but instead I was standing, hanging on the edge of the jeep under the burning heat of the sun.
We arrived late in the afternoon so our tour guide decided not to push through going to Buscalan since it would get dark very soon. He said it might be dangerous. Instead, stayed overnight in Tinglayan. We decided to go and swim to the river and on our way back, we drank coffee on someone's house. It was very sweet. Perfect drink for the weather.
We woke up early next morning and prepared to trek to Buscalan, the place where Fang-od lives. We got on a jeepney going up there and then trekked for more than an hour (
with our bags.. heavy bags).
I won't get into much details on what happened there as it was pretty much awesome. We met the locals, others got their tattoos, I took a lot of photos, met new people and friends, enjoyed the view and other stuffs too.
I've always wanted to see Mayon Volcano as close as possible and get a post-card photo myself, but I didn't think I'd see it sooner than expected.
