Banaue, North Luzon Island

In April 1985 I spent just one week on the Philippine Island of Luzon. The highlight was my bus trek north to see the spectacular rice terraces of Banaue. I spent one night in Baguio. That city is perched in mountains at 1500 metres elevation. The next morning I headed into the interior of North Luzon over some amazingly rough mountain roads carved into steep cliff faces. The speed was slow with plenty of time for viewing the spectacular scenery.

The great rice terraces climb more than a thousand metres from the valley bottom. The oldest terraces are 6000 years old.
It is hard to get a clear idea of the scale. The average terrace is two or three metres high. You can see a few rice farmers hidden in a these photos if you look closely.

At a road-side viewpoint I met some photogenic Ifugao village elders who had a business of posing for tourists. (Yes, that is me in the second photo when I was much younger and thinner). In the morning I wandered through the valley villages with some new friends.