Good Times, Batad Times

To see the Ifugao rice terraces in all their glory we rode atop a Jeepney for an hour and hiked for twenty minutes from Banaue to sleepy Batad, a tiny village surrounded by staircase-like rice terraces in which the villagers grow and harvest rice. According to the locals the rice God uses these terraces to walk down from the heavens to visit his people.

This dude greets you at the "saddle," the area past which jeepneys and tricycles can no longer pass and you have to continue the journey to Batad on foot.

Batad from the hillside village. Stairway to the heavens.

We arrived at the beginning of rice planting season, this local is doing maintenance on the 2000+ year old rice terraces.

Terraces on terraces on terraces...

The village proper of Batad.

This little girl took an affectionate interest in Claire and became our impromptu guide through Batad.

A stroll through the terraces and 509 steps later (Claire counted) we reached this waterfall with some tall stone stacks, or as I like to say, "lanky Inukshuks," in the foreground.

We rode on top of a jeepney heading from Banaue to Batad, and on a tricycle (basically a motorbike with a sidecar) on the way back. Both rides were pretty freaky on the patchy roads between the two places. Our tricycle driver took this picture for us.

In every river valley big and small throughout all of the Mountain Province of the Philippines this is what you find, rice terraces for growing the pinkish-purplish Ifugao rice.

Despite Batad's picturesque qualities it is hard to ignore the poverty that the community exists within. What we thought was going to be a casual walk to the village proper turned into an uncomfortable yet eye opening experience as we witnessed the harsh reality these people live in. We were approached by a young woman who was suffering from some kind of nerve disease who made us realize that although these people live in one of the most lush and productive environments either Claire or I had ever seen, their opportunities for community development, education, and health care were extremely limited. The biggest shock for me was coming to understand that although these people produce an enormous quantity of rice, they have to sell so much of it at such a low rate that a large portion of the community is suffering from malnutrition, they have to sell the food they produce and cant afford to buy the food they need. A major source of income for this community has become acting as tour guides and providing homestays for visiting tourists. It made us feel guilty that we hadn't brought more money for this portion of the trip to spend on guides, in a place where that money would truly make a difference. It can leave one with a bittersweet feeling knowing that a place so beautiful and a people so hospitable can be undergoing such hardship when at first sight it would seem that they are in a truly blessed corner of the earth...

My advice for anyone planning on visiting communities like Batad is to prepare financially, use your unique and privileged position of financial stability to make a conscious decision: bring gifts of tools such as saws and shovels that would make a world of difference for these people. I'm sure that if you make this decision, you will be invited into the hearts of these communities in ways that few people ever get to experience. Understanding this, and making what may seem like a small contribution in our eyes, could end up changing the lives of an entire community. Throw a pebble into the pond and the ripples spread across the entirety of the surface.