Brief notes from a brief stay

Wildflowers dot the Cordilleras scenery.

Table napkin notes from a 72++ hour-stay in the Mountain Province, which is part of the Cordillera Administrative Region, and is about 400 kilometers from the capital of the Philippines.

• In Sagada, a fifth class municipality in the landlocked province, workers get paid above minimum wage, our Airbnb host shared with us over an early breakfast. If you don’t offer that plus free food, nobody’s going to work for you. Tourism is the chief driver of the municipality’s economy.
• An American guy fell to his death in Sagada while exploring on his own a few years ago, pre-pandemic. That’s why tourist guides are required nowadays. The saddest part of the incident is no one claimed his body afterwards. It’s the sort of thing that’s rarely heard of in such a tight-knit society as the Philippines.
• Another thing that’s rare in the said province are heinous crimes. Locals say that when they do occur, everyone’s shocked to the core. I hope it stays that way.
• What I hope doesn’t stay the same way is the fact that a lot of the highways aren’t completely lit up at night. Case in point is Kennon Road that traverses Baguio, a first-class city in the Cordilleras. What’s up with that? The Philippines has healthy ambitions of beefing up its digital infrastructure. We can also focus on improving all our highways’ visibilities at night.
• You get to go to an involuntary social media detox in the Mountain Province, like it or not. Given that everyone’s already drowning with information, it’s probably a boon. This is because both the Internet and mobile connections in the region are choppy. Needless to say, I imagine the digital nomad industry there isn’t robust. Doubt it’s going to be anytime soon. It is so very, very far after all.

Taken from one of the Mountain Province’s lesser-known areas.

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