High Point

Since the last post we rode over the old highest road (now second by 18m) in the Philippines on the way to Tinoc.  First we spent a night in a college's Guestel, the only lodging in the tiny town of Ambangeg.  We took different roads to Kabayan where I went for a hike and found some nice birds.  Bryan (mountain goat that he is) explored the high road. This region is a fully agricultural area with mostly manual labor.  Up high there are lots of cabbage, carrot and potato plots.  

They're clearly trying to deal with trash and the roads don't have too much.

The riding can be very steep and our day over to Tinoc had some tough sections.

It was the weekend and we passed by a camping area and were invited to a wedding, unfortunately 2 days later.   

At the top there's a protected area with a pretty and much moister forest.

The very steep descent had several road maintenance issues...

Today we started visiting the UNESCO World Heritage Site Ifugao Rice Terraces, a wish of Bryan's since reading National Geographic as a kid.  Pretty impressive 2000-year-old agricultural engineering.

Filipinos are uniformly friendly and mostly surprised that we're cycling these mountains.  We've seen only three people obviously not Filipino since leaving Angeles City.  Fortunately we're finding better food ($2-4/meal).

We'll spend the next few days in and near Banaue exploring the villages and terraces.

I'll sign off on a tropical foliage note...