Rice Terraces - Banaue Philippines

My mom and I went on a 5 day tour along the Cordillera region north of Manila. We arranged the tour through our hotel; had our own tour guide and driver. This may sound pretentious but very common in the Philippines.

The drive to the Rice Terraces took 8 hours so we stopped in a few villages along the way. Our tour guide, Ed was extremely knowledgeable of the area so besides short naps and sight seeing he gave us history lessons of the places of interest.

We drove through the mountains and reached one of the highest elevations of the area. Some of the roadways were not completely paved, which made for some cliff hanging moments.

The mountain terraces have been around for thousands of years and the irrigation system is ideal for rice harvesting. It was once known to be one of the eighth wonders of the world or the 'stairway to heaven.

Rice is no longer the top export of the Philippines and the country is actually importing from places such as Japan but Banaue is still home to Ifugao/Bontoc indigenous people who still live traditional lives without running water or electricty. They are still found harvesting rice.