Skywatch#31 Mt. Pinatubo

The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was felt worldwide. It contributed a lot in cooling down the earth's temperature as what the scientists said but it also erased a lot of communities from the map.

Nowadays, Mt. Pinatubo and its crater draw a lot of tourists from all over the world. The shortened hiking trail contributed to the influx of visitors and people of all ages can actually this crater.

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Skywatch#27 Meeting of the Sky and the Rice Paddies

Seeing Batad Rice Terraces is like watching the meeting of the blue skies and the green rice paddies. The amphitheater-like rice terraces of Batad have the most stairlike appearance of rice terraces that I have seen so far. A lot of people quite appropriately call them "Stairway to Heaven".

Sadly, because of the El Niño phenomenon heating its way all over the country, the harvest from the rice terraces are in danger of getting destroyed by the unrelenting summer heat. While the rice paddies found in the poblacion of Banaue Rice Terraces are mostly doing well courtesy of their ancient irrigation system, Batad's Rice Terraces' also-ancient irrigation system is suffering from thinning mountain cover exacerbated by the unusual hot days.

The hut on the right on top of the hill is a resting place before tackling the trail going down to Tappiyah Falls. While the smaller thatched-roof huts are the native huts of the Ifugao people.

More pictures of Batad Rice Terraces here.

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My World#65 Banaue Rice Terraces

This is Banaue Rice Terraces. Considered by many as an amazing engineering feat and recognized as a UNESCO Heritage site. For most Filipinos, they consider it as the eight wonder of the world.The more than 2000 year-old rice terraces were carved out from the mountains by the ancestors of the indigenous Ifugao people using minimum farm equipment.

(Wikipedia: The Banaue terraces are part of the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, ancient sprawling man-made structures from 2,000 to 6,000 years old. They are found in the provinces of Kalinga, Apayao, Benguet, Mountain Province and Ifugao)

These particular rice terraces in Banaue are also featured on the face of the P1000 Philippine peso bill.

The rice terraces get their water supply from centuries-old irrigation system fed by the rainforests on the mountaintops.

Tourism has increased through the years for this beautiful place. When I first visited this place, those steps as can be seen from the picture were not there. Instead, the locals walked along the edge of the rice terraces by maintaining their balance to avoid falling off down the steep terrace. Most rice terraces are about 15-30 feet in height. Those steps were made for the tourists like me who wanted to experience walking along the ricefields without the danger of falling off the steep inclines.

Deterioration of some of the rice terraces all over the provinces were caused by increased population, migration, tourism, development and the El Nino phenomenon.

My only prayer is that the present generation would be more active in the preservation of this beautiful heritage of my country.


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My World#56 Rockies, Mt. Apo, Mindanao

This is the grandfather of the Philippine mountains, Mt. Apo. Standing at 2954 meters, it is the highest mountain of the Philippines and a popular mountain climbing destination especially during summer. There are several trails leading to its summit and it takes about 2-4 days to reach its peak.

Considered as one of the more difficult trail is the Kapatagan Trail which passes thru the rocky portion of the mountain that faces the town of Kapatagan (right side of the picture).

The above picture is the start of the "rockies" part of Mt. Apo where climbing means jumping from one giant volcanic rock to the other. It was raining when we did this climb which serendipitously was an advantage for all of us as the volcanic rocks were quite warm to our touch. We can smell and see sulphur smoke emitting from the vents between the rocks and it would have been a very difficult climb if it had been a hot day.

Fogs covered the cityscape behind us while we tackle the rockies.

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Skywatch#8 Mt. Mayon, Bicol

Mt. Mayon's perfect cone was still visible at break of dawn while we were on our way to Caramoan Peninsula. The pinkish-purple color of the skies was the perfect backdrop of the mountain known for its beauty. Nowadays, alert level 2 is up on the surrounding areas of the said mountain.

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