Saturday, November 29, 2014

More Kalinga experiences

On our way to the Chico River, we passed by some mini-terraces that had been carved out of the mountainside.


Later that same day, after we had rested a bit from our rafting adventure, we visited Ryan's Farm.


It actually felt more like a large garden than a farm, with a variety of plants, fruit trees, and flowers spread out all across the grounds.


Corazon Kub-ao Ryan, co-owner of the farm and a Kalinga native, acted as our tour guide. She is a BS Biology graduate from the University of Baguio and was a Gawad Saka national awardee in the fishery category in 1997. She has done many seminars over the years, sharing her knowledge to others so that they can also be more successful in agriculture. They have a small fishery in the farm and some of us got to feed the fish while we were there. They are also big on vermiculture and composting.


The farm is known for its bugnay wine and we got to see the bugnay trees. I even got to pick one of the fruits from the tree and try it. Corazon told us that she and her husband both loved wine and as such, they decided to try making wine from this fruit. We had a bugnay wine and juice tasting while we were there and some of us ended up purchasing a few bottles. (Check out this short video for more info about the farm.)

the bugnay fruit

On the afternoon of our rappelling and shooting day, we drove through the city center of Tabuk, the provincial capital, on our way to the Kalinga Capitol which is where their city hall is located.


The capitol is on top of a small hill. It was a quiet afternoon and we walked around the complex grounds, enjoying the views of the city and taking photos. On the far end, there were several nipa hut-like sheds where people could just sit in the shade and hang out.


Next post: my final thoughts on this thoroughly enjoyable Kalinga trip.

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