Banaue and the Ifugao Rice Terraces

UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscribed 1995 As The Rice Terraces Of The Philippine Cordilleras Five Clusters, None Of Which Is The Banaue Viewpoint Everyone Photographs · Banaue, Ifugao

THE IFUGAO CUT RICE TERRACES INTO MOUNTAINSIDES SO STEEP THAT THE WALLS RUN ALMOST VERTICAL, watered by channels led out of the forest above and held together by stone and packed mud that has to be rebuilt by hand, generation after generation. THEY ARE A WORLD HERITAGE SITE AND HERE IS THE THING ALMOST NOBODY IS TOLD: THE INSCRIPTION COVERS FIVE CLUSTERS - BATAD, BANGAAN, MAYOYAO, HUNGDUAN AND NAGACADAN - AND THE FAMOUS BANAUE VIEWPOINT IS NOT ONE OF THEM. Most visitors stop at the roadside, photograph the terraces on the banknote and drive away without seeing an inscribed cluster at all. BATAD IS THE ONE TO WALK TO, an amphitheatre of terraces with no road in. THE SITE SPENT 2001 TO 2012 ON THE LIST OF WORLD HERITAGE IN DANGER as young people left for the cities and walls went unrepaired. That is still the pressure. There is no airport and no gate - nine hours of night bus, an environmental fee, and a guide, because the paths you walk on are the terrace walls themselves.

Banaue and Batad, Ifugao, Cordillera, Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines

BANAUE IS ROUGHLY NINE TO TEN HOURS BY NIGHT BUS FROM MANILA and there is no airport - the overnight coach is how almost everyone arrives. THE TERRACES ARE A LIVING FARMED LANDSCAPE, NOT A SITE: there is no gate and no closing time, but there are ENVIRONMENTAL FEES collected at Banaue and again at some clusters. BATAD IS REACHED BY JEEPNEY OR TRICYCLE TO THE SADDLE AND THEN ON FOOT - there is no road into the village and the walk down is twenty minutes, the walk back up considerably worse. LOCAL GUIDES ARE REQUIRED ON MOST TERRACE WALKS and are arranged at the tourist office; this is both a rule and sensible, since the paths are the terrace walls themselves. THE TERRACES ARE GREENEST AROUND MARCH TO MAY AND GOLD BEFORE THE JUNE HARVEST. Typhoon season runs roughly July to October and lands slide.

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