Last night was our last
night in Solano. While we are looking forward to seeing Baguio City and
starting to head in the direction of home it is still hard to leave our family
here. I am so glad we were able to stay with Dominga and her family instead of a
hotel. It was great being a part of the household for the last week. I will
miss so many things here cold showers, coffee, food, trikes but most of all the
people. They really have a great sense of family and community and I am already
missing it as I write this. Thanks to everyone for making room for us and being
so helpful in every way. We got up about 5:30 and showered we did our final
packing for our trip. After that we had breakfast. It was yellow noodles with
meat and pandesal. They called it “miki”! It was masarap for sure. After that
Joseph loaded up our luggage and we were off to the terminal to get a seat on
the van that was headed to Baguio. This van held 14 passengers and was first
come first serve. So we got there about an hour early and secured two seats in
the front next to the driver. We
would have more room and be able to see the route clearly. (Lyn sat in the
middle, which we found out later that was right over the engine. It was the
hottest seat in the van.) After we secured our seats we sat with family members
that had come to see us off. I asked the driver when we would leave and he said
once we had the bus full of passengers we would be on our way. After about an
hour we were full so we said our final good-byes and we were on our way. After
riding on trikes for the last week I felt like we were going really fast.
Probably only about 45 MPH but it seemed crazy with all of the traffic going
much slower. Anyway about 5 minutes one passenger said she had left her cell
phone at home. The driver said no problem and we proceeded to her house. She
ran inside and after a few minutes we heard this ringing coming from her bag.
She had not left it after all. Anyway no complaints from anyone and we were
off. Once we turned on to the zig zag road it was obvious we were in for a
crazy ride. It would only be about 75 miles long but would take about 4 hours. It was crazy and beautiful at the same time. Most of our time was spent making hairpin turns right on the edge of sheer cliffs. We made several stops at very small rest areas and occasionally dropped off and picked up people along the way. If you have ever watched the Tour De France this route would be perfect for one of its mountain stages. Finally we started coming into Baguio. Baguio is also known as the summer capital. The government use to move there in the summer as it is much cooler on average here. I was one of the only ones wearing short pants and some people were actually wearing coats and stocking caps! Sweet!!! We caught a cab to our hotel for less than $5 dollars US. There are no trikes here as it is too busy and a little too fast. We needed a hotel that was near some of the places that we wanted to see but we are still on a budget so we wanted something cheap as well. After a lot of help from Facebook friends we decided to stay in the Pine View hotel. Not too fancy but just what we needed. A room with wifi and a balcony for about 47 US dollars a night. Seemed like a good balance to me. Even though it was only noon Lyn and I decided to get some lunch and then take a nap. We are both coming down with something and are tying to fight it off. We have been going non=stop since june 28th and I think our bodies have just had enough. We had dinner in the hotel and called it a night. We went to sleep hoping that we would feel better and would have enough energy to tour at least part of this beautiful city.
Video
The Zig Zag road
Video
The Zig Zag road
Family
Snack on the Zig Zag road
Family
Family
