The Eighth Wonder of the World

That was a shock to the system at stupid-o-clock! So we grumpily got up, dressed, and made our way to take a jeepney to Bontoc at 8am in order to catch a 9am bus to Banaue. There was only one jeepney a day leaving for Bontoc and the last bus to Banaue was the one we were hoping to make it in time for and considering it takes over an hour to get there, we were cutting it fine!

The driver's seat

The jeepney from Mainit-Baguio before it fills up

The jeepney wasn't very full so although it was a bumpy ride it was relatively comfortable. We arrived in Bontoc dead on 9, jumped out the back of the jeepney to see our bus driving straight past us. Feeling gutted that we had missed it; our jeepney driver took pity on us, told us to get straight back in, and followed it to the next stop. He then parked in front of it to prevent it from leaving again so we made it! What a nice guy!

The journey to Banaue was a little over 2 hours but it was a nice change to get a comfy bus again!

Nice saw

Banaue is famous for its rice terraces and is considered to be the Eighth Wonder of the world. It truly is amazing here and the rice terraces are spectacular as they are over 2000 years old, with fantastic irrigation systems made out of bamboo, thus water can flow freely from the rivers and rain to the terraces. Even the bus journey to Banaue was spectacular!

Rice terraces

The land-slide road we're about to drive onto

A cute village

Just outside Banaue

Lush green rice terraces

And again, rice terraces

Entering Baguio- the view from the jeepney

So we got ourselves booked into a nice guesthouse with perfect views and there we chilled for the rest of the day planning our next few days and trying to get rid of hasselers that just wouldn't quit and leave you alone. Something we hadn't experience in The Philippines so far and we had forgotten just how irritating it is...

Rice terraces in Banaue - the 8th wonder of the world

Banaue village

The view from our room