The Philippines - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 612

Café Leona Plaza Burgos. Named after the mother of the
Philippines' first labour movement, Café Leona is Vigan's
most popular restaurant, serving native Ilocano dishes as
well as wood-fired pizzas (P250) and Japanese dishes
(from P150). Daily 10am-10pm.
Uno Grille 2 Bonifacio St. Owned by and next to
Grandpa's , this airy outdoor restaurant offers a variety of
sizzling barbecued meats, as well as classic Filipino and
European dishes. Grandpa's also runs Café Uno , an itty-
bitty café serving light meals (pastas from P60), cakes
(P65), cookies (P15), teas and coffees (P40). Free wi-fi.
Daily 9am-11pm.

towns and valleys where life has changed
little in hundreds of years, with
traditional customs and values still very
much in evidence, but increasingly paved
roads are transforming both the physical
and cultural landscape.
A swing through the north shouldn't
miss out the mountain village of Sagada ,
with its caves, hanging co ns and
backpacker-friendly hostels, and the
magnificent rice terraces at Banaue . A
slightly longer trip might take in
Kabayan , an Ibaloi village north of
Baguio. In the early twentieth century a
group of mummies, possibly dating as far
back as 2000 BC, was discovered in the
caves here, and it's also a base for scaling
Mount Pulag (2922m), the highest
mountain in Luzon.

DIRECTORY
Banks and exchange BDO is in Plaza Maestro Mall near
Plaza Burgos, and there are several ATMs along Quezon Ave.
Internet There's an internet café in Mart One on Plaza
Salcedo (daily 9am-8pm; P25/hr); Café Uno (see above)
has free wi-fi.
Police Rivero Street, east of the city centre ( T 077 722 0890).
Post o ce Governor A. Reyes cnr. Bonifacio streets.
(Mon-Fri 8am-noon & 1-5pm).

BAGUIO AND AROUND
BAGUIO is known as “City of Pines”, but
unchecked development and chronic
tra c congestion have greatly diminished
its appeal. Lying on a plateau 1400m
above sea level, Baguio was built in 1900
by the Americans as a recreational and
administrative centre, from where they
could preside over their tropical colony
without working up too much of a sweat.
Baguio is also etched on the Filipino
consciousness as the site of one of the
country's worst natural disasters, the
earthquake of July 16, 1990, which
caused terrible devastation and claimed
hundreds of lives.
Although little more than a stopping-
off point en route to Sagada and the
mountain provinces, Baguio has a few

8

The Cordilleras
To Filipino lowlanders, brought up on
sunshine and beaches, the mountainous
north is still seen as a mysterious
Shangri-La full of enigmatic tribes and
their unfamiliar gods. Baguio , the
traditional mountain retreat for
Manileños during the fierce heat of Easter
week, is about as far north as many
southerners get. But it's not until you get
beyond Baguio into Benguet, Ifugao and
Mountain provinces, the tribal heartlands
of the northern Philippines, that the
adventure really begins. here are still

TRIBES OF THE CORDILLERAS
The Cordilleras are home to six main indigenous Filipino tribes: the Ibaloi, the Kankana-ey,
the Ifugao, the Kalinga, the Apayao and the Bontoc, collectively known as Igorots . There are
also smaller sub-tribes among these six.
Tribes began to gather in small, isolated communities in the archipelago during pre-Spanish
times when lowland Filipinos expanded into the interiors of Luzon, isolating upland tribes
into pockets in which they still exist today. Like other Filipinos, these upland tribes were a
blend of various ethnic origins, ranging from the highly skilled Bontoc and Ifugao to more
primitive groups. Some have intermarried with lowlanders for more than a century, but others,
like the Kalinga , choose to remain isolated from lowland influences. The Ifugao , creators of
the famous rice terraces, mostly live in and around Banaue and are the tribe that visitors to the
north are most likely to come into contact with.