Drizzle and Climb

“When you leave Philippines, maybe you find me wife,” my super-cool local guide Francis suggested. “Even fat one okay. A few months here in hills will make her into Coca-Cola shape.”

I burst out laughing at that one, but it was both true and practically an understatement: anyone spending more than a few months in this region would get in ridiculously good shape. Between the strenuous mountain footpaths that are the only traveling options from one village to another to the forced diet of rice and beans (with perhaps the occasional egg, chicken or pork thrown in now and then), it’s the kind of environment that would make even your local sweatpant-wearing, protein-bar eating gym rat weep and beg for mercy.

The rain made it worse, but that didn’t start in earnest until later. For the first part of the climb towards the tribal village of Dananao, we enjoyed those intermittent drizzles and sprinkles that have you constantly taking your poncho on and off. On to not get too wet and to protect your bag and camera gear, and off because the extra layer made it that much more hot and at a certain point the extra sweating might be worse than the drizzle. On, off, on, off, on, off. Blasted drizzle! Either way, you end up hot, uncomfortable and mostly soggy.

On the way, I learned about the hill tribes. For instance, each village has its own dialect, another reason why a guide is necessary. Wars between villages once led to the practice of headhunting, where a warrior would return with a kill and bring the head back as a trophy, the whole village would have a celebration, and the warrior would get new tattoos to commemorate his skill. While this particular tradition has mostly died down, skirmishes between tribes still occasionally continue to this day, only now they’re fought with guns and rifles instead of spears and arrows. Perhaps this explains why at the local police checkpoint in Tinglayan the officers walk around with M-16 machine guns, although I’m told the government does not get involved in these tribal disputes. Hmmm.