February 27, 2016

Shoot me now!  At least that was what I think I said when none of the taxi's would stop to pick us up this afternoon after we'd been walking and standing for almost five hours in the blazing sun with about 250,000 of our closest friends (at least they must be close friends cuz some of them got pretty cuddly at times in the crowds).  At one point Lynda was prepared to push me down in front of an ambulance and give me CPR in the hope that they'd give us a ride!  In the end...it was a local woman who was able to get us hooked up with a taxi and were we glad to see the Cosmopolitan Hotel looming in front of our cab!

On the upside the "street dance" was AMAZING!  Neither of us had any idea what to expect and so when the drums and xylophones and horns and cultural costumes and baton twirling girls and marching bands kept coming and coming....we were nothing short of "extremely impressed"!  If you'd like to get a taste of what we saw today and where we were check it out on YouTube.

The Baguio Flower Festival lasts for the whole month of February and this final weekend is the culmination of all the celebrations with the "street dance" and the "flower parade" which we will see tomorrow.

Our vantage point for the street dance was up on one of the pedestrian walkways that cross the busy streets here and we were about three from the front row but the advantage we have here is that we're a little taller than average soooo....we could actually see pretty well.  As well, the walkway was covered so we were in the shade - an essential if we were going to survive to the end of the parade!

The participants in the street dance ranged in age from elementary school to adult and some of the groups had travelled many hours to be here to participate.  Keep in mind...they all had to travel the same road we did to get here too and my hunch is that a number of them might have had the upside down 5 gallon buckets in the aisle type seating!

When I say there were drums....I could extrapolate that to include everything from traditional tribal drums of all shape and size made out of bamboo and other wood right through to snare drums and bass drums and steel drums and drums made out of massive oil barrels and well....you get the picture.  The other main instrument were xylophones and they came in all shapes and sizes too.  The really large ones were on wheels and took two or three people to push them along as the players kept up the song.  The little ones were individually carried and all had a unique tone that made the music very very sweet.  To say the costumes were colourful is an understatement....they were "colourful on steroids" and the costumes ranged from flower themes to tribal.  Believe it or not but the tribal themed groups did the whole parade in bare feet!  Remember that it's hot here today and there is no way that pavement wasn't burning the bottom of their feet!

Okay....I've had a little rest and so now I'm back to fill in a few more blanks.  I guess I should come clean and let you know that the "shoot me now" comment was in part because I'm not operating at 100%.  Many of you will already know that I hurt my knee in December and unfortunately that is giving me some considerable grief with all the walking and standing on pavement.  But that's not the only thing....you remember how I was cuddled up with Bert on the back of his bike over in Vigan....well....Bert had a bit of a cough and my hunch is that every time he coughed all of those little germs blew right back onto me.  Regardless of how I caught it, I now have full blown laryngitis, a cough and a brutal head-cold.  Fingers crossed that it doesn't creep back into my chest as I just finished up with a bout of bronchitis a couple of weeks before I left home so my resistance was already low when I arrived here.  But all that is just bothersome little stuff and be damned if it's going to get in the way of our plans!  Although the "shoot me now" mantra might come back into play once or twice over the next few days. LOL. In fact I had my feet propped up on the wall to help my lymphatic system out a little and wouldn't you know but I ended up with a massive Charlie horse in my calf so I'm likely dehydrated too.  OMG....poor Lynda she's the one who will be saying "shoot her now" if I don't smarten up!!  Between restless legs and a buggered up knee and a squeaky voice and muscle spasms and coughing spasms.....yikes....I don't want to be around me!  It makes me wonder WTH is Lynda made of as she manages to dodge all these germs and malfunctioning bits.  Jeez....I want some of what she's having! :)

To backtrack to this morning....we ordered our complimentary breakfast to be served in our room and what a treat it was to sit here in our little kitchen while room service delivered and then cleaned up the dishes...yep...I could get used to this.  Philippine style breakfast is very consistent.  You get to choose what kind of meat you'd like (beef, pork, local sausage, or corned beef) and that is accompanied by a cup of rice (at Baguio it's always garlic rice), a fried egg (sunny side up), and a couple of slices of tomato and cucumber.  At this hotel breakfast also includes a tiny banana.  It is always delicious and very filling so we're never really hungry again till mid afternoon.  This afternoon we each had a sandwich and our total bill was $10 so we're definitely staying under budget on the food column!  It's already 6:00 and so chances are that dinner will consist of a few almonds that I brought from home, some dried mangoes we bought on a bus from somewhere to somewhere, and a cup of 3 in 1....so dinner might be about 50 cents. :)

I'm jumping all over the place with this blog tonight so.....Back to the Burnham Park area (where the parade ended).  It is filled with little stalls selling their wares.  Everything from food stuffs to clothing and souvenirs.  It is also filled with people!  People walking, people sitting, people setting up tents in any shady area they can find, people napping in hammocks they've strung between trees for the day, people smiling, people laughing, and everyone ready to say hello to the only two Caucasians we saw in our travels today.  In fact, we were even approached by 3 young women who are studying mass communication at the Baguio University.  They were in the process of completing an assignment to poll (and film) a cross section of visitors with questions about their experience with the Festival and the parade today.  My hunch is that this trio might get bonus points for finding the only white people on the grounds!

There were plenty of pulis (police) around today and it was easy to tell who they were as they all wore matching t-shirts saying pulis on the front and back.  Everyone is so ready to help if they can and the pulis are no different.  They gave us directions when we were lost (well not really lost but lost in terms of which was the shortest route to find a cab) and they answered questions that we had about signage and a couple of observations.  First is the signage....from our vantage point on the pedestrian overpass we could see signs saying that it was illegal to cross the street unless you were a senior or disabled.  The pulis explained that this is true for every month of the year except February when the festival is on as pretty much all the rules are bent a little during this busy time.  (BTW...this year celebrates the 21st anniversary of the festival).  Lynda and I figure we're still okay to cross the street without using the pedestrian overpass though as she is officially a senior (60+ and I am totally disabled at the moment!). The other thing we could see from the overpass was that as the crowds began to disperse (and when I say crowds...we are talking tens of thousands for sure - more than 3 million visitors come to Baguio during festival month)...the whole dispersement was very orderly and when everyone was gone...there was not a piece of garbage to be seen!  The pulis confirmed that it is against the law to litter here and although they didn't tell us what the penalty we're pretty sure it must be public hanging or something equally as deterring!

LOL...Lynda just came back from the 7-11 that is right beside our hotel and she bought dinner so I guess it's a little more than 50 cents after all.  Tonight we're having a vodka mudshake (yummy and our first drink since we left Canada!), a bag of salt and pepper chips, and some microwaveable chicharon (a first for both of us!)

Vodka mudshake is calling me so I will sign off for today....till next time,
L & L

P.s.
Plans for upcoming travel partially confirmed as of 5 minutes ago!  Tomorrow we have confirmed Mr. Noel Rio to pick us up (cuz taxis are too difficult to find because all of them are full!) from downtown after the parade.  He said anyone on the street who has a cell phone will be happy to phone him for us.  (His cell number is 0906-365-5477 in case any of you are in Baguio and want a guide for the day.). From downtown we will visit three sites we want to see while we're in Baguio.  And...as luck would have it Mr Rio has a friend who would be happy to drive us in a private van to Benaue (rice terraces) and Sagada (hanging coffins) and then on to Manila.  (total cost for this private Sagada/Benaue/Manila trip will be 21,000 pesos or a little more than $300 each so totally doable). I am 99% certain that there will be no blogging on those days as they will be looooonnnnnggggg!  The van from here will leave early in the morning of the 29th en route to Sagada which will take about 7 or 8 hours where we'll stop long enough to see the coffins and get a taste of that part of the region.  From there we'll continue directly to Benaue where we'll stay overnight and then tour the terraces the next morning.  That same day we'll leave Benaue en route to Manila (I think that will be March 1st) and that is all that we know for now.  My guess is that we'll get him to drop us off at the Remington Hotel again as it is so close to the airport and since they have a complimentary shuttle...we'll have no excuse not to catch another flight to one of the other islands.  I think we're going to be a little bit ahead of the rough plan we had when we left home so who knows....we might be able to fit another island in there before heading to Palawan.  :)

...on the road again... :)