Read about the entire 6-day trip here.
I promised to write about our actual tour around Baguio City yesterday, but something came up. You know what that is? A freaking cockroach went inside our air conditioner. I noticed a clicking sound when I turned it on, and when I investigated, I saw na the sound came from the cockroach trying to escape from the a/c. Ugh creepy! I already sprayed it with insecticide, but it didn't come out, and our bed is directly beside the air conditioner, so I didn't want us to sleep in the room.
I promised to write about our actual tour around Baguio City yesterday, but something came up. You know what that is? A freaking cockroach went inside our air conditioner. I noticed a clicking sound when I turned it on, and when I investigated, I saw na the sound came from the cockroach trying to escape from the a/c. Ugh creepy! I already sprayed it with insecticide, but it didn't come out, and our bed is directly beside the air conditioner, so I didn't want us to sleep in the room.
Since we haven't had the time to have our a/c cleaned yet, we've been camping in my parents' bedroom drive yesterday. So I also wasn't able to blog haha.
So much for that segue. Let's now talk about Baguio!
Early next morning, we prepared to be toured around Baguio. Our driver slash tour guide, Mang Leo, said we're heading off to the farthest place first, which was Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad, Benguet.
Strawberry Farm, La Trinidad, Benguet
Because strawberries cost a lot more if you pick them, (P400/kilo vs. P100/kilo of bought from the vendors), we didn't try it na. We just walked around the farm, took pictures, and bought lots of food from the many stalls.
My favorite were these vegetables. Ang laki at ang gaganda nila! Sadly, we couldn't buy them because they would only go bad during our long trip. Bye veggies.
Bell Church
Next stop was Bell Church. Nothing much to do there, we just took pictures. Because of my knee condition, I didn't brave the steps haha.
Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto
After that, we went to the Lady of Lourdes Grotto. Virtually everything in Baguio are in stairs haha, and again, I didn't brave them. Instead, we are strawberry taho.
I've been wanting to try this since I saw it on Bianca Gonzalez's Instagram. It was okay, but it was too sweet for my taste.
We also had breakfast in a restaurant-hotel a few steps from the grotto. Everything was so cheap. I don't recall the specific prices of the food, but our entire group paid only around P1000. And the food was delicious, too! Unfortunately, I can't recall the name of the establishment. There were also no sidewalks, so I didn't take a picture. Basta, they have statues of dogs ba yun outside. If you know it, please tell me!
Wright Park
Our next stop was Wright Park, where some of our companions rose horses. Yuri wanted to ride on one back home, but upon seeing them up close and personal, he didn't want to have anything to do with them anymore haha. So we took pictures:
TMI alert: By the way, if you're carsick like me, do not eat so much. I knew that, but there were a lot of food sold in Strawberry Farm and Lourdes Grotto. The result? I threw up in Wright Park. Good thing the bathroom was clean, pero may bayad nga.
Mines View Park
After Wright Park, we headed off to Mines View Park. We spent quite a long time here because there were more things to do in Mines View. It rained, though, so we stayed inside the van first while the others bought souvenirs. When the rain finally stopped, we went inside. The first thing I did was buy Yuri a small guitar for P100.
(As of now, Yuri has pulled out two strings, so the actual guitar is no longer photogenic. I hope I can fix it during the weekend.)
Yuri was sooo enamored with his new guitar. He never parted with it throughout the entire trip, from Baguio to Ilocos to Cavite to Manila!
Here are some of our photos inside Mines View:
Good Shepherd Convent, The Mansion, Botanical Garden, Camp John Hay
We made some stopovers afterward in Good Shepherd Convent, The Mansion, and Botanical Garden.We no longer went to Camp John Hay because there was nowhere to park. As in, the only available parking space was about 500 meters away from the entrace. Because we were already so tired, we decided to move on!
Not our van - I just had to take a photo!
Pa-closeup nga nung little boy!
Burnham Park
Finally, we went to Burnham Park. It was fine, but I still enjoyed Mines View Park more. We also had lunch at a restaurant there. I, again, forgot the name, but it's okay because the food was just average and the service was terrible. Yuri needed to use the bathroom, and theirs was horrific. We used the park's paid bathroom instead.
It started raining hard, so my sister, Yuri, and I went to stay inside the van while the others went to the market to buy even more souvenirs and pasalubong.
At the end of the day, we had huge bags of pasalubong. I no longer took photos because they are similar to these ones my mom brought home last year.
We finally went back to the house after an hour and rested. We then had dinner at Central Park (finally, a restaurant name that I remember!). The food there was delicious and they had big servings. Prices were affordable, too!
At dawn the next day, we checked out from our transient house and headed off to Ilocos. I will write about that next!
