In Benguet, we say "Mankapi tako adi."
If the sights and sounds of Benguet were to be reduced into a travelogue -- say, a 30-second television plug -- it would showcase a flow of distinct images. Roads winding up the rugged terrain of towering mountains, cloud-swept pine-covered slopes, a city nestled in mountains, entire valleys of vegetable greens, tribespeople celebrating a cañao, farmers toiling in the early morn, hardy miners emerging from tunnels, trucks bursting with leafy greens and passengers, a Dangwa bus teetering on a steep curve, spearate huddles of men and women in traditional costumes of red and black hues, dark brown-red coffee ladled smoking-hot from a vat into cups of all shapes and sizes, a hornbill perched on a limestone crag, cogon-grass huts in faroff hills. Accompanied by the shifting sounds of gongs and drums, of the occasional chant (oooo-aaaiii!), segueing to American country music performed by Igorots, and ending with the sound of rushing rivers, babbling brooks, nightbirds, then crickets.
Archives
La Trinidad baked a huge strawberry cake as a thanksgiving gesture. Meanwhile, teenie-weenie mites threaten the strawberry capital. Read more.
Absolutely correct cake, wrong t-shirt. Photo by Andy Zapata from the Phil. Star.
In Baguio, the 2002 Panagbenga Flower Festival got maximum press coverage. Here's a sample.
Contractors are crying foul against the government. They haven't been paid for earthquake repairs up to now. Where have their pushy politician patrons gone?
Speaking of flowers, did you know Benguet calla lillies make it all the way to the Netherlands? Isn't that like selling ice to the Eskimos?
On our X-Files, the odd prohibition against women entering mines still applies, as a precaution against mishaps. Will someone ask the dwarves about this?
Didn't I tell ya it wuz cold in Benguet? Jack Frost paid a visit and messed the veggies.
Miss Strawberry 2002 candidates in the Valley. Photo by Andy Zapata/Phil Star.
Has it been a hundred and one years since Benguet became part of the political map of the Philippine Islands? When you're that old, you deserve a cake worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records. Baguio had celebrated its own foundation day with a humungous salad. So our own grand nabakes was not to be outdone.
Making a living out of cultivating the best salad greens took root a century ago in the heartland of Atok and spread like wildfire.
More history: A pioneering American educator grimly surveyed scholastic prospects in Benguet.
More historical comparisons: Sociologist Randy David reflects on Baguio's origins as a center of leisure, thanks to the Americans.
Times are a changing and not for the better. Sexual mores are being corrupted by absentee parents and cable tv.
On the better side of family bonding, clan reunions are the mega social events these days.
We really should do something to perk up our coffee industry. Wishful thinking?
A Benguet woman who perished as an anti-Marcos, communist guerilla in the 70s is a certified heroine.
Ah, the sights and sounds of pristine Benguet under the brightest moonlight. Another climber falls prey to the killer charms of Pulag.