Kalinga - Chico River Canyon

Chico River Canyon You can take the jeepney from Bontoc past Malagcong up the Chico River canyon for a ways to a trail alongside thet road. It leads up into Kalinga country to the setlement of But But. This is a neat little village high up in the hills surrounded by small rice terraces. It is a pretty good day hike. We went with Francis a local guide who knew the people. He had showed us around Tinglayan and a few other places that I have since forgotten the names of. We stayed in the homes of various relatives for a few days and had a really interesting trip. There is some fantastic country there with the Chico River running through the center of it. That river is wild and free and was to be dammed up when Marcos was president back in the 1970's. The Bontoc and Kalinga people wanted no part of that plan and put up some determined resistance.   They actually fought the army and won in the end. They tend to still be a well armed people and not too trusting of the government. The people in But But were relatively friendly but they knew Francis pretty well so that was a big ice breaker. The neat thing was that this village was not too far off the main road but seemed years away. All the construction was done without nails. All the timbers were notched and fitted by skilled craftsmen. The community rice storage facility was built of fairly heavy timbers that had been expertly cut to fit with absolutely no gaps. They could not afford to have any access ports for mice to be able to work their way into the peoples food bank. It seemed that they had one rice cache for the whole community and everyone did their part to contribute. They also had a number of fish traps hanging on the fence that had just been made and were ready to set out in the river. If you have the time there are a lot of options in this area. Malagcong, a day trip out of Bontoc, is an interesting village as well but gets more visitors. Bontoc itself has a little museum that is very interesting. I think that is is sponsored by a missionary group that came to this area many years ago and is still active today. There are artifacts and pictures from old times when there were still headhunters in the area. The Kalinga were a fierce and noble people. The view riding on the roof of the jeepney through those hills is fantastic but sometimes you have to share the space with pigs and roosters up there. Philippines www.dutchpickle.com

 

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