Trailing from Pasil-Sagada sisterhood beginnings

HAPPY WEEKEND

By Gina Dizon 

It was three years ago when the sisterhood of  Pasil and Sagada was being mulled and  talked over  dinner and laughter with friends and former high school classmates of  St Mary’s School Sagada,  Samuel Tayaan  now councilor of  Pasil and current municipal tourism officer designate,  his brother Martin, their cousin Alex Amiyan, and officials of  Pasil especially  Mayor James Edduba and now Kalinga board member Emilio Kitongan  former councillor of  Pasil and brother of Alex. How the sisterhood talks came about is a story to tell.

Having initially met again after  how many long years since high school days  in the late 1970s during  the centennial of  St Marys School  December of  2011  proved to be a fruitful event  with classmates seeing each other after how many long years of  disappearance from  each other’s sight. God knows where one has  gone and what one has been doing  for the past  how many years until the school centennial  December  2011 that was ,  that  faces  and memories once again came real.

Anyways,  the centennial meeting and fund advanced to visiting  Pasil with the invitation of Samuel  for the Salip festival of Pasil in May 2012. That was surely one  great event with cultural events  plus a trek to his  hometown at  Colayo located  east of Balatoc Mines. Trekking for five hours along the route and deep ravines ravines  finally  brought us to  Colayo nestled atop the  roaring Pasil River, a cute and cozy village with a warm cool  weather in the afternoon and real cold  temperature at night.

The target  destination the next morning was to see the most sought  Tumuyok Falls  and so  up we went to the mountains of Pasil  along with two boys who carried lunch and  with Steve Clark, a Caucasian tourist  who happened to visit Colayo for the Salip Festival.

On we traversed the golden yellow rice fields  and  hiked up the mountain to get a good full view of  Colayo and a breath of  cool breeze, then  trekked down  the banks  of  Maan- annibut Creek for  a sumptuous  lunch of  sardinas and fresh water fish the  two boys cooked  with tasty soup.

Tumuyok Falls called Shotgun Falls is not easy to find. Maan- anibut  Creek was  a winding  and  gurgling  stretch along the course of the river. Seemingly nowhere to  find as we waded the river a couple of times, I was  wondering  where in the world is Tumuyok Falls as the afternoon slowly went by.  Samuel proceeded with Falls hunting  while I chose to stay  near the river banks  and enjoy the cool breeze and roaring of the waters.

He finally came back after an hour of disappearance and back before the rains came and  imagining how the river will swell before he came back  was such a  dreadful thought I didn’t want to happen much as I didn’t know  how to swim!

Anyways,  we  trudged back the village with a story to tell that  Tumuyuk Falls with all its natural and mystical grandeur is worth the trek. And so with taking a night or two of  stay in Colayo for whoever would take time to come  up the village.

Trekking and talking  makes  ideas come popping. There must be way to reach  Colayo to Sagada. How could that be....is there a way? So Alex said  during his  high school days at St Marys  School that he often  traversed the Colayo- Sagada route when he came from Pasil  and attend school in Sagada, taking at least 6 hours of  trekking time. That would mean 12 hours for me hahah!

So there was a route. Colayo is a cool real cool snug village with all its pristine beauty in tact. The  soil is purely organic and there is no need for  synthetic fertilizer to use. The  waters are real pure and fresh and  waters from the river can be directly drank. T he night is cool and  the morning dew is  fresh and alive. The golden rice  terraces  is a sight to be behold and beckons one to  go back again. The mountains are spectacularly  towering and shadowing the village at dusk and keeping  the temperature cool the rest of the day along with the  cool waters of the river  adding to the  coolness one feels late in the evening.

If  you love adventure  and the natural  touch of nature and  genuine community  feeling, Colayo is  the way.

And trekking  the  Colayo-Sadanga-Bontoc- Sagada  route along the  Patang, Kitay and Mosimum peaks makes that happen,  apart from taking the road trip along the Tukukan-Lubuagan road on to the Tabuk – Balatok-Colayo route.

A real great adventure and back  now to how the sisterhood event came to be. Following the  Salip festival of  2012,  Pasil Mayor James Edduba and  Pasil councillors Samuel  Tayaan and  Emilio Kitongan came to Sagada August of  2012  and initiated the sisterhood  with the Sangguniang Bayan  then led by vice mayor Richard  Yodong. A resolution was passed  by the Sagada SB then  accepting the sisterhood intent  of  Pasil and slept at the Mayor’s  office for one reason or the other until Samuel  visited the SB office  May this  year and asked the status of  the  sleeping resolution. The rest is history and the  sisterhood ties was finally done. Congratulations and God speed! 

xxx

Trekking  then was  an animated talk  and continued to be talked about during the  recent  sisterhood ties  and  this is what this column is going to talk much about alongside tourism.

Tourism remains to be a much  seen potential source of  livelihood. This  we see in festivals we have taken the fever from other lowland  areas as  Longganiza festival, Bangus festival and  etc. Here we now have the  Etag festival in Sagada, Begans festival in Bauko, Ubaya  Festival in  Besao,  Am among in Bontoc , Gagayyam in Sabangan, Lang-ay in Mountain Province and Matagaoan Festival in Tabuk  popularized in the  years  2000 .

The stress is cultural, a distinct  show and performance of what  is distinctively cultural from one’s  place. Here in the Cordillera as the name suggests, mountains  to trek pose an equally potential source of tourism and livelihood.

Trekking in Sagada is a favourite leisure and event of mountaineering clubs, who visit the town most often, either as individual members or as a group. Trekking is a favourite among Caucasians, observed Mark Galas, assigned at the municipal tourism information center.

Treks are  a favourite along the rolling terrains of Mt Ampakaw  located between the adjacent town of Besao and getting a full view of the towns of  Besao  and Sagada  and seeing sites of majestic mountains around. The Aguid- Dalican Bontoc route is also a favourite including the Mt Polis range along the Suyo-Balintaugan way and rare  treks towards the hours-long Baklingayan route towards Tubo, Abra.

Trekking is adventurous, challenging  and rewarding  in exchange of a tiring feat  going over hills and high elevation slopes, going down ridges and wading through rivers. While the activity is healthful exercise losing calories and rejuvenating the physiological system,  trekking is rewarding  with sights of  mountainous peaks, and encounters with  wondrous discoveries of biodiversity, the change of warm to sudden cool atmosphere in cool mossy atmosphere, and subjected to more sights you won’t forget so get ready with a camera or even a videocamera.

‘Matek’ or leeches are common mossy forests so get prepared with lotion or any substance to get the leeches off or for some they  wear long sleeves to prevent  leeches  from  landing on one’s hands and sucking blood.

Harassments too from the military had been quite a nasty encounter.  Tourist guide Fabian Batnag recounted his story when some military elements questioned him  when he passed by Dalican with some  tourists. Tourist guide Bugnosen Dugao also recounted  when he was harassed along the Baklingayan route going towards Abra also by some military elements.

Where the mountains are  a tourist  destination  and a daily route among villagers, its tourism potential poses  a given  source of livelihood for the community, and surely,  one way to help the community is to free the mountains of  offensive military encounters.

The mountains if they could talk  demand  to be free and people as well deserve all the peaceful mobility and security they  do to walk and enjoy the scenery, breath the air  freely and  benefit  from what the mountains  give much as God has given the resource to be  enjoyed by the very  creations He made.