GQNPC Road Trip Leg 3: Eli tours Baguio =)

Because Eli, Ate Lea's younger son, tagged along on my Baguio early morning walk, he was also the most-toured kid in the group. We had one hour to go around the city proper before the group set off to La Trinidad.

Assumption Road. As soon as I was walking out of the dorms, Eli hollered that he wanted to go to Session Road too. Our first stop was the parking lot of the University of Baguio where we saw the view of the city: so many houses, so many buildings... where did all the pine trees go?

Baguio Cathedral. We had to climb a tall flight of stairs (some say with about 100 steps) from Session Road to reach the cathedral. At the cathedral grounds at the top of the stairs, we saw two men walking two dogs, a golden retriever and a Siberian husky. Eli was intimidated at first to get close to the dogs, but they proved to be gentle with kids.

Mabini Street. I asked Eli if he was still interested to see Burnham Park. On our downhill walk, an old building whose archways had beautiful lighting (thank goodness for rain, there were no harsh shadows) provided ample shelter against the beginnings of the early morning drizzle.

Harrison Road. The Milo Marathon had ended when we finally arrived. Participants were already walking away from Burnham Park. I guess Eli was quite exhausted from all the walking we did up and down the city's commercial area. We stayed just long enough for a quick look at the park's football field and then we were walking back to the dorm.

We had to hurry back to the dorms because our next destination was the neighbouring town of La Trinidad. While in the bus, Eli had told his seat mates about his walk down to the CBD and his meeting with the two huge dogs.

Benguet State University Coop. If Calauan, Laguna has pineapples, Victoria, Laguna has itik, San Pablo, Laguna has coconuts, and San Jose, Batangas has eggs, La Trinidad, Benguet takes pride in its strawberries. We arrived during the off-season (no strawberry picking *sigh*), so everyone had to content themselves with photo-ops by a giant strawberry.

Then we were on our way back to Baguio City. Before heading back to the CBD, we just had to make a stop at the simulated Cordilleran village flocked by artists and tourists.

Tam-awan Village. We went to the cafe where artworks are on display. Two cats claim the bench (and anyone who sits on it) as territory. They do love humans!