The Baguio City of my Childhood

(Part 2)

The Botanical Garden, which used to be known as Imelda Park is a destination where tourists can appreciate beautiful flower gardens in bloom in Baguio City. Near the Botanical Garden is Teacher’s Camp. It has lodging available for teachers all over the country who come to Baguio City for conventions, conferences, seminars or just to have a vacation. But their cottages are also open for rent to the general public.The Mansion House is the summer vacation house of the president of the Philippines. Tourists should not miss a souvenir photo in front of its main gate with the mansion house at the background. Nearby is Wright Park, where tourists can rent a horse and go horseback riding. The Mines View Park is a popular tourist attraction where one can see a panoramic view of the mountains. By the cliffs just below the veiwdeck are children who ask tourists to toss coins for them to retrieve, skillfully climbing up and down the rocky cliffs. We would also often go to the Crystal Caves, where crystals and metallic minerals can be found inside several caves. Groups of natives of the Mountain Province, more popularly known as Igorots, can be seen in most of these popular tourist attractions, wearing their traditional hand woven dress. Tourists can have their souvenir photos taken with them. These groups of natives in their colorful traditional dress would usually be a family, which would include the father, the mother and at least two children.

Several kilometers away, outside of the city proper, are two destinations we usually do not miss every summer – Asin Hot Springs and Trinidad Valley. It is  amazing how a hot spring can be found a few kilometers away from a cold mountain city like Baguio. We would sit on the rocks and dip our feet on the hot spring’s waters flowing in the clear stream. But lately, I found pictures of the hot springs on the internet which have been developed into a resort with swimming pools and accommodations with amenities. Trinidad Valley is the vegetable and strawberry growing capital of the Mountain Province. We would go to the strawberry plantations and actually pick strawberries from the plots. Some people who have not seen strawberries before, thought they grow on trees and have to climb up a tree to pick the fruits. Strawberries grow like lettuce and cabbage, and the fruits are picked from the ground.

Before going back home to Manila, we never miss going to the city’s marketplace to buy “pasalubong” and souvenirs. Mountain Province has many vegetable produce, especially greens used for salads and chopsuey. Strawberry is a main product of Baguio City, which are bought either fresh or those that are made into jams. Ube jam is also a favorite pasalubong from Baguio. Another popular product which can be bought from Baguio City, and which we never miss to take home is Romana’s Peanut Brittle. But as far as I can remember, it is actually made in Pangasinan. The brooms made in Baguio City are also popular souvenir items, along with wood carvings, especially those that are called “Man in the Barrel”. It is a wooden display item of  a man inside a barrel, and when one removes the barrel reveals a man with its arms and phallus literally springing out of its body! The everlasting flower and big rosaries for hanging in the wall are unmistakably Baguio’s popular souvenirs.

There must be other places and things about Baguio City which might have slipped from my mind, while remembering my annual summer vacations there some forty years ago!