37/365: On The Road, Baguio City

Baguio City is just a few hours from Nueva Vizcaya, my native province. To tell you frankly though, I didn't get to visit Baguio until I was in college...and then only briefly.

When I got to this government post, it seemed that all we did was travel to Baguio every now and then for some reason or another.

Meeting the boss at Baguio City's feeder airport

Baguio City is the country's summer capital. Filipinos always find an excuse to troop to this mountain retreat during the hottest parts of the year. It's about 1,610 meters above sea level so it's always cool year round. The highest temperature during summer hovers around 70°F. So far, the record hottest it's ever registered is 86°F back in 1988 during the El Nino drought. You can say Baguio City is the premier vacation destination in the Philippines.

These jaunts though are often for work and we rarely have time to visit...which is sad really because there are lots of fantastic destinations in Baguio. Plus, there's the ukay ukay—second hand stores where you can get an Armani trench in good condition for less than a hundred pesos (about $2.50 in today's conversion). I kid you not!

The object of this visit was to consolidate the governors of Northern Luzon and get them behind the President's whatever. The objective's obscure to me now but since our office was always troubleshooting one problem after another, I'm fairly certain this trip had that goal, heh.