Sunday, March 30, 2014
Marcos Country
Our northern tour took us to Luzon province known for the Marcos family, and a mountainous region renowned for its world heritage rice fields. These rice fields may have taken the people two thousand years to construct and perfect. The rice fields remind us of the Inca trail in Peru. The construction is similar. David feels that as this is an island nation, the people may have traveled from the Philippines across the Pacific to far distant lands such as Peru. Members of the famed Marcos family still live in this area. In fact, some of them are still politicians for this area--one of the daughters is the governor for the province.
Vigan has retained the charm and elegance of its old Spanish ancestry. The city has kept many of the old Spanish buildings and homes. After a day of touring through museums, churches, a market, etc., the city fountain in the city square came alive--water sprites dancing to an array of music lit by coloured globes. Children and adults at one end waited in eager anticipation for the spray park to start its magic--drenching them with spurts of water while they danced on a lit platform.
Our travels take us into the mountains. We twist and turn our way up to Sagada, and stay one night at St. Joseph's Resthouse. Our guides visit the local tourist office to get permits and local guides as you cannot visit the sites without permits and the local guides. They showed us the hanging coffins--sitting at the mouth of a cave, or hanging from the walls of the canyons. The people use scaffolding to hang the coffins. Only the people who are old now can be buried this way as the government has passed a law that future burials must be done in the cemeteries. The coffins are small as the people are placed in the fetal position in the coffin.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Cock Fights
Although cock fighting is outlawed in most countries, it goes on legally in the Philippines, and underground in others. The favoured cock is allotted the Meron corner while the other cock is given the Wala corner. The cocks are brought together in the center of the ring where they are allowed to infuriate each other. The noise starts to rise then as the betting gets underway with people placing their bets with the bookies. The noise crescendos until the fight starts with both cocks left facing each other behind their line at the center of the ring. The long, sharp blade attached to the left leg of the rooster is the weapon with which the rooster will defeat their adversary. A cock must also bite its opponent at least twice in order to win. When at least one rooster cannot or will not stand on its own, the referee picks up both cocks; and sets them in front of each other until it is determined that one cannot attack the other. The winner takes possession of his adversary's rooster and a share of the betting. The referee is rewarded with rolled up bills and coins thrown into the ring after the fight. The owners of the cocks spend a lot of time grooming and training their fighting stock. The roosters are fed vitamins and pills of unknown ingredients to bring them to fighting strength. A breeder will have a large yard filled with shelters made of two pieces of plywood in the shape of a teepee with a rooster staked to each shelter.
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