Going to Balatoc Mines. .

I've never been anywhere which offered a bit of adventure with my girls. It's because of one rule and this prevails in raising our children _ safety first. That's the golden rule of my husband , "the dad". I, on the other hand, in my solo trips had gone more adventurous away from the uberly securing eyes of my husband. Sometimes, he would find it thru my photos and would bombard me with warnings, precautions and love. Just like the way a father defensive of  his children's safety. And me_ a naughty wifechild, would go against this rule all over again in my solo trips that would follow, haha.

I'm sure many of you would agree when I say_ Baguio City could be so boring when you limit your visit to revisiting the old tourist attractions all over and over again. I mean you know taking photos infront of The Mansion, sightseeing at The Mines View, walking in The Burnham Park, counting flowers of the countless parks around, driving around Camp John Hay. etc. .etc.. Okey, I stand corrected, Camp John Hay atleast added some new things to do but it's the same CJH.
So in our very recent Baguio trip, I hideously created an itinerary I was sure my husband wouldn't approve of but I was sure would push thru anyhow, haha. 

Tam-awan Village is done on our previous trip (see here , here, here) ( and here ) but BenCab Museum was a first time (see partial here ) on this visit. Eating and artsy-ing at Oh My Gulay was a must for my girls so off we went ( will post an entry of it later). Ofcourse, we did some cheap shopping at ukay-ukay night market which was relocated at the far end part of Burnham Park, in Athletic Bowl. Eldest daughter even scored a branded, very chic dress for less than a hundred pesos and which I think she would be seen sporting on it on today's Fashion Week, haha. I hope daughter is not reading this. She would get cross for telling you all this.

But the highlight of our trip is yet to come.. .

We went to experience the Balatoc Mines Tour. Already, to my family being at the lowest adventure level . this one was considered to be highly thrilling. .haha. and to my ever uberly protective dad of the girls, this one was very risky. He did say bigNO, ofcourse. But after a boring hours at Camp John Hay, he did raise the plan of pursuing Balatoc and asked how far was it from where we were. I showed him a map and found out that it wasn't that far.Soo, he did say yesssss!!!!

So there. . I wasn't so informed of this tour, actually. Didn't have a clear-picture -perfect on how the place would  look and the tour would  go. All I knew was we would be experiencing a miner's day in a real/authentic mine site. Mining, just the very word of it and everything that's connected to it, was all foreign to us. New = adventure for us!




We took the seemingly less-traveled -road but definitely very dusty and the narrowest, steepest road ever!




The dustiness and ruggedness reminded me so much of the roads of my own home town in Quezon province. A decade ago, the (municipal??) road going inside the town of Guinayangan (my hometown) was very similar to this road. I actually grew-up on those roads and my mother and her parents died still with the same rugged roads. I traveled in and out of my hometown covering my hair with a hat and shades on my eyes to prevent white dusty  hairs, haha. My own children didn't experience it thu', thanks God. At present, it's all cemented and gone are dusty and rocky roads.

We passed by a ridge with several golden cows having lunch on the road. What drove me crazy was the location of their picnic area_ it was on the very edge of the cliff. If a cow committed one step mistake, he would surely go fall down the bottom of the mountain. haaay, whatever, I'm sure they know what they are doing, a lot better than me, haha.

It was so rural and laid back. A house on the road side had its water tank placed across the road, complete with a a hanging water pipe going across back to the house.

The road got steeper. .

. . narrower. . 

blind corner turns were edgy. .

precautions posted all over. .




The military check-point post, didn't lessen the fast-beating of my heart caused by the edgy roads.The presence of the uniformed, armed men suggested otherwise. My sub-conscious -sometimes-triggered-nege mind was thinking of other possibilities. Of other entities aside from the physical risk of the area. Can you read me between the lines?




Anyway, we passed thru the check-point and was asked with two questions : 1. tourist? - yes and 2. how many in the car? - 4pax. Then, off we went thru edgier road trip. From this point, I knew we were nearing our distination. I could already see some housing view.

I looked at my side and saw this. .

to be continued. .  on next post. . promise. .

see ya.