A Trip to Baguio Part II: Instead of the Panagbenga Festival

Since, our planned Panagbenga Festival didn’t go out well, instead of being sober of the incident, we decided to go to the Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad and the Lourdes Grotto.

All of my friends are eager to bring home some fresh strawberries, so we went to the Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad, Benguet. This is one of the activities that we failed to do last year when we went to Baguio. The farm is a 30 minutes drive from Baguio City, approximately 10km from the center of Baguio City.

We arrived at the farm at 3:00 in the afternoon. According to one of the farmers there are only few fresh strawberries left for picking. Luckily, the farmer is kind enough to pick-up some strawberries for us and gave it free of charge so we can taste it. According to the farmer the ideal time for harvesting is in the morning. Aside from the strawberry, the farm also has lettuce, broccoli and Malaysian mumps. This is where the tourist usually buys the fresh strawberry and vegetable wherein they harvest the crop and are weighed in by the farmers.

the strawberry farm

Malaysian Mumps at the farm

Lettuce

After almost an hour at the farm we, decided to head back to Baguio and went to Lourdes Grotto. The grotto is located in a high hill in the western part of Baguio wherein at the top you will see the image of Our Lady of Lourdes; but reaching the top is not that easy for you have to climb 252 steps of stairs.

Upon reaching the site, you will be welcomed by vendors selling multi-colored candles, each color representing different personal intentions. There is an altar below the image wherein you can light up your candle and pray. Aside from the image of Our Lady of Lourdes, you will also find an image of Jesus Christ just before reaching the top of the stairs.  Upon reaching the top, I and my friend decided to light up three candles for our personal wishes. It is just sad that there are people coming in the grotto that are not paying any respect and are vandalizing the place.

                                                         

going down the 252 steps

 After saying our prayers and being a photoholic we decided to go Burnham Park. Burnham Park is considered as the heart of Baguio, since can be accessed by the different roads in Baguio namely Harrison, Kisad, Governor Park and Magsaysay road; and it is surrounded by the other prominent landmarks of Baguio, like the Session road, Baguio Cathedral and Baguio City Market.

It is around 6:00 pm when we reached Burnham Park which is already filled by people watching a concert. We directly went to the man-made lake to have a boat ride. When darkness came upon the park, we were fascinated when all the lights from the lamp posts and rope lights hanging from the trees came to life simultaneously creating a Disney – fairy tale effect. Our boat ride lasted around 30 minutes.

Burnham Park 

When we finished our boat ride we decided to have dinner along Session Road before buying pasalubongs at the Baguio City Market. And since we also planned to watch the float parade the next morning, we decided to retreat early to our hotel.