I lived in Metro Manila for about two decades because of work. Prior to that, I was the home-school-home gal who did not wander much even within the locality. When I got back during the pandemic and even when quarantine was eventually lifted, there was not much chance to get to know my hometown. That was until college classmates from other city and province came to visit and I became a tourist in my place. Or, at least near my place.
We started with late lunch hosted by my townmate Alfa. She hosted us - with Joy with her son and younger brother who came from Zambales and Adel who came from Manila. After what seemed like unending story-telling over a sumptuous meal, Adel had to run and split. Alfa, Joy and I quickly planned our destination to spend the rest of the day. Alfa knew and mentioned a few tourist spots nearby. We picked Bahong Sunflower Farm. That is in La Trinidad, Benguet.
The farm was just few minutes ride from Alfa's residence within the vicinity of Camp Bado Dangwa, the Police Regional Office - Cordillera. We took a garage service car and was on site in few minutes. Entrance fee was PhP 150.00 for adult. I found it kind of expensive for a local destination but I shook it off. They operate every day from 8:00am to 5:00am.
One of the receptionists, a young lady, showed us the way to the farm which is just about 20 meters down the slope. We were greeted by different flowers which we passed by as we were more intrigued by the sunflowers that the farm carries on its name. We followed the pathway down and found ourselves with the sunflowers. When we started for photoshoots, we realized the young lady who showed us the way to the farm is no longer with us. I guess we were so excited to go on that she thought we don't need her anymore. We didn't need a guide to navigate the farm but we needed a photographer. We had to DIY and took turns.
Ten times zoom to catch my friends at the other end of the sunflower rows.
The farm is a slope of terraces which I did not count how many terraces are there. From the sunflower terraces, we turned to move one terrace down where we were greeted by a ring of petunias. I kind of felt jealous of them because I haven't been able to grow petunias well at home in spite of my efforts.
On the other side of the ring is the marker of the farm. This time, we really wanted to have a groupie so we have a remembrance with all three of us on it. We went our separate ways to look for the young lady who accompanied us earlier. We badly needed a photographer and our wish was granted.
We noticed we were halfway down the terraces so we paused. We found a wooden hammock which we sat and continued our story-telling from Alfa's house. We again wanted to have a groupie on the hammock but the young lady was gone again. We took shots of our feet instead! 😄 These feet are witnesses to our stories of laughter and concerns for the future. It even sparked a hilarious question of who among us will get married first. Joy was saying she can live in a place like this. She asked us to find her a parcel of land to buy.
After the break on the hammock, we moved down to the next terrace where my eyes feasted on a bigger ring of coleus which were so healthy. If I was jealous of the petunias earlier, I am more jealous with these red beauties. The side of the ring was surrounded by either King Crab or Red Dragon coleus variety. Now I am confused between the two. The one inside the ring is something "Coral..." but I also forgot its full name. I have both of these varieties sometime ago in pots at home. However, I lost them during one summer when water supply was really scarce. My coleuses were not as healthy as these ones. The great effect of planting straight on the ground is very obvious while plants on pots seem stunted, limited growth. How I wish I have that ground to grow my ornamental plants.
I ran to the other side of the ring and found another ring of coleus of different variety, surrounded by what seemed to be a variety of bromeliads. I am not sure though. I again had that variety of coleus, Dipt in Wine. I had more than ten varieties of coleus. You can find some of them here in my previous post from years ago. It is funny how I dropped the names when I stopped planting them.
I thought my companions followed but I looked back and they seem to be enjoying the view of the first coleus ring.
There was a guava tree few meters after the Dipt In Wine ring and I spotted ripe fruits which made me excited to pick some. I don't know where the young lady who assisted us but I just called out. She came out from the upper terrace and I asked for permission to pick the guava fruits. She gave me the permission. Alfa and Joy helped reach the not-so-high fruits.
After the fruit picking, we started going back up the terraces. That was when I noticed on one side which we did not go earlier a plot of sunflowers which petals have already fallen off. The seeds were showing up, aged. Are these the sunflower seeds they toast and sell as snacks? I asked myself. It was amusing seeing them still on the sunflower plant.
Alfa and Joy went up ahead. When I caught up, they were appreciating the other flowers which we just passed by earlier. The multicolored rose took my attention. I used to see these types of roses only on photos. Now I see them in real life. I actually have a pot of this variety at home which I intentionally bought sometime last year.
I did not notice until Alfa mentioned the mini-mini-rose. She sounded amused and said it was her first time seeing such variety. I looked at what she was taking photos of and indeed, it is amusing. The buds were really small and so cute. Imagine few grains of rice put together. It can not be figured from the photo but one bud seemed just about 0.5cm in diameter.
Because of them from another province whom I had to show up to that I had the chance to visit the farm and reconnect with nature while reconnecting with friends. It was a great afternoon well spent with my friends while learning what's in my locality.