After our little adventure at Burnham Park, our next stop was the Igorot Stone Kingdom. The little one was especially excited about this because she said she's going to play pretend as the Igorot Princess. She does feel like one after wearing the costumes at Burnham Park during her little photo session. When I asked her what her expectations were, she said there'd be a castle of some sort, and of course the entire kingdom.
Igorot Stone Kingdom did not disappoint the little kid. From the entrance to the exit, she had a blast marveling at the amazing landscape and stone structures. This is also where the big St. Bernard dog is. Tourists may get their photo taken while sitting beside the big dog. I personally feel a bit guilty for having had our photo taken with him. It felt a bit too bad that he's right there sitting, just having his photo taken with people he doesn't even know. I hope when he gets home after a hard day's work, he gets to enjoy some relaxation time and a big hug and lots of love from his caretakers.
Right next to the St. Bernard booth are 4 gigantic statues of Igorots where tourists can have their photos taken. You can hand your phone to the photographer and then have them take your photo using their SLR. Those copies can be printed out for Php150 per copy. If you have 2 copies printed out, they'll also give you the soft copies of all the other shots in your mini session.
The Igorot Stone Kingdom is the newest attraction in Baguio City. I'm just so happy that we were able to see it while it's still almost newly built. They started building in on 2020 after a white carabao appeared before Pio G. Velasco. The hope of this tourist attraction is to showcase not just the beautiful stone structures but also the Igorot culture.
Basically, if you look all around, you'll see the stone structures that they built at the left. it shows the ingenuity of the Igorot. The stone structures look a lot like the Rice Terraces in Banaue. My little one was very much amazed by the battlements and the pillars. If you look at the right, you'll see something like a castle wall. It is not yet finished when we got there. There were niches that are still empty. I think there'll be little statues to be put in there.
Before climbing the stone structures, tourists get to enjoy the spectaculars that the Igorot Stone Kingdom prepared. People could dance with the Igorot dancers with the cultural music accompaniment. There are also several booths where tourists can wear the different Igorot outfits and have their photo taken. It was a good experience to immerse oneself into the Igorot culture. I think that's going to teach more to any student than just to read about those in books.
We went to the left side first, so we could get to admire the stone structures at the right side. The path to the top was extremely challenging. But since the little kid was determined to get to the top, Nanay and Tatay had to keep up. It made me realize I need to do a lot more cardio exercises when we get home. Once we got to the top, we took a moment to enjoy the view of the mountains, the clouds kissing the trees and the mountaintops, the stone structures at the Igorot Stone Kingdom.
The only thing missing in this tourist attraction is the finality of the entire place. There are still some unfinished parts of the attraction. Even then, it is still worth the Php100 entrance fee. Towards the exit, there are souvenirs that you can buy as pasalubong. We also had our strawberry ice cream. It costs Php50 per cone but it was also worth the price because you can actually taste some frozen strawberry bits too.
It was a tiring visit because of all the climbing up and down. Along the way, there are different flowers planted on the sides of the steps. I took photos while also taking some time to rest before continuing all the way to the top. I also love that there are cats freely roaming around, not bothering people but just being cats, like residents of a kingdom.
It was halfway through the afternoon when we finished strolling and climbing up and down the Igorot Stone Kingdom. I was thankful that we had to go to another spot in Baguio. We had to go to the Strawberry farm in La Trinidad. And that one, I was really excited about. That, I'm going to tell you about it next time. I'm really really tired from all the moving around. So for now, toodaloo!
