I was in transit bound to home in the province when I spotted this tarpaulin on the overpass in front of La Trinidad municipal grounds. I called out to the jeepney driver to stop and I dropped off. Oh yes! Like Baguio City with its Panagbenga Festival in February, La Trinidad is celebrating a month-long Strawberry Festival in March. And I am blessed in disguise to be going home in the last week of March that I can still have a glimpse of what's left with the festival. 😊
La Trinidad is a valley and a municipality in the province of Benguet, somewhere north of the country. To get to La Trinidad from Manila, take a bus bound for Baguio City through Victory Liner, Dagupan Bus, Philippine Rabbit, Saulog Trans or Solid North Transit. When you reach Baguio City, take a cab and ask the driver to take you to the jeepney terminal bound for La Trinidad. Or, you can ask the driver to take you directly to La Trinidad because it is right next to Baguio City when you go farther north in the region. The famous strawberry farm is just six kilometers away from the city proper.
La Trinidad is known for its strawberry produce from the famous strawberry farm which is mostly owned by Benguet State University. The municipality is also dubbed as "Salad Bowl of the Philippines" because of its also popular Trading Post behind the municipal hall. It is where different vegetables produces are being delivered from different places in the Cordillera region. Okay, maybe I will tell you more about the place on a separate post. For now, let's take a walk in front of the municipal grounds.
Right in front of the municipal hall to the highway is this Strawberry Lane. I was not able to get a good shot of the hall because of these banderitas so I'll try again next time.
On both sides of the lane are mini-parks. To the right is where I spotted this tent carinderia which they temporarily put up for the festival.
There is also this mini-playground where the young and young at heart alike enjoy their time.
To the left of the lane are food stalls where I found this huge circular basket full of strawberries that made me droll and thirsty. 😃 I looked around and searched for halo-halo. For those who do not know what halo-halo is, Oxford dictionary described it very well:
A Filipino dessert made with mixed fruits, boiled sweetened white beans, milk, and flavoured crushed ice, typically topped with purple yam, crème caramel, and ice cream. 'a tall glass of halo-halo'
I can not find a stall selling halo-halo and I wondered why so I asked. I found out that the municipality prohibited it from being traded along the Strawberry Lane to focus on strawberry products alone. Okay, let's have cool and refreshing strawberry shake then! 😊
Going forward towards the municipal hall, I almost jumped when I saw this in the parking lot! It is one of the floats that they used during the float parade six days ago. I was not expecting to see any of the floats here. I thought those have already been disposed but apparently no. And this one has natural flowers already withering. After six days, it is lovely to see this float with the flowers still intact though they started to wither. Notice the AMBIONG lettering on the float. Ambiong is the name of the village which created this float entry.
I thought that if this float is here, then others should also be here. I looked around the parking lot. Indeed, there is one to the right side and in front of the municipal gynmasium. It is the one from Balili village. This one is made of recycled materials. The one from Ambiong is made of natural flowers while this one is artificial. It looks like they had different categories of float materials for the contest. By the way, yes, each float is an entry to a contest.
I went around the Balili float and noticed that the sides have very good view. I tried soooo hard to take a good shot of this side but to no avail. I even requested for a chair from a municipal officer who was looking by. I stood on the chair and tried to take a shot from above just to get rid of the car from the view but I still got that dashboard and the side mirror. Aahhh... People were looking at me with my effort to take photo. I did not care. 😃
Since I can not take a good landscape shot of the float, I just took photos of some of its decorations.
This one is a portray of the colorful houses in sites Stonehill, Botiwtiw and Sadjap (STOBOSA) site which are all part of Balili village. The colorful houses were inspired by the Favela art in Brazil. Now we have it in La Trinidad.
This one? Elf or Santa? Either way, he is carrying yummy strawberries.
Now let's take a closer look at their artificial flowers. Figure what was used with these?
I tried a few more times to take shots of the float but still failed. Okay, that is enough. Let's move on... I found this on the other side of the parking lot. This is the best shot I got somehow. All other angles have more distractions from cars that are parked right beside the float. This float is also made of recycled materials.
Let's have a closer look at the colorful and lovely bird and insect. The parrot looks majestic with its striking red color.
I looked around further and there is no more float in sight. I thought these three may be the top three winners thus displayed here for some time before finally being disposed.
It was just passed noon time. Now I am missing another cup of strawberry shake but it is getting late to be home so I gotta go for now. But before that, for those who may not know how strawberry "tree" looks like, here it is. This was hanging by a garden screen near the flag pole.
Years ago during one casual conversation with my former colleagues, our topic went to strawberries and they thought it is a tree. I thought I would laugh but can not blame them if they haven't seen one yet. Strawberry is not a tree, not like the mulberry tree. It is like a grass! 😃 (herbaceous, actually). It is just about six to eight inches high from the roots. 😊
That's it, friends. I hope you enjoyed the walk with me down the Strawberry Lane in La Trinidad, Benguet. Until next time... 😊
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