Mines View Park

I guess it really used to be a park, but when you go to Mines View Park in Baguio City now, all you'll see from the street are stalls selling souvenirs and food. If you brave the crowds and go to the viewing deck on the edge of a very steep hill, you will see the site of old copper and gold mines. The mines have long since closed in this particular area—long enough for grass and trees to cover the valley and hillsides again, though you can still see bald spots and trails here and there. Long enough, too, for houses to be built on the old mine site. On a clear day, you can also see the breadth of the Cordillera mountain range. Just our luck to get there on a cloudy day.


The Cordillera region is the ancestral domain of the Igorot, which is made up of six ethnic groups. At the back of the viewing deck, I saw three little old women making a living out of renting Igorot costumes—vests, skirts, headresses, beads, spears and wooden shields—to tourists.


And here is the tour group in all their glorious Igorot finery! BAGUIO CITY SERIES #4