Well, a weekend of my life in the mountaintop city of Baguio anyway.

A very beautiful and interesting city. Lots of history and the American influence in Baguio’s development is still evident today (you can read more about that at the link). At 5,000 feet in elevation it is nearly a mile high. It has a different look and feel from any place I’ve ever experienced in the Philippines. I really enjoyed the pine forests and mountain views. And for the first time since moving here I actually felt chilly sitting outside at night. Luckily the bar that was hosting the Hash event had a nice little fire pit to provide some warmth.

It’s a largish town and has some of the big city drawbacks, most notably traffic congestion. But overall the city was very clean. Not much litter and at least in the parts of town I visited, no slums and shanties. So, I enjoyed my visit but I’d actually have no desire to live there. As much as I love the mountains I also enjoy having the ocean nearby. I have both of those in Baretto and I really enjoy the “small town” lifestyle in my new hometown.

It took more than four hours to reach Baguio, and well over an hour of that was on a twisting and turning narrow mountain road. Coupled with my driver’s aggressive driving style it made for a scary ride. I had to remind him several times that passing cars on curves was not necessary as I was in no hurry to reach my destination. Anyway, I may have to revise my “top ten ways I’m likely to die in the Philippines” list and move driver Donny up from the #4 spot. It seems getting to the Hash may be more dangerous than the actual Hash.

I took a boatload of photos so let’s let them tell the story of my Baguio adventure, shall we?

Well, I came to experience the annual Valentine’s Day Hash hosted by the La Union Hash House Harriers. There were 85 Hashers in attendance and they did a nice job keeping everything on track. An 8 kilometer trail that was not as hard as some I’ve done here in Barretto. Could be because we were already on top of the mountain there wasn’t much climbing left to do.

The La Union Hash circle is quite a bit different than the SBH3. No ice for one thing. I got punished for “smoking” in the circle (as I tried to explain to no avail, I wasn’t smoking, I was vaping. No one calls fog smoke, right? Anyway, my “punishment” was having to chug down a beer. Big whoop. More like a reward!

The La Union Hash is a “family” Hash, so no raunchy Hash names or bawdy songs. I advised Salty Cum to just say her Hash name was “Salty” if asked. Anyway, a good group of guys and it was fun Hashing with them.

We did have four other Hashers from Subic in attendance, so it was good to hang out with some familiar faces. There’s probably going to be a price to be paid for that however. The other SBH3 guys were quick to point out that me and Salty were the only Subic Hashers to do the “easy” trail. Well, in my defense, the Hare had told me the so-called easy trail was also the most scenic. They were both in fact the same length, but maybe not as much uphill on the scenic path. But I expect I’ll be on ice tonight for my “transgression”.

The other thing is the La Union Hash didn’t have San Mig Zero beer (3% alcohol) so I was forced to drink San Mig Light (5% alcohol). Unfortunately, I did not reduce my beer intake accordingly and wound up drunker than I have been in a LONG time. I’m talking years. I’m not real clear on things after a certain point, but apparently in the course of the night I broke at least one bottle of beer, possibly two. That may cost me some ice time as well for embarrassing my mother kennel in Subic.

And so ends the tale of my weekend in the mountains.