Pasdong, Village of the Ibaloi Tribe of Benguet (3 of 3)

Pasdong is 4 to 6-hour jeepney ride away from the Baguio City proper. It actually takes lesser time to get there thru a private vehicle. A jeepney only has to make several detours, for instance to a hardware or a grocery store, besides the usual stops to pick-up passengers, because it also serves as the community's FedEx. Since the village is remote and the trips are rare, the locals would ask the driver to get them something from the city, or deliver something to somewhere. And to compensate for the cost of the gasoline, as the trip is long ang mostly uphill, the jeepney has to be as jampacked as it can be.

The village from afar. The place is found at the foot of and between mountains and hills.


An icy cold stream runs along the barangay


Which explains the presence of several hanging bridges in the place (I was excited to see a lot of them especially that I had only seen them in films. It was my first time to actually cross an authentic hanging bridge.)


Most of the locals are organic farmers who use unprocessed chicken dung as fertilizer which according to one of our companions, Ramon Mapa, the Executive Director of PILCD, has its own downside. The acid coming from the chicken dung makes the land infertile after a while.

Side view of the barrio chapel. I like its windows. It's the style of the windows of most houses in Benguet as well as in Ifugao. They're intentionally small to keep their houses warm.

Portraits of the Ibalois of Pasdong: