Hiking ancestral trails and tracing Ifugao heritage in the Cordilleras

Tucked deep in the Cordillera mountains, Banaue is home to the UNESCO-listed Ifugao rice terraces—hand-carved into the landscape over 2,000 years ago. A nine-hour drive from Manila, it’s a remote region shaped by generations of tradition, where people farm to eat and heritage lives on through daily life.

I spent three days hiking through these ancient terraces with local Ifugao guides, moving between villages that hold centuries of cultural knowledge. This journey captures a raw, off-the-grid experience—one that embodies my approach to place-based storytelling rooted in preservation, people, and deep connection to land.