Place to see: Mountain hiking, Cervantes, Philippines

About this place:

Cervantes is a town of Ilocos Sur located along the border of Abra and Benguet. You can reach the place either through Halsema Highway via Mankayan, or through Tagudin via Bessang Pass.

I was only a kid the last time I visited there so I when my cousins invited me to visit during town fiesta I gladly took the offer.

Although the town has seen some improvement in terms of concrete streets, covered market and a gymnasium, the community is still generally poor and rural no thanks to corruption and the general neglect that outlying towns get from the national and provincial government. The roads leading to the other towns are not yet paved although works are under way on the construction of a concrete road that will eventually connect the national highway in Ilocos to Sagada via Cervantes.

I saw for myself what the local residents have called "longest bridge"--posts jutting out of the riverbed, the only things constructed so far from a government project that was started in the 70s and still continues to receive funds. If you imagine how much money was poured into this project since the 70s, one begins to understand that this indeed could have been the longest bridge ever.

The view around town is beautiful. Nestled halfway between the Cordilleras and the Ilocos lowlands, the town boasts of scenic mountain ranges, rice fields, river and forests. The idyllic scene belies the fact that not far away along the border of Abra, there's a battle raging between the AFP and the New People's Army. My cousins report that they sometimes hear the distant rumble of bombs and that army cargo planes could be seen flying low not far from town.

Despite all that, life in the town center is generally quiet and the town celebrated its fiesta in peace. I missed most of the programs and only managed to view Ms. Gay Cervantes which was fun in a manner that only gay pageants could be. We watched the volleyball game between Cervantes and Quirino (my mother's town) and basketball game vs Mankayan. In the evenings, I went to the perya with my cousin's kids where I played the role of the b.i. uncle by funding their perya bets. And of course inuman with my cousins and nephews.

I had fun and plan to visit again.