Part 15 (1/2)
”I've alanted to be a pun pal,” Scotty said
Far ahead, green shelves gave a regular pattern to the base of one el ”What's that?”
”Igorot rice terraces”
”Igorot? I thought the rice terraces were Ifugao”
”The Igorots have the,that el put his hand on his stoested ”Spectacular?”
”Yes Both These Igorot terraces are nothing Wait until you see the terraces at Banaue”
Three pairs of eyes scanned the road ahead It was deserted
”Tell us about rice,” Rick asked ”There was rice beloe flew to Baguio, too”
”Yes A great deal of rice You passed over Paa Province, which is called the rice bowl of the Philippines That rice is grown in paddies, which are fields with little earth walls around them called dikes The paddies can be flooded Rice needs h, the land is flat”
Scotty pointed to a razorback ridge ”This land sure isn't flat”
”No, but the Igorot and Ifugao workersterraces Each terrace is like a little paddy It can be flooded, just as the lowland paddies are The water comes from the mountains in pipes made of bamboo”
”It must be quite a water system,” Rick observed
”Yes There are miles of bamboo pipes, but no water is wasted The water is put into the upper terraces, then it runs by itself through openings down to the lower terraces”
”Is the rice the sahland rice that is planted like wheat We have a little wheat, too, but not enough to feed ood Paddy rice is better”
Rick was interested He continued his questioning ”Are the paddies flooded all the time?”
”Oh, no They are flooded before the rice is planted You knoe do not plant seed in the paddies? We plant baby rice plants which are grown in special places The little plants are pushed into the mud after the paddy is flooded Then the water is left for a while But if we left it all the time, the plants would rot So after a while we let the water out and only let in enough to keep the rice growing”
They were over the terraces now Beyond them, Rick san houses that looked like beehives It was an Igorot village
”We'll reach Bontoc soon,” Angel said
”No truck and no sedan,” Scotty added unhappily ”They couldn't have reached Bontoc, could they?”
”The truck could have, easily, if Nangolat drove during the night”
”Then we'll have to keep hunting past Bontoc right into Banaue”
Angel tapped Rick on the shoulder and pointed ahead ”There is Bontoc”