La Trinidad is a small town in the province of Benguet. Yet it's big on tourists for, among others, its strawberry farms. It's 3-kilometer North of Baguio and travel time is on the average forty-five minutes.
We would get there in less than that, the taxi driver named Alex promised us. On our way, Alex was generous enough to respond to my questions. But most of the time, he took the initiative of telling us who owns the house that sits on the forested hill alone; the congested Quezon Hill; the sights that could be glimpsed if it's not foggy; the site of the landslide where many died during the Bagyong Ondoy; and a host of other things.
I didn't keep track of time. Perhaps it would have really taken us less than forty-five minutes to get there as promised. But Alex slowed down many times so that we could get a good view of Baguio's different attractions and distractions.
If there's anything that encourages tourists to ever bother visit La Trinidad, it is the strawberry farm. Folks in La Trinidad take their strawberries seriously. They do allow tourists to pick strawberries themselves straight from the shrub. But not without footing a hefty bill---Php 350.00/ Zest-O Box.
Why is it expensive when you can buy it in SM Baguio at a cheaper price? Well, it's what you call maintenance fee. The strawberry plant is not a sturdy plant. You pick the fruit too strong and you might uproot the entire plant.
Being the stingy tourists that we are, we didn't try strawberry picking. We had only our pictures taken with the strawberry farm as our background, posing as though we were picking strawberries.
And we spent the rest of our time in La Trinidad buying souvenirs (keychains, ref magnet, coin purse), and tasting foods that are uniquely local (green pinipig, blueberry and strawberry wine, strawberry taho).
