NIGHT MASS | Tourists come up to Baguio for the seasonal cold weather, and the “selfie” opportunities at iconic destinations like Baguio Cathedral, as shown in this photo taken during a night Mass on Dec. 19, 2022. (Photo by VINCENT CABREZA / Inquirer Northern Luzon)
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — The seasonal chill has descended upon the summer capital, greeting tourists with a cool 12.2°C morning on Christmas Day.
The cold weather remains Baguio’s major drawing power as a tourism destination, where the mercury occasionally drops to 10°C between December and February. But the city’s coldest morning remains on Jan. 18, 1961, when daybreak froze at 6.3°C.
The mountain resort city began recording a temperature drop to 13 C on Friday morning from an average 14°C to 15°C this month.
On the morning of Christmas Eve on Saturday, residents woke up to 12.2°C, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
Most hotels and inns were fully booked over the weekend, but packed commercial buses still arrived on Saturday, according to a dispatcher at the terminals in Governor Pack Road.
Traffic management
Police officers and barangay officials spent their Christmas morning untangling traffic gridlocks at Lourdes Grotto in Dominican Hill and Leonard Wood Road, which leads to favorite tourist haunts like Botanical Garden, Mines View Park, and Wright Park for horseback riding.
Dominican Hill recently endured long traffic lines because of a new attraction, Mirador Heritage and Eco Spirituality Park, atop the Grotto’s 252 steps, and the former Diplomat Hotel that is now an art hub, and which has been recognized as the historic Jesuits Retreat House.
“Traffic was backed up all the way to the Naguilian Highway, but what can we do?” commented a Dominican Hill village official.
Traffic management has become a major police task since Baguio eased leisure travel this year.
Both residents and visitors were observed walking home or back to downtown Baguio because only a few public utility vehicles operated on Christmas Day.
Some tourists, wrapped in woolen coats and parkas purchased from “wagwagans” (imported secondhand stores) or the night market, were also scouting for side-street restaurants “that did not have long queues.”
In a Christmas Day video post on the city’s online public information page, City Tourism Operations Officer Aloysius Mapalo said the Baguio government is pursuing a responsible tourism program and continues to study various city thresholds to establish when a massive visitor influx would affect parks, resources, and the environment.
“Before the [COVID-19] pandemic struck, we’ve reached that point when traffic [was] almost at a standstill and you [would] wait for up to an hour for vehicles to start moving. Nowadays, [the main streets are] congested but traffic is moving although you get to your destination in a much longer time,” Mapalo said in the post.
‘Walk Baguio Walk’
On Dec. 19, epidemiologist Dr. Donnabel Tubera-Panes of the city health services office advocated the return of the city’s “Walk Baguio Walk” campaign, saying it was one of the healthy experiences of a Baguio trip.
But she still urged residents and travelers to complete their vaccinations, given that the Baguio cold weather makes them vulnerable to the prevailing COVID-19 and the common flu.
“Baguio’s health-care utilization rate is a low 15 percent… Although people got sick, few needed hospitalization so as we enter endemicity (the stage when a virus is classified as part of the environment), we are pushing everyone to take their booster shots,” Panes said.
As of Dec. 12, the Cordillera region has achieved 97 percent of its new vaccination target (1,247,998 individuals jabbed out of the total 1,286,637), with Baguio and Abra breaching their respective targets. The summer capital has vaccinated 342,503 people (127.79 percent) while 211,005 residents in Abra received their full vaccine doses (119.64 percent).