For Joy Poligon, life is simple, if harsh. “If I don’t go to our rice field every day, we will have nothing to eat.”
It takes her an hour for a return trip.
Poligon is a rice farmer, mother of two, and an Ifugao, indigenous mountain people that live in the Philippines in the north of Luzon island.
Almost 400 square kilometres (154 square miles) of rice terraces, which they have been cultivating for 2,000 years, are spread across the landscape. Unesco declared it a World Heritage site in 1995, calling it an expression of “the harmony between people and their environment”.
The small town of Banaue is the starting point for organised multi-day hiking tours. The income these raise directly benefits guides, tuk-tuk drivers for transfers and the hosts who take guests into their homes. A small levy is used to maintain the landscape.
Ifugao guide Michael Codimo starts the three-day trip at the market in Banaue, where he buys betel nuts and dried tobacco leaves as gifts to distribute along the way. The 61-year-old chews betel nut himself and occasionally spits out a torrent of red juice.