Coffee in Cabuyao, above the clouds

Photo by Rocky Ngalob

January 4, 2015 

By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

TUBA, Benguet – Cabuyao is on the peak of Mount Santo Tomas with at least 2,256 meters above sea level, a visitor would appreciate the beauty of the environs and experience a walk in the clouds that cover that community in the sky.

And equally satisfying one’s visit would be a visit to the Café in the sky in Cabuyao, Tuba, Benguet. It recently opened its doors and unexpectedly, happy customers kept coming back.


Eleven kilometers from Baguio City proper, it is a 20 minute drive, in the absence of the rush hour traffic at the Campo Sioco – BGH area.

In our recent visit, as we witnessed the come and go of customers, I was pushed to interview people behind the café establishment and found that besides the food and drinks, the place is more frequented because of the uncontested natural beauty of the environs.

“We actually envisioned it earlier to be a small café. But through the partners exchange of ideas, it is now at its present stage,” explained co-owner Sonny Agcolicol, who added that there are five partners, all Baguio boys, in the said entrepreneur.

The café is situated on a strategic place in Cabuyao, which can accommodate a100 customers – 80 inside and 20 on the veranda area.

Aside from the Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker – which Sonny claimed as their drinks when they conceptualized the café, the dishes offered are affordable and cater to the taste of customers of various age.
Rice toppings with vegetables and either chicken, pork or beef are served with prices ranging from PhP 110 to 130. Wine and beers are offered too but the “addicting” Cordillera brew (Arabica coffee) is traditionally offered to help customers overcome or enjoy the cold weather of the area.

Interview with the Cafe co-owners: Sonny (in white) and Roland (in blue). Photo by Bernie Daytec

“In the future, we also plan to open barista for different coffee mixing,” explained Sonny.
It was opened for a “dry run” last December 8, 2014. Hence the staff are still adjusting as they are new on the job. All the staff are locals whom we recruited to work in the café, added Sonny, who apologized that some customers complained of the slow services but it is understandable under the context of newly opened with an amateur new staff.

As an accessory service, they opened four rooms in the café. A room is good for two at PhP 2,200 per room with free breakfast. The rooms were established in case some visitors get stranded and are not able to return to the city.

More attractions
Cabuyao is one of the barangays in the Mount Santo Tomas. In the area, one gets a panoramic glimpse of natural beauties from the distant beaches of the Lingayen Gulf and plains of Pangasinan to La Union, the mountains, forests and cloud formations.

The forest reservation in Mount Santo Tomas is 3,121 hectares declared under Proclamation No. 581 in 1940, makes one appreciate the importance of a conserved forest and the present grave threats that it now faces.

One can appreciate the sunrise from the East that silhouettes the Cordillera mountain ranges and the sunset reflecting from the gulf. Various cloud formations and changing hues of the environment are a sight to behold, never to be replicated but transforming every time with the changing weather and movement of time. “You never see the same scene but it is best when it is clear, and the cloud formations; they change from time to time. Every visit is memorable,” explained Roland Wong, a co-owner and owner of the Luisas Café at Session Road.

Even the lights in the city during night time served as an attraction, he added, as we watched lights of cars in traffic along the Marcos Highway.

Added sights in the area are the relay stations, the nine hectare rain catchment basin by the Baguio Water District, and the twin radar discs.

The twin discs and the vegetable gardens. Photo by Shehanah Grail Medina

Strawberry and vegetable farms
An Ibaloi settlement where most are farmers who plant different vegetables the whole year round. If the mercury drops below 10 degrees centigrade – like in the last days of December 2013 and early days of January 2014, the area may experience frost or andap, as called by locals.

But there is no place called La Presa in the area, as it is fictional setting as popularized by a tele-novela of one TV stations. It is actually the farming village of Cabuyao where they plant strawberries and other vegetables sold to visitors and the nearby Baguio City market.

Picking strawberries at Cabuyao, Santo Tomas. Photo by Rocky Ngalob/Nordis

There are areas of cultural heritage and worth visiting in the area though not advertised much by the local government. The Amliang Cave inside the forest reservation is where the ancestors of the indigenous peoples in the area were believed to have been laid to rest. Historians believed that the ancestors of the local people who perished in the Battle of Tonglo (Tuba) against the Spanish colonialists were buried in the said cave. And this could be the reason that the LGU does not promote it for tourism for any disturbance is sacrilegious and also to prevent vandalism.

How to get there
Café in the sky and the whole Cabuyao area are accessible via the Marcos Highway and Green Valley road. There is not much problem if you have your own ride, the most possible that you would encounter is the heavy traffic near the city.

A jeepney services the area. There is one jeep that regularly serves the area which leaves Cabuyao at 7 AM and returns back at 11 AM. It will have its last trip to the city at 4 PM. The terminal is at the Otek Street area near Rizal Park below Baguio City Hall. The jeepneys plying the Green valley area can extend their services to the visitors in Cabuyao if there are enough passengers. Adjusted fares however are imposed by the drivers association. The same with garage cars, upon arrangement, but with the same adjusted fare as they claim that they do not have back load.

Regardless of the city problems like on transportation, a visit at Cabuyao and the Café in the sky would surely be a memorable lifetime experience. #