Holy Week or the time when Catholics commemorate the passion of Jesus Christ is also the time in the Philippines when families take their first long summer vacation. Most schools end the year and have their graduation just before Holy Week. This year the one week vacation was from March 30-April 5 (Easter Sunday).

Sagada is a small town in the Mountain Province.  It takes about 12-15 hours to get to Sagada by car or bus and is almost near the mountain city of Baguio also known as the Summer Capital of the Philippines. Sagada is known for its rice terraces, hanging coffins, underground river, waterfalls and other natural resources.  Sagada became very famous after a romantic comedy movie (entitled That Thing Called Tadhana) was filmed in the small mountain town. It got local tourists interested in visiting the place.

Just before this Holy Week, I read an article that had conservationists discouraging tourists from visiting the mountain area called Sagada up in the northern part of the Philippines.  They had many reasons for this.  One of the most important is that the water supply is low in order to serve the tourists? needs.  What should otherwise go irrigating the rice terraces goes to the use of the tourists. 

Now that the Holy Week has passed, I saw TV coverage that showed how thousands of people still trekked their way up to Sagada and after they left, litter covered the hills and surrounding area.  It was a very picture to see.   I remembered the saying ?Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.?  That is what Responsible Tourism should be!