La Trinidad Things to Do

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By the roadside of the national highway stands the Bell Church, sometimes referred to as Bell Tower. It is a Buddhist temple built by the early Chinese settlers, known for its beautifully landscaped garden, and fountain. Tourists go there not only to appreciate Chinese architecture, but also to have their palms read and fortune told.

(Photos by my friend, Jayvee Olarte-Moltio, a talented La Trinidad native.)

Most of the vegetables in the Baguio Public Market come from La Trinidad. If you're going to the strawberry farm anyway, might as well buy vegetables also there where it's much cheaper. Enterprising vegetable farmers have already put up stalls at the Strawberry farm, but you can opt to buy at the public market or trading post. The trading post sells either by wholesale or retail.

When we parked our car at the Strawberry Fields, I noticed many tourists buying "dirty" ice cream from ambulant ice cream vendors. ("Dirty" ice cream is just the term used to refer to ice cream not manufactured by ice cream factories; it is not necessarily really dirty, but some avoid it because they are homemade or made by small entrepreneurs that might not have strict Quality Control procedures).

I have already finished buying strawberries and vegetables when I saw more tourists buying and eating strawberry ice cream. I decided to take the risk of stomach trouble; I also bought an ice cream cone. The strawberry ice cream was delicious! I bought another one; this time, my husband was intrigued about the taste, so he also had one. He commented that it was more a strawberry-flavored sherbet than an ice cream because it wasn't creamy, but he agreed that it was delicious. Before we finally left the parking lot, I had my 3rd cone of ice cream.

Thank God, I didn't have stomach trouble! Try it when you go there:)

Sorry, I don't have pictures; I was so happy with the ice cream, I forgot to "document" it, besides, my hands were busy holding the ice cream cone:)

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Young or old, local or foreigner, you'll enjoy picking strawberries straight from the Strawberry Farm. It so exciting choosing your strawberry the way you like it - unripe, half ripe or fully ripen; big, medium or small.

If you're in a hurry, you can just buy freshly picked strawberries from the vendors at the Strawberry Farm. They sell strawberry jam, too.

Fresh, Organically Grown veggies can be bought in two areas in La Trinidad, One is beside the Strawberry Farm Market in KM 8, where you can buy very cheap and very fresh (just picked) veggies like cabbage, peas, snow peas, carrots, potatoes, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Beans and a lot more! The other area is in Benguet Trading Post at KM 5. about 3 kilometers before the strawberry farm,in here veggies are bought mostly wholesale but they also have retail stalls. Again You Must have good haggling skills to be able to buy these cheap veggies!

where does baguio city get it's sweet strawberries? the answer is in nearby Benguet Province Capital of La Trinidad, which is about 8 kilometers away from the outskirts of baguio city via the Halsema Highway. La Trinidad started growing strawberries, specifically the swiss and japanese variety (although south korean strawberries are the sweetest!) in the early 1980's during a vegetable glut in prices and since then they are experimenting and producing sweeter and bigger varieties of strawberries. You can buy fresh strawberries here and pick it up at the fields yourself (see picture) at wholesale price but the price fluctuates everyday but is usually between 90 pesos to 130 pesos a Kilogram. Other Strawberry products also abound like strawberry candy, wine, jam and other native goods and off course the vegetables!!!