Rick was interested. He continued his questioning. "Are the paddies flooded all the time?"
"Oh, no. They are flooded before the rice is planted. You know we do not plant seed in the paddies? We plant baby rice plants which are grown in special places. The little plants are pushed into the mud after the paddy is flooded. Then the water is left for a while. But if we left it all the time, the plants would rot. So after a while we let the water out and only let in enough to keep the rice growing."
They were over the terraces now. Beyond them, Rick saw brown houses that looked like beehives. It was an Igorot village.
"We'll reach Bontoc soon," Angel said.
"No truck and no sedan," Scotty added unhappily. "They couldn't have reached Bontoc, could they?"
"The truck could have, easily, if Nangolat drove during the night."
"Then we'll have to keep hunting past Bontoc right into Banaue."
Angel tapped Rick on the shoulder and pointed ahead. "There is Bontoc."
Nestled in the mountains on the bank of a river was the town of Bontoc, a small cluster of wooden and grass houses. Rick saw that the dirt road had changed to a black top.
"I'm going to look for a place to land."