Waking Up Above the Clouds at Goatcliff, Then Rappelling

The morning starts in a tent at Goatcliff, camped right above the clouds in Atok, Benguet. Breakfast was simple, but with that view still sitting right in front of the tent, it hardly needed to be anything else — the kind of morning that's hard to beat. After breakfast came something new: a first attempt at rappelling, tried for the very first time. It cost 950 pesos, around $15, and that price covered a full lesson plus the actual climb down the cliff face. The first moments were nerve-wracking, but once the technique clicked, it turned into one of the most exciting parts of the whole trip. Goatcliff sits in the Cordillera region of northern Luzon, an area worth seeking out for travelers who want something more adventurous than the usual sightseeing route. A cloud-level campsite followed by an unplanned first rappel is exactly that kind of detour — the sort of morning that turns into one of the best parts of a trip almost by accident.