Nagpana, Iloilo
Two years ago i had the chance to backpack around the Philippines with Anders Lindstrom, director of botanical collections at Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, Thailand - http://www.nongnoochtropicalgarden.com, and Ex situ Conservation Subgroup leader of the Cycad Specialist Group (IUCN)- http://www.cycad.org in search of our local Pitogo. One of those trips led us to an unusual aeta community living at Nagpana, Iloilo. Armed with his own gps and brilliant maneuvers of our aeta guides we successfully find it sitting atop the mountain side slope of about 60degrees. All this in a span of 40mins of hiking, 30mins of brief lunch courtesy again of our aeta guide for handpicking us a jackfruit, and a few hours spent in socializing with the community - all for the love of pitogo!
