Sagada

Bus to Sagada

From Bagio, where we had spent the previous night in cousin Me-Ann’s vacation home, we ventured to Sagada by way of a 6 hour bus ride(440pesos/10USD). The bus left at 6:30am so we were up early, not a hard thing for Anthony as he has yet to adjust to the time zone and was up at 3:30. Darin on the other hand was only able to roll out of bed with help from Anthony. We stopped by McDonalds for a quick snack. You might imagine that the food would be the same, and for the most part it is with some twists; rice, longanisa, and sugar-laden pineapple juice give it a distinctly Filipino flavor. One egg McMuffin and two hamdesal later we were on the bus.

Six hours seemed like a long time and were a little concerned about how comfortable the ride would be. We sat at the front with our knees touching the windshield and took off. With our seats we could see a clear 180 degree sweep in front of the bus, and it was spectacular. The bus starts off at around 5,000ft climbs to 7,000ft and then drops back down to 4,000ft. The entire ride is on the crest of mountains with views of valleys after valleys. The hillsides are sparkly populated with towns here and there but farms everywhere. Rice is a popular crop this time of year at higher altitude but many other leafy greens are being grown. Farmable land seems to be a commodity and as such where there is flat land there are crops, even if it is at the edge of the road. Overall the ride was a little bumpy and not all of the road is paved but for the most part it was comfortable. The views were incredible and the bus ride itself we see as an attraction.

Sagada caves

Sagada is a small town and considered by locals to be “rustic”. The town has one major street and a church. On the day we arrived we walked around the city we saw more white people than we had seen since the beginning of the trip, it seems this is a popular destination for tourists. We made our way into a tourist adventure store and set up a spelunking trip (800pesos/19USD) for the next morning.

At the mouth of the cave are hanging coffins. The coffins are stacked up or rested high up on a cliff as to avoid rival tribes form desecrating them. The dead are place in the fetal position; they exit the world in the same way that they came in.

Jason was our tour guide, a farmer by weekdays and guide by weekend. He took us through two caves linked together. The first half of the adventure was climbing, crawling, and butt scooting. Some of the passages were only a foot or two wide and we repeatedly needed ropes to climb down. It was awesome! We had a blast scrambling through the cave. The second half of the cave was less difficult to maneuver through but had cool rock formations.

Entering Lumiang Cave w/ coffins

Anthony "rock climbing"

Darin w/ our tour guide, Jason

It's a turtle

A Day at the Spa

Sagada sounds

One might imagine that a rural town would be quiet and peaceful with crickets and the occasional dog. Not the case, at bed time there is a cacophony of dogs barking, kids screaming, saws, hammering, cars, footsteps heard through the thin walls, and yes more dogs barking. The morning is much of the same but with the added roosters who start well before sunup, the traditional cartoon rooster at the first rays of light is a bit exaggerated. But, with all of these sounds we both slept well and had no trouble going to bed. On another note, country music is extremely popular!

Sagada ATM

Forgetting to pull money out when we were in Baguio, we tried to pull money out of the only ATM machine in Sagada. Unfortunately, it was a regional bank and it wouldn't access our US accounts. So we count our money and realize we didn't have enough money to last us our planned 3 nights in Sagada. So we cut our trip a day short and head back to Baguio. But even the two nights we got to spend in Sagada was well worth the 6 hour bus ride.