Return to Sagada
Ah, time does pass by swiftly. I could still feel my butt frozen from our Sagada trip last December and here we are again for another round of winter adventure. The main reason for our return to this place of solace was so that we can settle an unfinished business, the cave interconnection. If you people read my first article about Sagada(http://tripkotox.blogspot.com/2006/04/sagada-2003.html), I mentioned there that we weren’t able to do the cave interconnection due to lack of time. We only entered one cave and vowed to return for the other.
I won’t be writing much about this trip since I already wrote a lot in my first story. This time I want to focus on our spelunking experience.
"Cape, check! Mask, check! Utility belt, check! To the bat cave!" "Oh shut up Lee, keep your corny stuff to yourself."
There are basically two frequently visited caves in Sagada. One is called Lumiang and the other, more popular one is called Sumaguing. These two caves are just around 20 minutes walk from the town center. Sumaguing is more popular because it has a lot of nice rock formations inside. Let’s see, there’s the King’s curtain formation, the pregnant woman, the turtle, the huge wiener, the bananas, the chocolate cake, the elephant, the fossilized shells on the wall, etc. Sumaguing is more of a ‘walk in the park’ kind of cave. Lumiang on the other hand is more of an ‘AXN Adventure Challenge’ kind of cave. So what do you get when you enter into Lumiang and exit through Sumaguing?
Ho-hum, nothing actually. Those darn guides fooled us into trying the cave interconnection and all we got were soiled clothes and guano addiction. Why did we ever come back to this horrid place?! Why?! Why?!
Ok, enough of the drama. Rewind, rewind.
Sumaguing is more of a ‘walk in the park’ kind of cave. Lumiang on the other hand is more of an ‘AXN Adventure Challenge’ kind of cave. So what do you get when you enter into Lumiang and exit through Sumaguing?
You get some serious spelunking action!
December 25. While all the people were making merry, we were like rats scurrying through a dark tunnel. At the mouth of the cave our trusty guide ‘Lino’ lighted our lantern. To be safe, I brought along my “Just shake it” flashlight in case we accidentally drop our lantern into the water. At least if we ever get caved-in, we won’t have to worry about batteries. This baby may even last longer than us with just a few shakes. On a second thought, this was bought in tutuban for just a measly P120 so I don’t think we should get our hopes up that high.
The cave interconnection, according to our guide can be completed around 4-5 hours depending on our speed inside the cave. Five hours was too much to hear for our two girl companions so they opted to just tour Sumaguing cave. We would then be meeting at the halfway point of Lumiang and Sumaguing. That day, there were several tourist groups entering Sumaguing and only one group entering Lumiang - our group. Our guide said that seldom do people go for the interconnection because it’s not that easy. Great! I am looking forward to a challenge.
"Help! Somebody help! We’re trapped!" –Slap! Slap! --Thanks, I needed that.
As we advance further down the cave, we arrived at a small room surrounded by huge boulders that were unevenly connected. I thought that we have come to a dead end but Lino pointed towards a small opening on the side of the wall. Holy cow, are you sure we can fit thru that? The small hole had a vertical fall of around 15 feet so we needed to use a rope to rappel down. There were several points same as this one. Sometimes, it was hard to find a foot hold to go down. You just have to hang on to the rope and pray that you don’t slip and break anything vital.
It was chilly when we started our decent into the cave but eventually we were sweating like hell climbing up and down. All those wallclimbing hours at Play Underground are finally paying off. Huff huff, how much further does this cave lead to Mt. Mordor? The Ring is weakening me. The Eye of the enemy is moving. Slap! Slap! –Ouch! You ain’t getting my precioussss.
After some time, we arrived at my most dreaded part of this cave – having to swim through icy waters. The water was about 15 meters across and about 8 feet deep but it had a shallower part on the sides. As I was prepping myself to swim through it when my friend suddenly pushed me and I fell in. The water wasn’t really as cold compared to the water we swam at Bomod-ok falls but it still felt like something from the fridge. Hanging around my neck was a cold-tortured Canon A70 held inside a waterproof Aquapack. Due to the cold, the LCD sometimes goes blur and the shutter slows down to around 3 seconds before it shoots. I thought this digicam was a goner.
After the cold swim, we rested for a while before we had to start climbing up a high wall. Beside the small area where we had to climb up is a deep ravine with no sight of the bottom. When we got up the wall, we met some Koreans who were also doing the interconnection but in reverse. Anyong Haseyo! Do you watch Lovers in Paris? I was surprise to see these guys wearing mall rat outfits yet they were still able to make it this far. I wasn’t all geared up myself cause you don’t really need to. Just the plain tshirt, short pants and flipflops are all that you will ever need.
We finally made it to the halfway point. This was after we passed through a huge dome area, wade through an underground river and climbed down a steep decent. It was not really that difficult if you enjoy doing something like that. It would be torture and senseless for people who love to mingle with their couch all day in front of the tv but for those whose bodies always itch for an adventure, this was serious fun.
When we finally made it out of the cave, the two girls were already outside exchanging their fun experiences. They didn’t wait for us at the halfway point anymore cause it took us longer to get there. The whole interconnection thing took us around 3 hours plus. It was really a very nice experience. Now I am finished with my business here in Sagada.
Been there. Done that.
I won’t be writing much about this trip since I already wrote a lot in my first story. This time I want to focus on our spelunking experience.
"Cape, check! Mask, check! Utility belt, check! To the bat cave!" "Oh shut up Lee, keep your corny stuff to yourself."
There are basically two frequently visited caves in Sagada. One is called Lumiang and the other, more popular one is called Sumaguing. These two caves are just around 20 minutes walk from the town center. Sumaguing is more popular because it has a lot of nice rock formations inside. Let’s see, there’s the King’s curtain formation, the pregnant woman, the turtle, the huge wiener, the bananas, the chocolate cake, the elephant, the fossilized shells on the wall, etc. Sumaguing is more of a ‘walk in the park’ kind of cave. Lumiang on the other hand is more of an ‘AXN Adventure Challenge’ kind of cave. So what do you get when you enter into Lumiang and exit through Sumaguing?
Ho-hum, nothing actually. Those darn guides fooled us into trying the cave interconnection and all we got were soiled clothes and guano addiction. Why did we ever come back to this horrid place?! Why?! Why?!
Ok, enough of the drama. Rewind, rewind.
Sumaguing is more of a ‘walk in the park’ kind of cave. Lumiang on the other hand is more of an ‘AXN Adventure Challenge’ kind of cave. So what do you get when you enter into Lumiang and exit through Sumaguing?
You get some serious spelunking action!
December 25. While all the people were making merry, we were like rats scurrying through a dark tunnel. At the mouth of the cave our trusty guide ‘Lino’ lighted our lantern. To be safe, I brought along my “Just shake it” flashlight in case we accidentally drop our lantern into the water. At least if we ever get caved-in, we won’t have to worry about batteries. This baby may even last longer than us with just a few shakes. On a second thought, this was bought in tutuban for just a measly P120 so I don’t think we should get our hopes up that high.
The cave interconnection, according to our guide can be completed around 4-5 hours depending on our speed inside the cave. Five hours was too much to hear for our two girl companions so they opted to just tour Sumaguing cave. We would then be meeting at the halfway point of Lumiang and Sumaguing. That day, there were several tourist groups entering Sumaguing and only one group entering Lumiang - our group. Our guide said that seldom do people go for the interconnection because it’s not that easy. Great! I am looking forward to a challenge.
"Help! Somebody help! We’re trapped!" –Slap! Slap! --Thanks, I needed that.
As we advance further down the cave, we arrived at a small room surrounded by huge boulders that were unevenly connected. I thought that we have come to a dead end but Lino pointed towards a small opening on the side of the wall. Holy cow, are you sure we can fit thru that? The small hole had a vertical fall of around 15 feet so we needed to use a rope to rappel down. There were several points same as this one. Sometimes, it was hard to find a foot hold to go down. You just have to hang on to the rope and pray that you don’t slip and break anything vital.
It was chilly when we started our decent into the cave but eventually we were sweating like hell climbing up and down. All those wallclimbing hours at Play Underground are finally paying off. Huff huff, how much further does this cave lead to Mt. Mordor? The Ring is weakening me. The Eye of the enemy is moving. Slap! Slap! –Ouch! You ain’t getting my precioussss.
After some time, we arrived at my most dreaded part of this cave – having to swim through icy waters. The water was about 15 meters across and about 8 feet deep but it had a shallower part on the sides. As I was prepping myself to swim through it when my friend suddenly pushed me and I fell in. The water wasn’t really as cold compared to the water we swam at Bomod-ok falls but it still felt like something from the fridge. Hanging around my neck was a cold-tortured Canon A70 held inside a waterproof Aquapack. Due to the cold, the LCD sometimes goes blur and the shutter slows down to around 3 seconds before it shoots. I thought this digicam was a goner.
After the cold swim, we rested for a while before we had to start climbing up a high wall. Beside the small area where we had to climb up is a deep ravine with no sight of the bottom. When we got up the wall, we met some Koreans who were also doing the interconnection but in reverse. Anyong Haseyo! Do you watch Lovers in Paris? I was surprise to see these guys wearing mall rat outfits yet they were still able to make it this far. I wasn’t all geared up myself cause you don’t really need to. Just the plain tshirt, short pants and flipflops are all that you will ever need.
We finally made it to the halfway point. This was after we passed through a huge dome area, wade through an underground river and climbed down a steep decent. It was not really that difficult if you enjoy doing something like that. It would be torture and senseless for people who love to mingle with their couch all day in front of the tv but for those whose bodies always itch for an adventure, this was serious fun.
When we finally made it out of the cave, the two girls were already outside exchanging their fun experiences. They didn’t wait for us at the halfway point anymore cause it took us longer to get there. The whole interconnection thing took us around 3 hours plus. It was really a very nice experience. Now I am finished with my business here in Sagada.
Been there. Done that.
Labels: cave, comic, connection, lumiang, sagada, sumaging, travel
posted by Lee @ 6/27/2006
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