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.

Sagada 2003

‘Diak maawatan’ actually means ‘I don’t know’ or 'I don't understand' in the Igorot or Ilokano language.

Nakakapagod ang trip, pero siyempre worth it. Kahit hindi worth it e pilitin mo na rin sa sarili na worth it, after all the trouble of going there.

This is an article I am writing regarding our trip.

Going to Baguio I anticipated that I will make it in just 4 - 5 hours, kaso traffic e...seems that everyone wanted to go to Baguio. Gusto ata mag Sm Baguio. So it took us around 8 hours going to Baguio. We left Manila around 4:45am na, so nakaabot kami ng Baguio ng mga 11am plus na. Then, we had a quick lunch sa Chowking. Mga kasama ko bumili pa ng Hotstuff sa bangketa. Para raw may pampainit sa Sagada. Hahaha!

Medyo I was hesitant na nga to push through to Sagada, but then where's the adventure if we just stay in Baguio. We left Baguio around 1:30pm and snaked our way thru the Halsema hiway. Grabe yung lubak. Puro bato saka buhangin. Super dusty, kaya if you plan to take the bus there, I advice you bring a face mask or even cover your whole face, kundi siguradong espasol ang labas mo. Hehe. There were instances that the road was really not leveled so it caused our revo to tilt to one side....side pa ng bangin! I just had to look straight na lang to keep my knees from shaking. There are some portions of the road that have been cemented but you cannot use it so you can expect a lot of one way roads that can fit only one vehicle at a time. You have to turn back if naka meet ka ng kasalubong. Bigayan lang.

I am almost certain that my back was going to break due to driving for 6 grueling hours and yet still not arriving at our destination. Siyempre we did go down on some occasions to pee or to stretch our legs. There were times when the clouds were on the same level with us and the mountain wind was blowing and sending chills up our spines. It was 6pm plus na and we are still on the road, in the middle of nowhere. So we decided to check into a roadside hotel in Buguias, Benguet. It was the evening of December 24. No one has actually checked into that hotel and the restaurants were all closed. Cold, weary and famished, we felt like Mary and Joseph who were trying to get a place to stay for the night. Good thing the hotel management was going to have a Christmas party that evening and they kindly invited us to join them. Halellujah! Free food!

That evening, relatives and friends came to make merry. They prepared pinikpikang manok, Bbq, spaghetti, broccoli w/ cauliflower, and fruit salad, etc. The men gathered around a bonfire while taking shots of Fundador. After I had heartily filled my tummy, I went over and joined the men in their late night chitchat. Naturally, they offered me a drink which I respectfully declined, but after some time out in the piercing cold, I started to shiver and gave in to a fiery shot of fundador. The effects of alcohol and my fatigued body made me drowsy so I told the party people that I would be hitting the haystack. I felt a bit embarrased to bail out on them since they treated us with much hospitality. Parang ‘eat and run’ ang dating or should I say ‘eat and sleep’.

The next morning, after a night of rejuvenating rest, we left the hotel and continued on our road trip with renewed vigor. Grabe, it took us another 3 hours to finally arrive in Sagada! So we travelled a total of 9 hours from Baguio to Sagada. If we had insisted on going forward last night, we might have driven ourselves off a cliff. Buti na lang. Sabagay, mabagal kasi drive namin due to the unfamiliarity of the road. Going back to Baguio, hinataw ko na, kaya it only took us 6 hours which is the normal span of travel time between Baguio and Sagada. If we only brought a 4x4, we could have arrived in less than 6 hours.

Finally! We are here in the very place that we were just admiring sa internet before. Now it's for real. I am standing behind the counter of the town center registering our names. Tourist fee is a measly P10 per person. Guides to different destinations in Sagada abound in the premises. Our first concern is to check into a hotel and have our lunch. Through the advice of a friend who's been here before, we checked into the Sagada Igorot Inn just a few houses farther down from the town center. Surprisingly, the hotel was also almost vacant. The lady charged us P1000 per night since its peak season daw. Wala nga tumitira sa hotel niya e. Ewan. Our room had 2 single beds and one double bed. Good for the 4 of us. The toilet and bath was outside and communal with no hot water! Only the deluxe rooms have private cr's that have hot water but it cost much more expensive. That night, only I was brave enough to take a freezing shower since I am accustomed to taking a shower before going to bed. After that chilling experience, I think my skin thickened and I felt more resistant to the cold. Grabe. The next day my friends begged the lady to allow us to use the heated shower in the next room. Good thing she had pity on our poor skinny bodies.

We had our first meal sa Yoghurt House, which is a few houses farther down from our hotel. Ok yung food dito but you have to wait really long for your order to come out especially pag maraming tao kumakain. Isa lang yung cook e. Isa lang din ata yung kawali. Hehe. Meals in Sagada cost around P60 - P80. Feeling ko nakakagana kumain sa Sagada. Must be the fresh environment or something. Lamon kami every meal e. Sarap kumain! One should definitely try the yoghurt and the freshly brewed mountain tea. Another good place to eat is at Masfere Inn and Restaurant. Mabilis and service dito. They also have a larger menu to choose from. The resto itself is well decorated with Igorot pictures and tribal stuff. My friends were even ogling a nude Igorota picture. There is also a piano in the center. I guess they have tribal gigs every now and then.

We actually arrived in Sagada on Dec. 25. What a nice way to spend the holidays huh. Half the day was already gone when we finished our lunch. We opted to just go see the small waterfalls and then the Echo valley. We walked for about 15 minutes going down some rice terraces to see a really small waterfall. It had an equally small basin which is around 10 - 15 feet deep according to people. We didn't take a dip because we had no extra clothes with us.

Our next stop is Echo valley. To go there, you have to pass through the old church, then up and through the cemetary. Be careful, Echo valley is full of jagged rocks. One slip and it's goodbye cruel world - hello hanging in a coffin (If you prefer buried that way). We didnt go down to check out the hanging coffins below since it was getting dark. After a few echoing shouts, we headed back to our hotel. We did of course took a lot of pictures on the way. Strangely, there was a dog following us all the way. Doggie even posed with us when we were taking pictures. The shocking thing was, after we had our dinner and entered our hotel, we found doggie in the lobby of our hotel! Aaaaargh!!! Freaky man, freaky. So in a feat of fear and confusion, we tied doggie up, chopped him up and made him into Asusena. Goes well with Gilbey’s. Hahaha!

That night, we all slipped under our warm blankets and chatted about the day’s events. I was blessed with a Pikachu blanket while the others had Mickey Mouse. Night time in Sagada is really very cold and deafeningly silent. Curfew here is 9pm. I don’t know the reason for such practice but according to village folklore, flesh-eating Igorot zombies come rappelling down their hanging coffins at night in search of human innards. My friends and I made sure that we emptied our bladders before sleeping as no one would dare go out to the toilet in the middle of the night. Who knows, doggie might still be lurking nearby.

December 26 na! Another day to explore this lovely, quaint little town. Today we will be going to Bomod-ok falls or simply the Big falls. The tourist info center would advice you to hire a guide going there but we opted to just find the place ourselves. I’ve read in an article before that you can either hike for 3 – 4 hours by foot or rent a jeepney going there. Since we have our Revo with us, we had the freedom to stop and go and take pictures as we please. We passed by several small villages along the way until we arrived at the start of the trail leading to the waterfalls. To our dismay, a sign was posted saying tourists are not allowed to proceed due to an ongoing tribal ritual in the area. What the…. What are we suppose to do? We didn’t drive all the way here just to go back without seeing the sights. Good thing some people by the roadside told us to go further around the side of the cliff so we can get a glimpse of the waterfalls. At least, kahit na malayo, Makita man lang namin. Sayang naman.

We went further along the trail pointed to us until we arrived at a waiting shed. This is the spot where we were supposed to get a long distance view of the falls. After squinting our eyes sore looking up, down and around and seeing no falls, we decided to go down a steep and narrow stairway leading down the mountain side. Maybe we have to go down further to see the darn falls.

We went all the way down some thousands of steps passing by a village and an area full of rice terraces that were carved by the mountain side. I wasn’t expecting the descent to take so long. Fortunately, some village children took the liberty of accompanying us. They told us that there was no ritual being held on that particular time so we can go to see the falls. Buti na lang!

The view in this place is really amazing. Everything is so fresh and natural. The feeling of being in a place surrounded by mountains, trees, rice terraces and unique people, all under a cloudless blue sky is simply overwhelming. Just even breathing in the fresh and crisp mountain air is pure pleasure to the lungs. The people here are simple, friendly and proud of their unique heritage.

The hike towards the big falls took us around 30 minutes. All my tiredness just vanished upon seeing the huge and majestic falls. It was simply beautiful. The height of the falls was about 300 feet and the catch basin was around 30 feet in diameter. Beholding such a beauty of nature was well worth the long hike. After taking some good pictures of the falls, my friend and I decided to take a swim in its freezing waters. The temperature around us at that time was maybe less than 15’C and the water was even much colder. Taking a plunge would mean risking hypothermia. Wala pa naman akong dalang extra underwear. Baka ma-frozen yung posterity ko nyan. Haha. After some hesitation, I mustered all my energy and body heat and jumped into the icy waters. Upon breaking the surface, I had to quickly swim to keep my body in motion so as to generate some body heat. Our plan was to swim to where the water was falling, pose for a picture and quickly swim back. I didn’t expect the water to be so numbingly cold as it was getting harder to even stay afloat. After a quick pose, we quickly swim back to towel ourselves dry and to put some clothes on before we freeze to death. My eardrums started to ache due to the sudden drop in my body temperature. Another problem was having to wear our wet and cold undies on the way back which resulted in a week of constipation. Haha! I will never forget this fun experience.

Going down to the falls was much easier than going back up. I didn’t realize the way back up to be so steep. I admit that I am a bit out of shape. We had to stop numerous times to take a breather and to rest our screaming legs. Some of the locals going up with us were even carrying big bamboo poles as they easily walk passed us as though they were on an escalator. Sanay na sanay. I had to borrow a stick from a kid to help me walk up those endless flights of stairs. Such a suffering going up!

On our way back to town, a lady and some local children took a hitch with us. We gave the kids P100 and some goodies from our stash as a reward for helping us find the waterfalls. Once back in town, our first task was to eat as we were really starving from the morning’s tedious activity. We chose to eat at Masfere’s Inn and Resto. Then we spent some time to rest in the afternoon. Our last activity for the day was to go to the caves.

It was already 4pm when we stopped by the tourist center to hire a guide to take us to the caves. A scrawny guy with more gums than teeth greeted us behind the counter. A guide to the caves cost around P300 for 4 persons. We wanted to try the cave interconnection, meaning you go into one cave and come out of another one. Sadly, time did not allow us for it would take 5 long hours to do it. We just settled for one cave which is called Sumaguing. Getting there, we had to walk through town for about 20 minutes, passing by some hanging coffins along the way. We even met a German guy who can speak fluent Igorot language. Many foreigners have come and stayed in Sagada. There is something about this place that draws people to come back and to even live here.

Upon reaching the entrance of the cave, our guide Daniel lighted his 10 years old lantern – our only source of light inside the pitch black cave. For the sake of having a remembrance, we brought along our Sony mini DV so we could take some videos and pictures of the cave. As we entered the big mouth of the cave, an eerie feeling came to me as the place was really dark and cold. We had to slowly go down a lot of moist rocks to go deeper into the cave. You can hear a lot of bats noisily chatting from the ceiling and smell the distinct aroma of guano in the air. Further down the cave, everything seemed to change as the walls became more crystallized and there was flowing crystal clear water all around us. Our guide pointed to us the different rock formations. Each one unique in it’s shape and size. The first one is the Elephant formation, then the Pregnant woman, then the culprit of the woman’s pregnancy. Yup, it’s a big and long and hard rock formation. Hahaha! Still further down, we have the chocolate cake, the bananas, the turtle, and the fossilized sea creatures on the wall. One of the highlights of our caving was when we convinced one of our friends to strip down to his underwear and try to imitate Smeagle from the movie LOTR. We really had a good laugh as we filmed him trying to imitate the character in the dark cave. Our movement inside the cave was to climb up and down and under many unique rock formations following our guide who had strip down to his underwear to avoid his pants from getting wet. A guide with just his briefs on is something you don’t see everyday. O, hint na yan for all the badings who wants to go caving in Sagada. Just ask for Daniel to be your guide. Hahaha!

In order to go further inside the cave, our sexy guide told us that we need to swim a portion of the river inside the cave to get to the other side. It would definitely be great fun for me to do it but with all our energy spent going to the falls in the morning, we just couldn’t push ourselves to swim in ice cold water again. It was time to turn back and call it a day. We had enough adventure for one day. Today was also our last full day in Sagada as we will be leaving early tomorrow.

The next morning, we lazily packed our stuff as it was time to go home. As the saying goes, “All good things must come to an end.” Sigh, another long rough drive going back to Baguio. I wish I had taken the bus instead. I am now leaving the place which for long I had been planning to go to. My stay was a quick but memorable one. Am I coming back to this beautiful place? You bet my freezing butt I will.