Sagada Adventures

Hi!
It's been late for this story, but I want to share a quick experience about my adventure last February 2016. Me, Macro, and some of my office mates planned to have some out of town and we choose going to Sagada Mountain Province.

Sagada is well known place for adventure like caving, spelunking, trekking, bonfires and more. The place is 275 kilometers from manila, approximate 10 hours travel via Banaue. The place was originally known as Ganduyan however due to a simple miscommunication the place was called Sadaga (a tool use for farming).

The story on how Ganduyan became Sagada is that one day a farmer was asked by Spaniards "what is the name of this place?" since the farmer cannot understand Spanish he assume that the Spaniards was asking for what he was carrying so the farmer said "Sagada".

The place was known for Head Hunters, they were hunting people for their pride. They carry the skulls in their waist as a trophy. Aside from head hunting, there was also a humor that Sagada, even though it is consider as one of the highest point in the Philippines, it was once under the water because of the sea shells that can be found in the area.

Well that's some of the history of Sagada that I have known while I'm there. So now lets go on our adventure!

Last Feb 11, we depart around 11PM  and arrived at Banaue at 6:30 AM. Together with "Daddy Bert" who was our driver and tour guide from the tour company PH First where we booked our trip. A 7 hours travel with regular stops along the way for meals and personal necessities. A long travel but really feels good when your almost at your destination and excited to take some pictures.

And here's some of our shots in Banaue:

Here's the group shot! From Left to Right: Eman, Leslie, Abby, Janpol, Macro, Me, and .. OMG I forgot the names of the last 2 LOL! We just met them right before the trip, they also booked the same tour package as we have.

And here's Daddy Bert. He is already 61 years old but still has full of energy and funny too. And really good in driving! Thumbs Up!

The Banaue Rice Terraces

This is one of my favorite shot in Banaue.

The Bayyo Rice Terraces

Macro and The Ifugao Man

After Banaue our next destination is Sagada already. Another 2 to 3 hours travel from Banaue(via private Van).We arrived at the place around 11AM. Safe and sound. Thanks God!

Hello Sagada!

Here is the Inn where we stayed for 2 nights.

After we put down our things in our room, we went on one of the famous restaurant in Sagada "The Lemon Pie House". (More details about my experience in Sagada Lemon House on my next post, so stay tuned guys!).  We were also told that the municipality of Sagada does not want fast food chains to be constructed in there area to preserve their culture.

We went back to our rooms after we ate lunch to take some rest and also to prepare on our first activity which is caving. Daddy Bert offer us to do the "Extreme Caving" and of course we take the challenge! I don't have any idea on what will happen on the cave since that was my first time to do the activity.  And the adventures starts!

Shots from Lumiang Cave to Sumaguing Cave:

Going to Lumiang Cave!

Here we go! Entrance to Lumiang Cave.

Behind us, you can see some old coffins. The reason why they placed it at the mouth of Lumiang Cave is so that their soul can see the light and be guided easily to heaven.

Here are some Rock formation inside the Cave. Our tour guide said that we need to use our imagination to see what are the formation is. And guess what we've imagine! hahaha LOL!

Tooot tooot Rated SPG! LOL.. Do you imagine what is this?!

Is this a snake? naaaah! Its as *****  LOL!

Do you see a turtle? ^^

There's a lot of formation you will see at Lumiang Cave. They have formed and appeared like animals like crocodiles, frog, sharks teeth etc. And also if you have a wild imagination you will see some human sex organ that's why they called this "The Porn Cave". That Cave is really incredible, even me I'm wondered how they form like that. God's creation is really amazing. Now, if Lumiang cave is famous because of its rock formation, Sumaguing Cave is called  "The Big Cave" because it has the largest chambers of all the caves found in Sagada and you can see beautiful stalagmites and stalactites.

Overall, my experience here in Lumiang and Sumaguing Cave is really unforgettable and worth it.  I will never forget those scenes that I'm really scared to walk on the stones, to the point that my legs are shaking, when realize I'm gonna die in just one mistake. I said that this is a "Buwis Buhay Challenge", but then I enjoyed every moment while I'm inside the cave, for me this is God's creation  that we people must treasure. Kudos to the people of Sagada who discovered a passage into the cave which became a tourist spot and share this wonderful creation to the people.

After of 4 hours of spelunking, we made it! and we are proud of it.

On the next day, our next destination is going to Bomod-Ok Falls, a 200 meters waterfall hidden behind rice paddies and was located at Barangay Fidelisan. It will be a hour of depleting knee-jolting long stroll and a breathtaking walk but going down there takes you to another beautiful part of Sagada. Here's some of our shots:

The Bomod-Ok Falls. 

As I said, it took us a hour of trekking to reach the beautiful Bomod-Ok falls. On that time there's a lot people, some are foreigners who also went there to take some refreshment. The water in the falls is very cold that it feels like melted ice. Macro told me not to swim because I may not be able to stand the freezing water, so i just walked around on the stone to feel the water of the falls. They said that this is a 0 degree Celsius, but if you been in the water for some time you will feel numb and wont feel the freezing cold anymore.

Our next destination is at Echo Valley where we can see the place of one of their old tradition, the Hangings Coffins. Our tour guide share us some stories about their unusual cemetery in which the dead were buried in coffins which are tied or nailed to the side of cliffs.The coffins were made smaller than the usual size of the dead since they place the body in fetal position. Ancient Igorots believed that people should be return to what they looked like when they are being conceived. Then the reason why they hang it to the cliff is that in that way the deceased would be brought closer to heaven/their ancestral spirits.

Now let see our next stop. 

It's already 5pm noon when we went to Danum Lake. At first I don't have idea  on what is interesting about that lake. But as I entered the place, my eyes got so big and ran immediately to look closer. The water during summer is low that makes the color of the lake brown-orange. While I read on some blog that it turns green to murky during wet season. Fortunately, we saw the lake as beautiful as it is,  feels like where in Korea because of the orange trees (reflect of the sun towards the trees that make this look orange) and I can say that it is one of the best place in Sagada.

Here's some of our shots:

A very romantic place to do some sweet shot. ^^

This is one of my favorite shot <3

Guess who's the real ballerina from us? haha

I think I'm too exaggerated on this post? LOL! :P

And our last day comes, we woke up  early and went to the Kiltepan Peak to spot the amazing view of sunrise. We were not lucky to see the "Sea of clouds" but still enjoyed the moment when the sun is rising up.

And that was our last stop in Sagada. I totally enjoy every minute of our stay on that place. Every time if heard Sagada, one thing always comes to my mind, and that was the extreme caving that exercised our body and test our courage to pass through caves. Going to Sagada is really worth it especially for those who hunt adventure.

So that's it, see you on my next adventure. 

♡ Ria ♡