Who would have thought that finally I have the courage to visit one of my dream destination to go for!? It’s SAGADA!!! I’ve been dreaming it for how many years after I decided to travel around the Philippines! And here it is! With my newly recruited travel buddies Crisel and Catherine, we explore what Sagada can offer to us! It was a night of Thursday (March 12,2015), we started our trip. Because the three of us don’t have any car we decided to take a bus going to Baguio! By 10:30 pm, we departed on the bus terminal and take the trip smoothly, no hustle bustle, we just have to seat and relax and get some sleep because it is a 5 hour trip going to Baguio. By 5 am the following day, we arrived at the Victory Terminal in Baguio…just as what we expected the weather is so cold that my body is freezing hahaha!!! We asked for assistant to the tourism officer to lead us in the bus terminal going to Sagada. They told us to ride in a taxi cab and tell the driver to alight us in Dangwa Terminal Station. 
After queuing for our ticket, (220php/pax), by 6:30 am, we left the bus terminal. The trip last for about 5 hours again with 2 bus stops to stretch out and have to take a break for that long drive. We have just passed two provinces, Benguet and Bontoc. I think from Baguio-Benguet, roughly 2 hours and from Benguet- Bontoc would take 3 hours or it depends on the driver. It was a rollercoaster ride with a nice view of mountains, forest, the smell of pine trees and the peak of the mountains, the Rice terraces( but not Banaue) and the nearly death defying canyons that you will pass! 
At exactly 12 nn, after that rollercoaster road we’ve experienced, we reached the town proper of Mt. Province which is Sagada! As excited as we are, we looked already to their tourism office to have registered our names for our security purposes. Because we are too exhausted to our 12 hours trip, we decided to look for inn/hotel that we can stay for 2 days. We tried twice but unfortunately they don’t have any vacant rooms because most of it has reservation already. Luckily, on our third attempt and because of our research, there is one vacant room that’s good for three! It is the Residential Lodge owned by Tita Mary.(Here’s a picture of Crisel, infront of our lodge.) 
We just have to take a nap for about 30 minutes and after that we started exploring Sagada, first by doing food hunting! A few walks away from our inn, we saw restaurant named Masfree Inn and Restaurant. It’s a cozy place to dine for. Well, for us who are very hungry, we don’t have a choice but to check out what foods they can offer to us. 
After satisfying our hungry tummy to the food that we have eaten, as a so-called leader I lead them to go to tourism office and ask what adventures we have to start for, because it’s already 2 pm in the afternoon. The girl assisted us suggested that we can do the Short Course Caving, for us who are beginners only. It consists of visiting and do the trekking in Lumiang and Burial Cave and the highlight of this was to do spelunking at the Sumaguing Cave!!!! The guide told us that roughly 3-4 hours we will spent on trekking! At first Crisel and Catherine was hesistant to do it but eventually they agreed! We rented a van to bring us into those caves and start trekking!! Here are some of our pictures!!! Lumiang Cave..behind us are coffins ranging from small to larger size..
Closer Look at the Burial Cave with lots of Coffins filed up!
Passed by at the rice terraces fields (Kap-ayaw Rice terraces If I’m not mistaken) on our way to Sumaguing Cave!!!
After having a walking/ trekking marathon, Kuya Duval our tour guide told us that we will start our spelunking in Sumaguing Cave. He said that there are 3 stages you have to passed to survive the Sumaguing cave. Here are some of our pictures!!!
Afer this death defying stunts, its a wrap! Getting dirt, muscle and body pains, sweating is what we got after this! But who would have thought that this experience was for is the best! Sulit!!!!! And superb!!! Thrilling experience for me that I’ve never imagined that I can do this!!!Hahaha So that night, after eating dinner, we sleep early!hahaha
Day 2: Just as what we planned, last night. We decided to do the viewing of Mt.Kiltepan! Waking up as early as 4:30 am, we prepared ourselves to our next destination. As per advised by our tour guide, we can rent a van in going there and we need to be there by 5:30 am to have a nice view of Mt.Kiltepan. Just as we arrived at the place, there are already people who got a nice spot to take a picture oand view of Mt.Kiltepan and to do the post in That Thing called Tadhana movie. It is still dark and the weather was so cold that I can feel my hands are freezing, I can’t even move them properly that why I can’t take proper pictures. The fog was so thick that you cannot see clearly the area. By 6 am, slowly,fogs is moving out..You can already see clouds forming atop of the mountains but still the sun didn’t show up. Most of the people are hurrying up to go down farther to their place to see the rice terraces below. 6:30 am, slowly…the sun is coming up! Here’s what I’ve captured!!
This breathtaking view captured my photography skills! And reminding me that God is so wonderful! HE is amazing that He created this beautiful world! And that we have to take care of our nature!! By 7am, we decided to pull it off and have a breakfast because we need to prepare ourselves to our next adventure.We asked the driver to drop us in Sagada Brew to have our sumptous breakfast!
I will post on my next blog the foods that we’ve eaten in Sagada.. After eating breakfast, we decided to go back to our inn and have some rest before we start our next exploration. We contact again Kuya Duval to guide us and meet us in tourism office by 9 am. By 9 am, we met him and he asked us what we want to do.Because we don’t have any ideas or plans he suggested that we do the Central Sagada Eco-tour! It was a 3 hours(again)trekking in entire forest hahaha!!!As a nature lover and adventure seeker, we started bydropping by at kThe Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin.
To continue the trail we passed by at their cemetery, Kuya Duval informed us that one of the SAF members who died in Fallen 44 was buried in there cemetery.(Sorry, I don’t have the photo of his grave.) After that, we’ve just reached the Echo Valley! That’s why they call it Echo Valley because when you shout out loud, you can hear the echo of your voice hahaha! You can also do rapelling and rock climbing!!!But I haven’t tried it! Too expensive eh!hahaha After the Echo Valley, 30 minutes walking from it is the Hanging Coffins, a lit bit of information..the latest coffin that was hanged was in 2010. After taking some pictures of it, we decided to go down further and to trek at the Latang Underground River. It was too dark to pass in this underground river and too cold inside, you will only see limestone rock formation and some of stalactite formation and you can hear the murmur of waters.Kuya Duval says, that you can do picnic inside the Underground River but for us we don’t want it because we are too afraid of dark and bats hahaha
It was so hot and tiring already but we still have to walk for about an hour to reach for small twin falls that Kuya Duval was telling us.
And then we continue our what we call never ending trekking hahaha!! Luckily, we just reached the highway so that means we are already near the town proper hehehe.
While walking back to our inn, we decided to buy first some souvenirs (t-shirts!) at the souvenir shops. They have a wide range of souvenirs that you can buy, and from the cheapest one to a very expensive one prices hehehe. We bid goodbye to Kuya Duval and thanking him for a very entertaining and informative tour. So after that, we decided to fed our hungry tummies in one of the Sagada’s especiality, the Pinikpikan!
After satisfying our tummies, we got back to our inn and take a nap and rest our swollen feet. We woke up by 4pm and went upstairs to have some chitchat to Tita Mary and asked what is the best thing we can do by this time. We we’re planning to go to Lake Danum to watch the sunset view, but Tita Mary told us that it’s not the best time to go there because as what she was predicting it will rain. Minutes of talking to her, the rain falls, luckily we didn’t pursue to go there hahaha. So we only stayed at the reception and continue talking to her. By 5pm, we went to the famous lemon pie in Sagada to buy pasalubong.
Because we are already hungry and it is 6 pm already, we decided to have an early dinner at the famous Yoghurt House! Who caters the famous home made yogurt . The area is small but it is a two storey area. I think you need to have a reservation first, because it is jam packed area.Luckily, we saw a vacant table for three! Its is a cozy place and there are lots of pictures of the ancient Igorots and they are known for their quaint interiors!
It was a sumptuous dinner we had! Left the resto by 7:30 pm, we headed back to the Lemon Pie house to pick up our reserved pie and back to our inn. Jumping off to bed and have some shot and chitchat while preparing to leave and go back to reality tomorrow, we call it a life!
I must say that I enjoyed every bit of stay here in Sagada. It was truly one of my best travel experience I’ve had! (as far as traveling around Philippines). I will support and promote this place and the province of Mt.Province! I learned a lot, experienced a lot, that death defying stunts in the Sumaguing Cave, the 3 hours trekking that tested my legs and feet which becomes painful,swollen after that, the history of the ancient Igorots, the life of the people living here and of course the people that I had meet and the two persons whose with me to explore it. And before I forgot that breathtaking view of the mountains that reminding me that like said before, God is good and great! I would definitely be back here!!! Thank you Sagada!!!!!
Here’s the expenses of our trip (per person):
Victory Bus Liner going to Baguio: 445 php (one way)
(Please be advise that there’s a 24 hour trip of going to Baguio in Cubao Terminal)
GL LIner bus going to Sagada (Via Besao): 230 php (one way)
(The first trip going to Sagada is 5:30 am, but sometimes it depends on the availability of the bus.)
Residencia Lodge: 250 php per/person, per night
Tourism Registration fee: 35 php per person
Tour Guide: ranging from 550php up to 1,200 php (depending on the tour you will be doing)
Transportation: ranging from 500 php up to 800 php (depending on the place)
Foods: ranging from 150 php up to 300 php (depending on where you want to eat)
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jadecerise 