Sagada: Paradise of Mountain Province (Day 2)

June 4, 2006 – Sunday

It was a good weather when we woke up.  Sunrise was at its best.  Fog covers most of the plain.  Today will be our most exciting day at Sagada, our sight-seeing tour.  Our call time was 6am but we woke up around 7:30am.  Meaning we were an hour and a half late on our itinerary.  Our tour guide was already waiting for us outside the inn.  We hurriedly changed clothes and requested him some time so we can have breakfast.  He agreed to meet us around 8:30am at St. Joseph Convent where we will have our 1^st meal of the day.

St. Joseph Convent is located near the bus station and the local hospital.  The convent has a café named Café St. Joe.  They offer mostly Filipino breakfast and dishes.  Since this will be a tough day, we ordered heavy breakfast. 

(Corned beef, scrambled egg with rice and Sausage, egg with rice)  We want something organic so we ordered their local tea for our beverage.  We ordered Sagada tea with basil and Sagada tea with peppermint.  Our breakfast damaged us around php300.00.  It’s your option if you’d like to take your breakfast inside the café or in their garden.  We ate at the garden to breathe some fresh air.  We were surprised when they served us the tea.  We thought it’ll be served in a cup but instead, they served a kettle full of tea.

We were already stuffed so we begin our tour.  First on the list is the Echo Valley since it’s the nearest.  We passed the church and the local cemetery to get there.  On the valley, you can view from afar the famous Hanging Coffins.  It’s the traditional way of the local Sagadians to bury their loved ones.  They mummified the body before hanging them.  Also on the vicinity are the Sugong Coffins.  Of course, the best activity to do at Echo valley is no other than to shout at the top of your lungs while the valley echoed in return whatever words you shouted.  It’s a wonderful experience.  It brings out the child in you.

Next in our itinerary is the Bokong Falls (Twin Falls).  It’s an hour of walking to get there from the Echo Valley, passing through fields.  The sun is shining brightly so it’s advisable to bring bottled water with you to quench your thirst.  Bokong Falls is just a small falls.  There’s a bigger falls (Bomod-Ok Falls) which can be reach by 2 hours of trekking or 15 minute vehicle ride plus 45 minute trekking. This should be part of our itinerary but we were way behind the schedule. It’s almost 11am and we need to start spelunking at Sumaging Cave by 1pm.

On our way back from Bokong Falls is the Underground River.  The underground river is just a stretch of river inside a small cave.  The cave has its entrance and the river is quite dry for it haven’t rain that often. 

After the underground river, we headed back to town to prepare for Sumaging Cave and to have lunch.  We took some pictures of the rice fields we passed.  Our tour guide told us that the view is magnificent when the rice crops were still young and green. 

We went straight to Masferre Restaurant to have a quick lunch.  We don’t have enough time and we need to start our way to Sumaging cave by 1pm.  The spelunking will take around 3-4 hours, depends on how fast we can finish the trek inside the cave.  Caving is no longer allowed after 5pm so we need to get out by that time.  We met our tour guide in front of our hotel.  The road to Sumaging cave is the same road where our hotel is located.

Sumaging Cave is a 30 minute walk from our hotel.  The road was made of concrete and some were still dirt.  On the way to the cave, you can view from a far the Bomod-Ok Falls (Big Falls).  From the cave entrance, you can already imagine how huge the cave was.  There’s a carved stairs from the stones on the entrance.  It was dark inside so we used a lamp to move around.  At the entrance, you can hear the cry of thousands of bats and it’s quite slippery due to bats poo.  As we descend inside, we were able to see those amazing rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites.  The cave was simply beautiful.  Cold water flows everywhere so prepare to get wet.  To conquer the cave, we need to be flexible and strong enough.  There were instances that we need to crawl on holes and climb rock formation to move on and finish the trek.  We finished the trek approximately 3 hours and it was raining outside when we got out.  Bathing at the rain brings a lot of childhood memories.  Outside I noticed that there’s an important message and reminder painted on the wall.  It says,

“These caves are Kabunyans (God) gift for Sagadians and all lovers of beauty and nature.  Remember these wonders are millions of years old.  Man was born only yesterday.  We therefore have no right to destroy these legacies, only our duty to protect and preserve them.”

We arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm, took a quick shower and rest.  Our feet sores due to endless walking.

Exactly 6 pm, we arrived at Log Cabin Café for our scheduled dinner.  Since the café was closed to public on that day, the café appeared like it was reserved for us.  We had our dinner near the fireplace which I found romantic.  The pastas we ordered were mouth watering especially the penne with sausage and wild mushrooms.  It’s fantastic. It overflows with Hungarian sausage, mushrooms and you can actually taste the fresh herb used.  Each order of pasta was actually good for sharing.  To sum it up, in my opinion, Log Cabin is the best restaurant in Sagada in terms of ambiance, price and food. 

We headed back to our hotel and we boozed ourselves with a bottle of beer.  Since we were really tired and have body pain, we didn’t notice that we've fallen asleep.