Sagada - part1

I really got excited when my friend Ed invited me and our four other friends to have a weekend trip in Sagada, since it was his 5th time to go there,  we let him to do all the planning including our itinerary.  He also made the seat reservations for us at Cable Tours.

Cable Tours - Travels daily from QC to Bontoc
Contact #: +63929-8194688
Address: E. Rodriguez St., Quezon City
Fare: 650.00



Cable Tours Bus



We left Quezon City at around 8:30 PM and took us 13 hours before we reached the serene town of Sagada. Good thing that I had no trouble catching sleep on that bus. The usual trip of Cable tours buses will not take you directly to Sagada, they usually drop their passengers to Bontoc, but since almost half of us commuters were heading to sagada, the driver agreed to extend his trip to our destination and charged us P100 each, but we were able to haggle it down to just 75 pesos. Kelangan lang ng konting diskarte sa pagiging kuripot

Municipal Hall

When we arrived at the municipal hall, we looked for Ate Gladys, the owner of the transient house that Ed learned from the blogs when he was researching for this trip. Ate Gladys welcomed us with a shy smile. Her house is only a 3mins walk downhill to municipal hall, and the best part of it was we were allowed to use almost all of the stuff in her house, we were also permitted to cook at her kitchen and make tambay at her sofa. Indeed, we felt like we were at home..

Living Area/sala with cable TV 

Dining area

Our room
Contact #: (063) 919-4778647

Address: Poblacion, Sagada

Rate: 250.00 per person

Look for ATE GLADYS

After unloading our bags and a short rest, we left the house to start our trip. As we checked our itinerary, the first activity listed there was to walk down to echo valley doooown to the famous hanging coffins, but unfortunately, the rain started to fall and the trek would be difficult because of the slippery trail. So we decided to do the spelunking first.

We went to SAGGAS office to book a tour for spelunking, and the admin of Saggas asked us wether we wanted to go on normal caving (Sumaguing Cave only that will take us 2hrs) or go through the Cave Connection (Lumiang Cave going to Sumaguing Cave and will take us 4 to 6hrs) at dahil mayabang kami at feeling hardcore, Cave connection na ang pinili namin.

After we signed up for this activity, we started our journey going to the cave. Since Ed did this for so many times, he decided not to join us this time so we left him at the Yoghurt House.

After a couple of minutes of walking, we finally reached the starting point of cave connection

Our first glimpse at the lumiang cave

We entered to Lumiang Cave and started our journey. After a few steps, the light coming from the sky outside started to vanish and darkness takes over

Kuya Rad (Our guide from SAGGAS) hunched down and set up our lamp while giving us advice on what to do and not to do during the activity.

Kuya Rad - ang aming kwelang guide

Then after warming up and a deeeeeeep breathe, we followed our guide and he lead us further down. Bahala na si Batman sa amin.

Spelunkers must be in a good physical condition because you must do a lot of crawling, rappelling and there are parts that you need to dip in a cold water.

You also need to get in through small holes

Gapang na kung gapang para makalusot

the rappelling part

Kuya Rad is very stretchable, parang si lastikman.

After some crazy aerobatic stunts that we did, we saw these wonderful rock formations. This time you need to use your imagination for you to see clearly what the rock formations resemble.

Can you see the face?

Haystock Formation

Rated PG

After lots of crawling, climbing and rappelling, we finally reached Sumaguing Cave, meaning we're more than halfway through our spelunking.

Arthur and Narlene

Pahinga pahinga din naman

The cave were crowded because of the long weekend, long weekend for the students, ONLY!!.. :) Daya!

After five minutes of rest, Kuya Rad asked us if we want to go further down where we can see more of rock formations or we want to go up to finally finish our paghihirap spelunking , I guess Kuya Rad noticed that we were already tired. Art, Nar and Ate Connie gave up and didn’t want to continue but Me and Lyn went down, sayang naman ang pagod namin kung di pa namin susulitin, at sayang din ang 400 pesos na binayad namin.

The trek in Sumaguing Cave is a lot easier than Lumiang Cave. Lyn and I were talking about how happy we were to see more of rock formations there, which undeniably more stunning. Again, open your imagination as you see different rock formations.

Big Turtle

Rated PG

Rated PG

Chocolate Cake and another rappeling to see more of rock formations.

The curtains

Rated PG

Mother and Child

The end and my favorite part; wading through the water..

After more than five hours of doing our acrobatic moves, we finally ended and survived the cave connection. I felt fulfilled. But still, we had to do our final stunt: the way up going to our exit. (which is the entrance of Sumaguing Cave)

It was already dark when we finally reached our way out. Since we're all exhausted because of that fulfilling cave connection, we decided to hire a van that would take us to our transient home. We came home tired and hungry but very satisfied :)

This caving experience was the highlight of my sagada trip. This one is a MUST DO when you visit Sagada.

 

Second Part