An R-CUBEd World

Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Monday, April 7, 2008

An overnight bus and a couple of other connections brought us (minus baby Rori) to Sagada (Mountain Province) for the April long weekend. First order of business was to grab a late lunch, Hmm... let's try the free range chicken - and then we were off to explore St. Mary's, Echo Valley and the Hanging Coffins. Slight 'detour' along the way (hint, never argue directions with the guy with the compass) and we eventually reached Echo valley, but somehow our voices failed to echo... We ran into a couple of guides (local kids really) who took us down a path to see the Hanging Coffins up close (which was weird, although we were told that this is still a local practice). Next day, we were off to see the Sumaging Caves. With our trusty headlamps, and our local guide, we descended the guano (bat poop) littered rocks. 200m down we were told. Somehow we emerged alive and went in search for lunch. Hmm... only chicken on the menu again. Later we were invited to a wedding (at the Log Cabin restaurant) and it turned out that they had the 'monopoly' on pork. Tradition meant that the whole town was invited to the wedding (no joke) so they used up all the oinkers in town. After filling our bellies (aside from the chicken, the restaurants served really fresh veg), we took a really long hike to see Lake Danom (are we there yet?), which turned out to be a disappointment. Anyway, we had some really nice views along the way. Day 3 was the day of the wedding. In the morning, we went in search for the underground river and walked the Sagada Rice Terraces en route to the Small Falls. A few scares later (snake sighting?, feet stuck in the mud...) we were able to cool our tired feet in the small pool at the foot of the falls. Back to the town for lunch.... where we saw the whole town lined up to enter the wedding. We sat near the front and treated ourselves to watching Ifugao dances. The dancing would go on 'till the next day. No kidding (again). We caught the bus to Baguio at 5am and the gongs were still at it... Anyway, that in a nutshell was our Sagada adventure. See some of our pics at: http://picasaweb.google.com/richaandronnie/Sagada

Posted byRori, Richa & Ronnie at 1:38 PM 0 comments