Next destination of our hiking week was Sagada, a small town lost in the Cordilleras. It's a usual stopping point on the way to Banaue and the rice terraces.
This one is really cool - completely hand made :-)
As it's a mountain road, it's one turn after another and a really bumpy ride. This stretch is the highest highway in the Philippines and one of the more dangerous ones as well.
Despite the remoteness of the area, there are lots of tiny villages scattered around.
And the terraces are covering every possible mountain slope.
At some point we were so high up in the mountains that some clouds were below us.
To get to the trail we needed to pass the village first.
Locals on a picnic in the woods are listening to Bob Marley.
Apparently the idea behind it, is that it's easier for the soul to get to haven if its placed higher up instead of being 6 feet in the ground. Well, that makes sense :-) Also, not every one gets the honors of being hanged in their coffin, you need to be 90 years or older.
It's not visible here but my whole back is dirty with mud and sticky too...
Large part of the valley is used for coffee plantations, which is then exported to the rest of the country and abroad. December is the harvest time.
I could finally wash off some of the mud in the river.
And he doesn't mind being muddy all day :-)
More coffins... We didn't go in because it's not allowed without the guide.
It takes 7 hours to get to Sagada from Baguio, although the distance is only 150 km. The reason - mountain road with bad pavement or, at places, none at all.
The buses leave early in the morning so that they can reach Sagada by daylight and there are no tickets available in advance, so we had to get up quite early as well and get to the bus station to make sure that we are on one of those buses. When we got to the station there was already a long waiting line.
We were lucky as by the time it was our turn there were only 5 normal places left on the last bus, all the way at the back. We bought 3 tickets because I read that the buses are very tight and if you don't want to feel cramped after 7 hours, it's better to buy an extra seat. Afterwards we were so happy that we did!
Although the buses have official departure time, they don't follow it. We had to wait for it to show up and nobody could tell us when that would happen. They only assured us that it will be at the station at some point and that it will go to Sagada today. So, we couldn't do anything else but wait.
We were killing time by watching the jeepneys (again!).
Finally, our bus arrived almost 2 hours later than scheduled and we could board.
It turned out that because there are so many people wanting to go to Sagada and so little buses, the bus company also sells center seats. At first I didn't get what it was but then they did that for our bus as well - another row of seats between the seats. I can't imagine being stuck in such "seat" for 7 hours...
Anyway, once the bus was full beyond capacity, we could finally say our good byes to Baguio and leave.
Once outside the city the views are just amazing, especially when it's sunny and you are sitting on the right side of the bus (left one is much less interesting).
Despite the remoteness of the area, there are lots of tiny villages scattered around.
After 7 hours of a very, VERY, bumpy ride we finally arrived to Sagada and the bus dropped us of at the main square.
It took us about 20 minutes and 3 attempts to find a guest house we could stay at. It became dark very quick and we went out to find a place to eat before everything closes down. The town has a curfew at 9pm. Yogurt house was one of the recommended places and we decided to go there.
I don't know why but all the restaurants in Sagada have wooden interior and look like a Swiss chalet on the inside.
It was raining outside and we were really hoping that the weather will change because we were planning to hike the next day.
Luckily, when we woke up in the morning, it did.
We wanted to do some hiking in the mountains in the first half of the day and then go see the caves (there are two huge ones in the area) in the afternoon.
Because there are no real trails and signs, hiking without a guide here can be a problem, but there are plenty of them available at the tourist office, which is also on the main square.
The trails starts in the woods and then goes all the way through the valley to the other side of the village. The total hiking time is about 4 hours.
A must see in Sagada (according to our guide) are the hanging coffins. He told us that there are several tribes leaving in and around Sagada and they are famous for a very strange tradition. Instead of burying their dead they hang them in the coffins on the side of cliff. Some of the coffins are over 400 years old...
Spooky place...
The trail up until the hanging coffins was okay, but once we started to decent into the valley it became very muddy and slippery.
After I slipped and fell for the second time, the guide took away my camera before I broke or damaged it, so the rest of the pics are courtesy of the guide :-)
After the hike we went back to the Yogurt House to get something to eat and watch the locals.
In the afternoon we wanted to go to the caves, which are located about 40 minutes walk away from the village's southern end.
They built some really weired houses here.
And most of the restaurants are named after food. Yogurt house, Lemon Pie house, etc.
This car was probably built locally, as I bet Toyota never heard of this model :-)
It took a while to get to the first cave. And if going down was hard enough, going back up was almost hell..
The second cave was even further away, but we really enjoyed the views along the road.
The second cave was even harder than the first. Also here the guide is compulsory. This cave has the whole system of hallways inside and it's possible hike through it to the other side of the mountain. However the hike takes about 3-4 hours and it's very challenging. It's also very slippery because of the mud. We decided that I fell enough for one day, so we just climbed down to the entrance and then back.
By the time we returned to the guest house it was dark again. After dinner we went straight to bed because next stop on our itinerary was Banaue and the jeepney to this place was leaving at 6:30 in the morning. Another early day...
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