fretful escape from the metro

My beach bud Janie and I have been wanderlusting this trip to Sagada the moment we started to create our bucket lists. Despite our forever love for the beach, we also would like to try out some mountain activities. Sagada is our top pick because it is quite near Manila (and so we thought) and we could tick one item in our bucket list because that “stuff” we want to try is available up there.

So we were all set. We marked December 16, 2011 as the BIG day! Which turned out to be a hell-of-a-busy day for me because (1) a cousin from my hometown came to visit us that I had to relieve my big sis from keeping an eye on him; and (2) a company Christmas party  I had to host. Good thing I have the skill to manage time but imagine the anxiety and stress plus the crazy traffic I had to go through. But good grief, I got over and done with them and I finally found myself waiting at the bus station with Janie. :)

Since our Plan A did not work because Victory liner buses Baguio-bound were all packed, we had to take our Plan B -- take a bus to La Union, then another bus from La Union to Baguio and one last bus ride from Baguio to Sagada.

Although it was a long roadtrip fo us, I did not feel so exhausted and just slept all night long except for when we had to get off in La Union and Baguio. The zigzaggy road did not at all disturb my sleep nor the uncomfy seats of the Sagada-bound bus. But I think the effect of the long ride came to me when we finally reached Sagada at lunch time. I was supposed to eat a big meal for lunch but suddenly felt nauseous and lost my appetite. So instead of digging into those mountain rice and yummy meat and veggies, I found myself looking for some meds to cure my headache. It is no fun whenever I feel this way.



I could have tried this fiery firey sauce but my headache was such a party pooper!




By the way, before my head started to spin like crazy,
I grabbed a pair of rubber slippers from here. So convenient!

 Anyway, there's no stopping us from this cave connection exploration! With my empty tummy, we pushed through with the cave hopping. I bought some crackers, the ever "pamatid-gutom" Skyflakes, to get me going. ;)

And off we went to the tourist information center to look for our guide. We did the caving adventure with two other people -- Choi and Marj. They were our seatmates in our bus ride to Sagada then eventually became our travel buddies.



Choi and Marj, our two new travel buddies we met on our bus-ride to Sagada






Janie et moi marching our way to the cave connection



our dear cave guides, prepping up

 


viewdeck and some more viewdeck

  


Trekking our way to the cave. "Aren't we there yet?"-posture

 


time for some caving tricks, thank you Skyflakes!



caving in the dark

 


view from down there, shot from up there

 


with one of the many sculptures of nature




what's there to see inside the cave? Uhm, lots of rock/cave formations



must hold on tight, or...?



"bitterly cold" water inside the cave

 


a bit slippery, must use some ropes





pulling the rope down ;)





Yey, we survived! :)





done caving, so what's next?

 
After the thrills of caving -- clinging to ropes, deciding which to go first  -- your butt or your head, testing whichever strategy would work best given the difficulty of getting out or getting in some rock formations, and surviving the three-hour cave exploration with only six pieces of crackers as my sole source of energy -- I survived! We survived the cave connection! Yay!





I'm not jumping off this cliff, alright?



On our way back to the guesthouse, voila! Some more photoshoots!

 We also got to see a very inviting native hut/coffee shop on our way back and we felt like having some hot drinks and chill. And so we met Gawani, a fellow graduate of UP who owns the place. Inside the shop, we saw some interesting books about travel, philosophy, and the like. She said she likes setting up this mini-library inside the shop so the young locals will be more exposed to reading. But I think it is a big delight to travellers too. I would really love to come back to her shop to relax, read a book with a cup of coffee or tea next to me.



After a quick break, back to walking...

Then finally to our guesthouse - Sagada Homestay. Time to rest our "a bit drained" bodies...



The wooden staircase, I like it. :)

After some hours of dozing off, Janie and I went to check the famous Yoghurt House and tried some of their dishes with mountain rice. (think full tummy here) And not to forget, their bestseller sweetie -- yogurt with banana, cereals and strawberry. Big serving it was for us!



It was freezing cold outside. No-glam night.hahaha



the famous yoghurt dessert!

After our big meal, we headed out of the resto either to check out the Bamboo Bar our guide recommended us or to get back to the guesthouse to tuck ourselves in because it was so so cold. Unfortunately, we chose the latter because we could not bear the cold temp. Too bad though, we could not try what must be tried in Sagada. *wink*

Anyway, the next day, we woke up early, this time with Marj and Choi to do some orange picking! Yey! We had brekky first and then headed to the information center to meet our guide. Soon after, we were off to Rock Inn. We paid 50 pesos for the entrance fee and went inside the orchard to have "all-you-can-eat" and "all-you-can-pick" oranges. We had much fun in the farm. We stuffed ourselves with lots of Vitamin C! :) However, all the oranges we picked were all weighed and priced at 50 pesos a kilo upon stepping out of the farm. Uhm, not bad I suppose. But I thought, I should have finished all of 'em earlier. hahaha *such a cheapskate*



Orange-picking. Check.

On our way back to the town proper, we peeked into the well-known Sagada Weaving. Luckily, the owner was there to show us around and further explained how the weaving is like. This artsy-craftsy job should be taken seriously, nobody in the workroom wanted to talk to us. They were so concentrated on their weaving!



Finally, we got back to the guesthouse to get our stuff - metro-bound.

 wonders:

"If you want it, you must will it. If you will it, it will be yours." - Rinaldo (Happy Feet 2)

This quote surely reflects what I have done to successfully take this trip -- from managing my busy schedule the day before the trip to tummy trouble before the cave adventure.  These were my little mishaps but my will to travel did not let me down. I made it to this trip and I satisfied my Sagada wanderlust. :)

wanders:

• Cave connection (Lumiang - Sumaguing caves)
• Orange-picking (The Rock Farm, Batalao, Sagada)
• Sagada Weaving