sagada - day 1

november 25-26, 2005. everybody was quite ecstatic and jittery the whole friday afternoon waiting for work day to end and begin our sagada adventures. we braved friday night traffic, drove through mcdonalds for dinner and stopped over shangri la in makati to pick up dennis' things. there were six of us - mel, jona, jason, trixy, dennis (from costa rica) and myself - mel & i were veteran sagada adventurers and the rest were first timers.

it was actually surreal to ride a public transportation again - i mean the bus and everything. i can barely remember the last time i rode a public transportation (save for those cab & plane rides overseas but you know what i mean). we took a cab to the bus station and patiently waited along with a number of would-be vacationers for our bus to start loading. we left around 10pm to begin our arduous journey to sagada - expecting to get there around 5am. the trip was a bit uncomfortable - being in a cramped seat and trying to sleep and drink little fluid so we don't need to use the bathroom that often.

we got to banaue around 7am - 2hours off our ETA. it was raining and people were tired and hungry. we booked our return ticket and decided to rent a jeep going to sagada thinking if it was raining, we wouldn't really be able to take some nice photos of the rice terraces. we stopped over viewpoint overlooking a portion of the rice terraces and decided to take some pictures. the rice terraces is still as magnificent as last time i was here - we enjoyed taking some scenic background shots. it was chilly with the rain but we were in high spirits. when we got back to the road, it took us another hour or so to get to bontoc, the town proper. we took lunch here and some pictures and was amazed how clean bontoc was. there were no litter whatsoever on the streets - it was a town reminiscent probably of the time before when life was simple and people were much more caring of the environment. if makati would look anything like bontoc, it will be like our very own singapore right in metro manila.

when we got to sagada, it was quite cold - not freezing, but it was cold! we were lucky that the house we rented last time we were here had 3 rooms to spare - it was perfect. we all got a few hours of rest and we were ready to trek to echo valley. by this time, we were so excited with the new surroundings and adventure ahead. along the way, we passed by an old cemetery and saw that some of the graves here were for people who were born way back in 1898. that is like 76 years before i was born. this was really a cemetery that witnessed history. when we finally got to echo valley, the scenery was just too beautiful and the sky was perfect for taking pictures. the cliffs were kinda scary but that didn't really stop us from taking a number of pictures and videos. dennis and jason posed for some goofy shots and we were laughing throughout the trek.

after echo valley, we trooped to go to the burial caves and walked for about 30-45minutes only to end up in the wrong cave. major blooper! i think the only thing that kept us from slapping mel for that blooper was because our feet ached so bad it was not even possible to raise an arm - hahaha. after walking back, we finally found the trail to the burial caves. these burial caves were different because you get to see up close the wooden coffins and how they're lined up to interesting spaces along the cave walls. some more pictures and we were ready to call it a day.

on the walk back, we were planning to try out the yoghurt house - friends were saying it was a must try. it was packed so we decided to try our luck the next day.

day 1 trip essentials. camera. camera. camera. videocam. music stuff - either an ipod, rio, minidisc or a shuffle. i think you'd better throw in a tube of liniment.