My first trip to the Mountain Province : Sagada trip with TF

Light in the Dark

This trip was my 2nd trip with the Travel Factor, my first was Mt. Pinatubo on June 2008 with two office mates.  The 3rd was Ilocos Trip with one office mate, then the fourth was  Calaguas  a reunion of the people I met in Sagada, then Hongkong trip with one office mate then Mt. Pinatubo again with 3 non office mates.

On this second trip I joined the group travel but this time I did not bring any office mates or any friends, my intention was to meet new people. Good enough I was able to meet many interesting people.

The Assembly Time... Be there before 8 PM

The view of the Rice Terraces... After 10 hours of bus ride the arrival at Banaue. Arrival Around 6 AM

Ifugao Rice Terraces

 

Rice Terraces on the mountains

Sign Board

The red foliage amidst the green is the reminder of land boundaries

Taking Pictures while the Bus is running...

Stop Over for Breakfast...Brunch around 9:30 AM

On the way to Mountain Sagada. I sat at the right side of the bus, so I can see the cliff as the bus speed up. I was afraid yet excited at the same time. Afraid that the bus might fall off the road.

 

After leaving Manila on Friday night  we arrived in Sagada Mountain Province around 12:00 NN.  Here we stayed for 2 Night and Three Days. In Sagada we did trekking the rice terraces, visiting the waterfalls, exploring caves, walking around town, eating pies, viewing the hanging coffins and taking pictures and making new friends.

kimchi ^^

Kids of Sagada

A place to stay

A place to Stay

Lemon Pie House

Yellow Flowers

Newly met people

Kid on top of Jeepney

Rocky View,,,from the windows of the guest house

The Trekking,,, I came from the low lands and I am used to seeing rice fields, but seeing them on the mountains  and walking on it was a very spectacular experience for me. I took so many pictures but I will only put some here :(

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.

wild pig

carabao in the mountains?

flowers ^^

river

nice idea,,, place the trash in sacks

wild coffee bean?

Water Falls very cold ^^

conquering sagada

going back^^

After trekking the rice terraces, the next thing to do is to explore the caves, but before we did that we woke up so early to see the sunrise at one of the peaks, but unfortunately the weather did not permitted us to have a clear sunrise. I was able to take only the early bon fire, so for the second day I started my photo with the bonfire, then eating at some local restaurant, followed by the 7 hours cave connections ( depends on people speed, and taking picture speed) then finally the second day ended with another bonfire, we gathered around Lake Danum.

Entrance to the cave

Start of the Cave Connection, our 7 hours traversing the cave. usually according to our guide it will last only around 3 -4 hrs since we are picture fanatic we spent so much time taking pictures and enjoying,,, again I can only post some few pics here, but I have a multiply account where you can see all my uploads. I will write the link after I finished this page.
 

Coffins of Sagada

 

Caving Starts now....

We enjoyed the caving experience,,, It is called cave connection because you need to enter the other cave and then get out on the other cave. The other cave is called Lumiang Cave that is where the coffins are located, then the exit is the Sumaguing Cave where many limestone figures form and watch out for the Guano "bats' manure".

Bon Fire at Lake Danum to celebrate the cave conquer

The last day of the Sagada tour is walking around town, trying the local foods, going to old cemeteries, church and seeing the hanging coffins.

The American Breakfast

The Hanging Coffins