Pilipinas pt. 2: SAGADA Ho La La

*(Originally written in July, but never posted.)*

Sunday afternoon our bus finally rolled into the lovely mountain village of Sagada, in the Northern Mountain province of the Philippines. We were more than happy to get off the bus after several hours of teeth clenching, unpaved, winding mountain roads. It was the off season so we had no problem finding a room. We stayed at a cozy little place called St. Joseph's. It felt like a log cabin, set in the middle of a garden with many beautiful, colorful flowers. We put down our packs and headed down to the town's main building, which housed the post office, court house, gift shops, and tourist information. We registered ourselves and got a guide for the next two days.

The garden in front of St. Joe's

Since it was already getting to be late afternoon we chose to go to the caves first. There were two options for the caves. One was just a big cave that you could hike around in and swim in, and the other was an underground connection that would take several hours. Because of the recent typhoon and our time constraints we decided to go to the big cave. And to be honest I'm not sure how much I liked the idea of being underground for several hrs, caves freak me out a bit.

We met our guide, and very mellow guy around our age named Mordon. He carried a rusty old lantern in one hand and a rainbow umbrella in the other. He didn't say too much, just pointed out things every now and then, like a group of laughing old men, who "love the happy smoke." He laughed and patiently anwsered our random, rambling questions, and said we were funny and that he liked us. We stopped at a little shop, that looked more like the front of someone's house, where Mordon bought some propane for his lantern. The women at the shop said we were crazy for going to the cave with so much recent rain, "slippery and dangerous." Great.

The cave was so much more than what I had expected. My past experience with caves wasn't much more than the neon, LED lit caves of Korea, or Boulder Cave in Washington. This cave had no marked trail and was only lit by Mordon's lantern, which occasionally would go out leaving us standing in pitch black hoping he could get it lit asap. It was very exciting. We couldn't see more than a few in front of us, and the complete darkness gave the illusion that we were about to step off a giant cliff. It was incredibly slippery. Somehow our guide managed not to slip, not even a little, the entire time even though he was only wearing a pair of old flip flops. Every time I would slip he would laugh, and make a snarky comment, "nice try" or his favorite "ho la la la." He loved my reaction when I realized that every time I grabbed a rock to catch myself I stuck my hand in guano.

Emerging from the cave

We climbed and stumbled down into the cave for about 15 mins, until we reached a spot where Mordon said we should take off our shoes and leave our bags. We were a little confused, "wait, what? leave our backpacks, and take off our shoes? but? why?" He just laughed and told us we could trust him. Ok, yeah I have only known you for about an hour but sure, whatever. We followed his instructions and slipped off our shoes and socks and reluctantly left our bags, hoping it would all be there when we returned. I am so happy we listened to him! It was the coolest thing ever. The cave at this point went steeply down, there was water running over the top, and the rock was green and very slick looking. "oh god I am going to slip and fall down this into the dark!" But as soon as I stepped onto the rock, my feet stuck to it! It was the coolest feeling. Not sure what Mordon called it, but it was a special type of rock that doesn't not become slippery. The closet thing I could relate it to is the material that a track is made of of, but a little harder. So we climbed up and down, and around for a while, even using ropes at the steepest inclines. And so we came to a waterfall and a pool/river where you can jump in. But because of the recent Typhoon the water was higher, the current stronger than usual. And when Mordon said that he wouldn't do it, and he usually does it every time, we decided against it.

We emerged from the cave soaking went and covered in mud, or maybe guano? So we decided the first stop would be to shower. The rest of our evening wasn't too eventful. We spent a little while at a local coffee shop, got dinner, and hung out at the local little bar. It was a very cozy little bar, covered in Bob Marley posters and such. It was cheesy, but very fitting for this laid back little mountain village, that loves the "happy smoke." We met a few fellow travelers and had some interesting conversations. One very random thing about Sagada is the "curfew." Im still not too sure what the rules of curfew are, but from what I understood its mainly for the children. Also, the whole town shuts down, so you need to choose where you want to be before 9 p.m.. yes 9 p.m. The bar we were in push a heavy rock in front of the door to keep people from coming in.

Bright and early monday morning we headed down to Yoghurt House. If you ever end up in Sagada you have to eat here!!! The yoghurt here is homemade and served with fresh fruit and granola, its pretty amazing! The coffee is also great and you can enjoy it all on a balcony that overlooks the only road that runs through Sagada and the jungles that surround the town. It was delicious and the perfect breakfast before a hiking.

After breakfast we met up for round two of Mordon adventures.  We decided that we would start our day trekking through the rice terraces, through a village and to a waterfall. Soon we were climbing in the back of a jeep of a friends of Mordon's. 

The rice terraces were breath taking. So green, and so beautiful. We followed Mordon down through the terraces, carefully trying not to fall of the narrow, concrete, edge we were walking on. While walking and taking in the amazing beauty, Mordon pulled out his MP3 and started to play Sheryl Crow, nothing like walking through one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen listening to Sheryl Crow, hahaha. 

 We trekked down through a little village, past men harvesting rice and mining gold. At the bottom we came to a beautiful waterfall. We wanted to swim, but like the caves it was much stronger and larger from the typhoon. So we just waded in, it was still like being inside a washing machine.