TRAVEL NOTES | Sagada

SAGADA | The Road And Magnificent Caves

May 20, 2012

I'm back in Baguio City, and though I can still smell the Pines and fresh air, its quite different from the purity of the Sagada Environment. It was a 2nd time for me, but still lot's of things that are new. Because I was already familiar with the route we took, the delights of passing through the highest highways in Benguet and the roadside beauty of Mountain Province is incredible. I left the bus window open, never mind that I'm wearing a white jacket, and even though the place is spurned by a cool weather, my face, hair and my jacket is caking with dust when we arrived in Sagada. I was up for the adventure, never even felt tired though I'm lugging a 40 liter back pack.

The road was unforgiving, bus ride is 6 hours from Baguio to Sagada, Mountain Province with only 2 bus stops in between. I learned lesson not to drink much water. Because of the cold weather, I tend to have the urge to pee more often than not, and it's getting me in much trouble because I had to wait for the next bus stop to answer the call of nature. So on my way back, just a few sips of water made it through. I'd certainly recommend drinking less water on trips like these, unless you're on a tour and and could get off anywhere in the road.

The plan supposedly was for few of my friends to take on this trip, I was not intentionally planning this out. Being a travel blogger, I'd like to cover new places, and I've already blogged about Sagada, in fact this place is one of the first location I've written a travel post on. But my friends imposed it on me, intent on joining my tours, I agreed, only to have watch them bail out one by one. I am not one to cancel trips, especially if I've anticipated it, made arrangements and especially announce it to a few of my faithful readers. I'd still go out, just on my own, but luckily my travel buddy is joining, then a few other friends that I know would never bail on the opportunity. I manage to pull through, all five of us, and the first thing we did was of course spelunking, Lumiang - Sumaging Cave Connection, straight 6 hours. 

A challenge that was, I felt like a balloon getting stretch to my limit, as there are places where I had to stretch my legs to reach on rock crevices, or had to shrink as small as I can to crawl in holes. To stop feeling cold, I swan in a cave pool that's way below freezing until I feel numb and close to septicemia. At the end of the 2 days and 2 nights excursion, armed with over a thousand landscape, macro and portrait photos, including the overcoming the challenge of photographing indoor cave systems, marvelous sunrise, nature trekking in rice terraces, the big falls, echo valley, and the rain swept freshwater lake. I still want more, and I vow to go back here as soon as I can.

Travel Notes features my thoughts while on the road. It's a mirror of my current state of mind, impressions of the places I go through, these are snippets of my first hand experiences while traveling.

Francis Balgos is a Call Center Agent, Weekend Travel Warrior, Amateur Spelunker, Sometime Surfer, Newbie Mountain Climber, Photography Enthusiast, Certified Beach Bum, A first born son, Faithful lover, True Explorer...

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