mEMOrandum

Day 0 - depature

were supposed to leave Manila by 10pm but they arrived at Victory Liner
terminal past 11pm. and because we dont have the

luxury to ride a deluxe trip to Baguio that worth P700+ we settled to
wait for the 1:00am trip to baguio.

day 1.1 Arrival to Baguio

after the 6 hrs of travel, by 7:00 am we arrived at Baguio. We head
straight to Victory Liners terminal to freshen up before hunting for an
affordable transient house. the people around terminal recomend the
Tuvero Pension inn, and they even hire a taxi for us. taxi ride is worth
P50 only and the driver is very accomodating.the Tuvero Pension Inn
offer us a room good for 3pax for P600 per night stay with free use of
the kitchen. the room is just adequate for us three. enough space where
we can sleep. we settled and and rest before we start our
by-foot-baguio-tour(it means we will walk around the tourist spot of
city of pines). we reheat our packed food (longganisa and rice) for
breakfast.

Day 1.2 - touring Baguio City

the tour start with us walking around the neighboring street of the
terminal. as we walk, we saw the UP Baguio. we planned to enter but got
threaten by the “get your visitor’s pass” sign on the gate. beside UP
Baguio is the small Sunshine Park. it is also in front of the University
of Cordillera. the photoshoot starts here. with camera on our hand, we
click and pose. the park is clean despite the writings on the premises.
we also saw high school students practicing cultural dance, others are
tapping drums and kulingling. then we walk straight. Maje was amazed to
see big clovers. few more steps and we entered the

Famous Burnham Park. we got the chance to try on native igorot dresses
and the old guy took pictures of us for P10 per click rate. we saw
tourist riding boat in a manmade laggoon. we also walk at the football
field were the infamous ASKALS had their practice. across the street we
saw SM Baguio City. we stop by an ukay ukay store and bought sweaters
and jackets.

our next stop is the Baguio Cathedral. we almost got lost looking for
its way and snob the guy who tried to help us look for the way to the
Cathedral. the look at the Cathedral is like a view from abraod (joey
said is like having to big ben at the background) the pink cathedral is
clean and quiet. we entered and pray. we got inspired we plan to visit
the other churches of Baguio. we walk behind the cathedral and saw the
University of Baguio and St. Louies University. We look for the St.
Louies University Hospital’s chapel and pray.

its lunch time but were not that hungry so we continue to walk. we ride
a jeepney going to mines view. the fare worth P10. we got to have
pictorial with “KING” the one famous St. Bernard dogs there. The place
also offer pictorials with the native or with the horse with pink hair.
the view of baguio in mines view was so cool!! you can almost see the
the whole baguio with lots of pine trees. the view is like in greece
with pine trees. we saw a cat and we took photos of it coz its free.
before leaving mines view we bought bags ang scarfs as pasalubong.

we had another jeepney ride going to pink sisters convent. this is a
very solemn place. we light candle before we left the place. then we
start walking again. we pass over the teachers camp. then we enter the
Baguio’s Botanical Garden. we also had our pictorial their despite the
early sign of rain. Joey also had a pictorial with two old native which
we have to pay after. we also pass by the St. Joseph church which is
near the Wright park. inside the wright park, joey thought that the
stairs there is the 100 steps stairs of Lourdres Grotto. we realized
that we are wrong coz steps are more than 200 steps and we

havent seen any sign/evidence of way of the cross. in the end of the
step is the view of The Mansion from the other side of the street. we
also go to the gate of the mansion where the president of the republic
reside whenever he visit Baguio.

its getting dark and its starting to rain. a taxi was waiting for us. we
hop in and ask him to head to SM baguio. we wander around the
unairconized mall and wait for the rain to stop. we plan to return to
our transient but we forgot the street’s name. theres no other choice
but to head home by walking. along the session road is a street market
where we bought tinapa (9pcs-P28) for our dinner.retracing our step back
to the pension inn is a scary walk. without sufficient light in the
street and less people walking on our way, we felt were lost and we
almost forgot to trust our girl’s instict plus the fact that were tired
form the whole day of wandering.

we arrived at the pension inn around 9pm and almost all of the people
there are already sleeping. we head to kitchen and prepare our dinner.
we ask for help coz the kitchen lights are off. after dinner we are
about to take a bath but the water is icy cold. there is no heater in
the bathroom, we need to boil water first to have hot water to use. and
because the water is too cold, it only took me 15 minutes to shower and
clean my body. hehehe. we charge everything that needs to be charge for
the next day adventure before we hit the sack.

Day 2.1 - Departure to BAGUIO

We set our alarm by 6am so we can reach the 8am trip to sagada but the
baguio temperature makes us lazy to get our body out of the bed. we made
a hefty breakfast of tinapa, fried rice and pansit canton plus coffee to
energize ourselves for today’s itinerary. we packed our bags said
goodbye to baguio. On our way to Lizardo we pass by at ATM to withdraw
some cash :D. The fare from baguio to sagada was P200. it will take us
5-6 hrs before we can step our foot to Sagada. We rode an old type of
bus, but its still sturdy and it can carry a ton of people and baggages.
The view ofthe road to sagada was so beautiful, and fresh and
captivating. a lot of trees, trees, and more trees. There are also the
views of the cliffs. Along the way, maybe because of the rough trip, maj
and jhoe starts to get dizzy. on the stop over i bought them food,
fruits and meds to ease their pain and i bought chocolate for myself. i
tried to sleep but i was mesmerize by the view.

Day 2.2 - Arrival to SAGADA

after 6 hrs of travel, we finally arrived to Sagada. at the bus station
we met our tour guide C2 (joseph Gayyad) of SAGGAS. He help us find Sir
George Inn where we had our logding reservation. Our room was cute, cozy
and cheap, 3 beds for 600 per night fee. it has its own bathroom that
has hot and cold shower. much comfort now that we dont have to heat
water first before taking showers. the view outside our is magnificient.
We can see the cliffs and the clear Sagada’s blue sky.

Day 2.3 Spelunking (lumiang and sumaging cave connection)

coz we had a big activity for today, we took some minutes to rest and
change. We are all wearing leggings under our shorts, based on our looks
i felt like were having dance performance. by 5pm, along with our young
guide, jhoe, maj and i we start our 1st sagada activity. our tiredness
turns to excitement as we start walking to the entrance of lumiang cave.
Our guide is knowledgable, i guess being a native is a big advantage for
him. he answers our every query, he cracks jokes to make us comfortable
even though we feel that he is also shy.

at the entrance of lumiang cave we already were amazed of the view in
front of us, but were also afraid of whats inside of the cave. According
to C2, there are still human bones inside the coffins we see (and these
coffins are every side of the cave). He said that the higher the coffin
is placed, the faster the soul gets to heaven. i shove my dreadful
thoughts and

wild imaganation of our activity so that i may focus and enjoy this
experience. after C2 prepared the lamp and change clothes, joey led the
prayer. let Spelunking begun!

as we head inside the cave my fears starts to bother me. im afraid to
slid and hit my head with the stones/rocks. im not afraid of the dark
but of what i cannot see. im afraid to lose oxygen and unable to
breathe. and im not yet ready to see ghost or any of its relatives.
though i have all these fears i still continue walking or crawling and
holding to rocks. i didn’t mind stepping or touching bats manure, its
kinda unnatural and ewwy at first but as we descend its becomes normal
(i found out that bats lives only the entrance where there food supply
are abundant, thats why inside the cave, rocks are clean-manure-free). I

shout/scream to release my tensions abd exhaustion. this activity is
physically demanding and challenging. There were even the times where
the guide not only guide us but literally help us (in every possible
way) to cross. We experienced rapelling downward, sideward and upward.
We even had to step into our guide’s back, shoulder and knees just to
get to the next point.

despite darkness, the place was beautiful espcially when we start to see
stalactites and stalagmites. every form of its majestic, a true wonder.
its beauty is breath-taking (literary, coz where underground where there
is less oxygen). some forms looks like a vegatable, animal, face, cake
and even dinasaur foot print. We laugh everytime he make us look for a
certain stalactite formation or if he wants us to guess what the
formation looks

Like. the place is cold, dark and quiet(a good setting for a halloween
special event..hehe) we can clearly hear the water dripping or the sound
of the lamp or our own breath/heartbeat. with just the lamp and
flashlight as our source of light, we begin to take photos of this
natural beauty. C2 even act as our photographer for our group pic (a
group pic that compose of 3 person.. hehehe)

Our guide is very thoughtful. he brought water and crackers and candy
for us. We forgot that we havent eaten yet and we even loss track of
time. We even had a guessing game on what it is already, and what time
will we finish the activity. im really have no idea what time it is.

Our spelunking exits at sumaguing cave. i was anticipating to see light
but after the darkness is another darkness. we exit the cave by night
time. time check, it was almost 10pm. it was a starry night and the moon
was bright. we said our prayers and bid goodbye to the beautiful caves
of SAGADA.

We return to our room, change and get ready for dinner. the four of us
roam the village to look for a resto where we can eat big time, but all
the stablishments were close. Good thing that Sir George Inn has its
restaurant. Because i was so proud of what we have accomplished today i
treat them dinner. We ordered different “silog”. and coffee.

After dinner, we left the restaurant and walk and cherish our first
night here in Sagada. We appreciate the quietness, the fresh smell of
treeswhen the wind blows and the cold environment that bring shivers. we
head back to our room, to rest for we have a big day tomorrow.

Back to our bed, we prepared to sleep but we still starving (i guess
we’ve used all our stored energy in spelunking resulting to
starvation/craving). good thing maj had a Korean spicy noodles and we
have joey’s handy thermos. it only took us less than an hour to finish
eating and we finally shut our eyes to rest.

Day 3.1 - Trekking

We have a 4am wake up call but i guess our guide was too tired meet us.
maybe we can re-schedule are kiltepan sunrise activity.

Next on the activity list is trekking. the itinerary is to visit the
hanging coffins and the small falls (big falls was not available due to
some ethnic rituals that are not allowed to be seen by others). its our
first morning here and it feels good to see that there a lot of people
flocking everywhere enjoying the Saturday market day.

The weather is fine and warm. We started walking, we stop at SAGGAS
office where C2 got our additional foot (a wooden stick, which is a
great help for us). we passed by the market and bus terminal. on our
first stop We visited a church called St Mary’s Church but it was closed
so we just took some photos and started walking again. we passed by a
public cemetery and c2 fill us with information about the different
religious sector that Sagada community composed off. This is the reason
why some of the niche don’t have cross in it. our second stop, the
hanging coffins in Echo Valley. A near view of them. i erally wonder how
the natives made it/hang it super high without any tools/equipment. Im
super impressed ad kinda sad coz there are less people preferred this
kind of burial.

after a few photos with the coffins, we begin to walk again. we passed
by some fields and farms. i saw different colored mushrooms. We also
enter a cave with underground river which is shortcut to our next
destination, the small falls. We saw some tourist enjoying the cold,
clear water from the fall. the small fall is about 8-10 feet high and
have deep water, around 20 feet deep. too deep i cannot see its bottom.
i would love to swim but im afraid to drown myself (im not that
confident with my swimming skills) so i enjoy myself take a dip while
holding to a rock. small fishes swim in the water while other tourist
are having fun.

a few minutes in the water and we decide to head back to our hotel.
Thank God we go to different trail on our way home. the trail was much
friendlier to our feet, we walked on a concrete street but the sun is
beaming, i really wish we brought umbrella on this trek. We again passed
by the church and a baseball field where an unexpected accident
happened. When C2 throws the ball back to players he accidentally throws
jhoey’s ring which he was holding earlier (joey handed it to him for
safe keeping when we took a dip in the fall) it took us few minutes and
half a baseball team to find that ring. and when we arrived at hotel it
was past noon already. C2 gave us few hours to eat, rest and prepare for
our next trek.

Day 3.2 - mt.ampacao and lake danum encounter

too tired from the morning activy we moved slow.. we clean ourselves
then prepared lunch/dinner. The plan is to see the sunset and have
dinner in lake danum. We again start our activity late, good thing our
guide is patient with us.

Unlike the fair weather erlier, today was kinda gloomy and theres a sign
of rain coming. According to C2, we are heading to the other side of
Sagada. on our way to the Mount Ampacao, we stopped by a side of a
mountain that the native put hole where the fresh water comes out. we
got to taste it and bring some of it on our trek. as we ascend, the road
starts to get foggy and few minutes later, rain drops. the rain cant
stop this activity, slowly start to walk.. our path start to become
muddy and i was aftraid to slip ho i use my handy stick. i was ahead of
the others. The sight was beautiful.. a lot of trees, big trees,

small trees, flowers, i can even hear birds. We even saw a rainbow below
eye level. Thank God the rain has stopped, but the land is still muddy.
as we walk to further into the forest, i felt like we entered the
“Twilight Saga” Zone. the tall trees and the fogs make we think that
edward cullen was just somewhere.

the few hours of walk led us to this grassy field where cows are brought
to feed and rest.This is also our stop over for this trip. i cannot see
clearly coz fogs are everywhere. i felt like im in a cloud. i suddenly
felt cold (im meant it literally and metomorphically-maj you know what i
meant :P) C2 brought us small bananas. its kinda raw but we appreciate
his effort and thought.

we are following a tight schedule toaday coz we need to be at lake danum
to see the sunset. we walked faster but careful for the land is still
slimy. as we walked C2 climb trees to get Joey some souvenier. some wild
orchid (wild, for no one help it grows.. am i right?) he even arranged
it in a way every flower or some other reason i cannot comprehend.

we arrived at lake danum but we cannot appreciate its beauty. Thick fogs
covers the lake and the sun. We are all tired and overwhelmed by the
experience we slash out the plan of having bonfire and dinner by the
lake. So we wait for our service to arrive and head back to the hotel to
rest. on our way back, the silence is deafening, thanks to the bob marly
song in our background, it lessen the tension inside the cab.

as soon as we arrived back to our hotel, i force myself to sleep just to
avoid the confrontation (drama between us). i even skip dinner (even
though im super hungry) coz im upset and dissapointed with them. or
more, im dissapointed with myself for things dont run as how i planned
it.

They woke me up coz C2 invited us to a bonfire along with the other
hotel guest and guides. The other hotel guest are 8-10 foreigners, most
are french students. pride overpowers me to talk to maj and joey that
night. i dont want to ruin my last night in Sagada. so im sorry if i
wont mum a word or two to both of you. C2 left me for a while to buy
something. with silent war between me and joey and maj, i decided to
mingle with the other guides while they wait for the foreign guest. once
the foreign guest arrived, we did some chit chat and C2 return with wine
and the drinking chat started. because maj and joey dont drink they just
left the bonfire after a few minutes. they return to our room to rest. i
stayed longer to make sure that they’re already asleep when i enter the
room (i’m still not prepare for the dramatic talk) plus i miss the
alcohol hehe.

Day 4.1 - sunrise at kiltepan

4AM - its our second attempt to see the Sagada sunrise. i woke them up
coz C2 was already up and waiting for us. few minutes of fixing ourself
and were ready to start walking again. According to C2 its a 5
kilometers walk to kiltepan. its was still dark when we step out of the
hotel. on our way we saw dogs, and 2 of them join us in our activity.
These dogs also

guides and protect us from the others dogs in the street. i’m a bit
sleepy so i try to jog while others preferred to walk but im kinda
hessitant with jogging/running coz dogs are everywhere so i just walk
faster than the usual. We saw other tourist are also going to kiltepan
for sunrise, but most of them are in the car. were the only tourist who
chose to walk. upon arrival to kiltepan peak, we position ourselves on
where we can have great view of the sunrise. the view of bontoc below us
was beautiful. i felt like i was inside an airplane, coz clouds are
below us. the mountain are rich, still full of trees. colors starts to
fill the skies once the sun rises. its a nice time/place to meditate and
thank God for every beautiful things that we’ve witness. i felt that the
sunrise cleanses my soul and lighten my mind. i spent few minutes
enjoying this majestic encounter. and then we head back to prepare for
our departure.

Day 4.2 - departure from Sagada

we passed by the SAGGAS office to get the bill from our 2 day
experience. After breakfast, we start to pack our things.C2 return to
check if we are ready. but before leaving sir George inn C2 has a
surprise for us. he gave us a certificate that of completion of centain
SAGADA activities. We were so touch.. this is a good souvenier for us.
C2 sent us to the bus station. too bad the bus was about to leave when
we arrived, we havent had time to buy souveniers and pasalubong. but i
guess this gives us reason to return to Sagada again.. next year maybe?
:)

again we rode a old model bus. i pray to have a safe trip back to
baguio. We waved good bye to C2 and to Sagada. on our way, we spent more
time catching up sleep than eating or sight seeing. halfway the trip, it
started to rain. Thank God that it was not heavy rain, just drizzles.

Day 4.3 - departure from Baguio

after 7 hrs, we are again back to baguio. we passed by the market to but
pasalubong before heading to Victory Liner Terminal. Because its Sunday,
more people are also returning to manila. We bought our tickets and got
a 7pm trip to manila. while waiting for it, we ate at MXT. by 7pm. were
inside the bus and relax ourselves. in few hours well be home again. i
miss sagada already.

Day 5 - arrival to manila

1am - we arrived at cubao station of Victory Liner Terminal. it was too
early and for security reason so we decided to head to Maj place to rest
for a while before going home. and that wraps up our 4 days adventure in
North Luzon.

Wealth never comes in urgently.