Banaue/Bontoc/Sagada/Baguio

Tuesday, Banaue
Left Manila for Banaue 8am. Not much to say about it - it was an eight (!) hour drive over some lovely country scenes and some really quite bumpy roads. Banaue is known for its rice terraces - the eighth wonder of the world. However, didn't get to our quite ugly hotel till after half-four in the afternoon, being held up by a landslide along the way. And when we did arrive at the Banaue Hotel (real monstrosity, architect should be shot) the fog was so thick we could barely see the terraces! Groan.

Despite the cold (16 deg - we're getting used to the warmer weather) the children decided to go for a swim in the outdoor pool but they didn't last very long. Alasdair had a massage. We then had our dinner, then watched a show featuring rituals of the Igorot people, who come from the area of the Cordilleras, where we are. Fascinating. Alasdair then had his second massage and I had my first. After the long drive, we felt we deserved it!

Wednesday, Banaue/Bontoc/Sagada
Checked out typical Ifugao village next to our hotel but it was too depressing, as the pathway was full of litter and dog sh*t. Bought tat from the gift shop, then headed off for Sagada. Passed by a viewpoint along the way - what a spectacular view! The rice terraces are truly amazing to look at and what a feat of engineering! And these are all more than 2,000 years old! The experience was heightened by the presence of native Ifugao people, one of whom was playing the flute. Beautiful stuff...
Passed by Bontoc to have lunch and also to check out the Bontoc Museum, which had been highly recommended. It has the best collection of Cordillera material in the area. It was very interesting, as it had original photographs by Eduardo Masferre, a photographer from Sagada, taken in the fifties. Headhunting used to be part of the Ifugao tradition (it isn't now) and it had some grisly photographs of hunters with their bounty. In the same area as the museum was a local school, so we stopped by to say hello and take photographs. They were so lovely and accommodating.

We stopped to have lunch at the Cable Café, one of two restaurants in Bontoc recommended by our guidebook. We opted for this particular one because the other one apparently served dog meat; a practice which, we were soon to find out, is still quite common in the Cordilleras, despite it being illegal. This was quite distressing, and I also became highly suspicious – I made sure that we didn’t order anything with meat in it! We did learn later on however that dog meat has a very particular taste and cannot be mistaken for anything else. (We didn’t taste it – we quizzed everyone about it.) Phew. That’s a relief.

Arrived in Sagada after a 3-hour very bumpy road ride and we were greeted by Bang at the Rock Inn Hotel, which had been recommended by Martin, from whom we had bought the lot in Tali. Great place. Quite surprised to find that Sagada is surrounded by limestone - this area is one of the highest in the Philippines and the thought that it was all once underwater is quite staggering. Left the hotel to check out Lake Datum - we wanted to catch the sunset. So made our way through more bumpy roads only to miss the sunset because we couldn't find the lake. Oh well. Ended up just walking around the lovely town.

Thursday, Sagada
Went straight to town to register at the Tourist Office and find ourselves a guide. (We didn't want a repeat of the lake episode.) Met up with Madrid (his real name) and Sam (real name: Saddam). We decided to see the Sugong Hanging Coffins, the Burial Caves and make a visit to the Big Cave. Saw the Hanging Coffins from a distance – basically, these are coffins placed on the cliff face. Sagadans believe that being hung (rather than being buried) makes them closer to heaven. When someone dies, he/she is placed in a chair and left in their home for around 5-6 days. During this time, the coffin is already placed on the cliff face – it would be too heavy to do it with the body. On the day of the ‘burial’, the body is then passed from person to person until it reaches the coffin, where it is then placed. According to Madrid, the elders believe that the smell of the dead is lucky, and that you shouldn’t wash after the body passing ritual. He said that the first time he participated in it he could not sleep as the smell was just awful. I can imagine…

The bodies are placed in the coffin in a foetal position, because they believe that they should go back the same way they arrived. Although the practice still goes on until the present day, not everyone can avail of it as it is quite expensive. A sacrifice of 21 pigs and a few chickens is required for it to be done. Madrid explained that once, while the passing of the body was being done, it fell – so to counteract the bad luck, they had to sacrifice another chicken. For this reason, most of the people placed in the hanging coffins are much older, as they feel that they are the ones who most deserve the honour. Most of the younger ones are buried in the Christian cemetery. Apparently, most Sagadans believe a combination of their traditional beliefs and Christianity.

From the Hanging Coffins, we checked out the Lumiang Burial Cave. Here, after a short hike, we found around a hundred coffins, some at least 500-years old, a few of them with skulls and bones sticking out. Sam explained that there had been an earthquake around 1997 and a lot of the coffins had to be recovered from the bottom of the cave. As a consequence, the coffins are in disarray.

We then headed off for Sumaging Cave (aka Big Cave). We were under the impression that this would be a short and interesting visit. It turned out to be two hours of thrilling and invigorating spelunking. After a steep hike through some slippery stones, we had to take our shoes off and go through the cave in our bare feet, as we were surrounded by water. By this time, we were in darkness if not for the kerosene lamps carried by both Sam and Madrid. We had to do rappelling, traversing, crawling, swimming and kerplunking (when you accidentally fall in the water when you don’t mean to, such as what happened with myself and Euan). We came out of the cave, a couple of hours later, dripping wet but exhilarated and having had the time of our lives.

Rushed back to our hotel for a quick shower and lunch, then met up with Madrid to visit Echo Valley and the Bokong Waterfalls. We hiked to Echo Valley and shouted a few inane things just to hear them being echoed back at us. We also saw a few more hanging coffins – there are quite a lot in Sagada, after all. Headed back to the car to go on a short but very steep hike to see the small and pretty falls, where the children and Alasdair went for a short dip. They also did quite a few jumps from the ledge. I opted out.

Made another attempt to see the sunset at Lake Datum; and this time, we found it. But sadly the clouds covered the sun so we didn’t see the sunset. Some things just aren’t meant to be. The lake in itself was lovely – however, the presence of so much litter around it made it experience less so. Took a photograph of the children with dramatically sad faces next to what I can only describe as a mini landfill. Disgusting.

Note to self: write a letter to the mayor of Sagada to ask that something be done about this!

Friday, Sagada/Baguio
Met up with Madrid to visit the much larger Bomodok Falls. Our hour-long hike went through the rice terraces and the local village. This was our first chance to see the rice terraces up close and we saw a few people attending to their plots. At this distance the ingenuity is much

more impressive: how they manage to irrigate the terraces evenly without flooding them, and having each area watered is amazing. All the rice harvested here is organic: they do not use any chemicals or pesticides.

Apart from being awestruck by the beauty of the place, I was also very impressed with the children. They were basically skipping along these quite steep terraces, while I hobbled meekly behind. I definitely do not have the mountain goat within me. Admittedly, while going down, I was also slightly worrying about the trek back up…

Along the way, we met up with a local weaver and passed a very traditional Ifugao house. Halfway down the valley, we were joined by three young boys, who recognised Madrid and decided to join us.

Arrived at the falls, which I can only describe as beautiful. What an impressive, powerful sight which our photographs cannot fully capture. And we had it all to ourselves. Alasdair went for jump from the ledge, which we decided not to let the children do as the climb to the ledge was very slippery and quite treacherous. We all went for a very short, but refreshing dip – the water was freezing!

When we arrived, Madrid also decided to take a shower – he had bought a small sachet of shampoo from the place where we had stopped to pay a toll to visit the falls (12p a head) and used it now. He lathered his hair and body and then jumped into the water. What a great way to get clean! At which point his three friends gave him a massage. We were thoroughly impressed.

After sunning ourselves and making more feeble attempts to enter the water again, we made the trek back. Got back to the top 50 minutes later, very hot and very very tired. Rode back to Rock Inn to pack and check out. Bang gave us a little goodie bag of their oatmeal cookies and their homegrown blueberry jam. Yummy.

Sagada is a fantastic place for people who love nature and adventure. It is certainly not for those who are looking for a relaxing time. However, if you enjoy challenges, this is the place for you. We were not able to do everything as we had the children with us, and we also did not have enough time. But Sagada has more to offer. I would certainly go back… but probably once the roads are better.

At the end of the day the lack of a good road system has worked for Sagada – it still retains its very traditional way of life and is not inundated by tourists. However, it is an absolute pain to get to. (The funny thing is most of Sagada is paved – it was just getting to and from there.) Every single time we had to get back to the car to go on yet another bumpy ride, I felt physically sick. I had just had enough of the bumping around. Alasdair and the children managed to reach a Zen-like state at the point, just accepting the bumpy windy roads. Every single atom of my being however, just screamed a very very loud ‘NO!!!’ Despite this though, and my currently sore body, I had an absolutely amazing and wonderful time and would not take back a single second of it. Bumps and all…

The good news is that on our way up (and down), we saw that most of the roads are currently being paved. Which means that in a couple of years, access will be a lot better. So this is the choice – do you go now and bear the bumpy dirt roads, or go later when it will be much easier, but then you might be greeted by the neighbourhood Starbucks or McDonald’s?

Currently in Baguio, the nerve centre of the Cordillera. From the peace and quiet of the past few days, Baguio feels like an absolute assault to the senses. But we’re here just to cut our drive back down – a direct trip from Sagada to Manila would have been too toxic. Twelve hours driving through mostly bumpy roads would have been unbearable. So we’re here for the evening and head off for Manila after breakfast tomorrow.