Sagada. What a special place - so special that I ended up staying there 3 days longer than planned.
When we first arrived, most of the guest houses were booked. We figured that " all booked" is a good sign that this place is good stuff. Erin ran around like a champ to figure it all out for us and almost immediately we meet 2 guys, 1 from Spain (we named him Spain, creative, I know) and 1 from Boston (we named him Boston) and spent the day eating (we literally restaurant hopped) and lazily strolled around. We go on a mad search for the Philippino rum (btw, it's called Tanduay) and begin our evening with rum mixed in all natural fruit shakes (hmmmm). We randomly stumble upon 'Kimchi Restaurant' which seemed to be the Rastafarian joint of Sagada. Again, no dreadlocks or anything like that, it was more of a feeling.....and Bob Marley posters everywhere and One Love playing on the speakers didn't hurt giving off the feeling either. It was a great evening meeting some new Philippino's and foreigners alike. There are a handful of really interesting foreigners that live in Sagada because its just so peaceful, out in the middle of nowhere and difficult to get to so only the cool ones are willing to venture out there. Yes, I just bragged about how cool my friends and I are :). Anyway, it was a typical fun evening....a little too much fun because it was a real struggle to get up the next morning to go explore the caves.
But we sucked it up. The caves is kind of the thing to do in Sagada. Our Israeli friend, Yaniv, who we met in Batad had told us to spend the little extra money on the tour because it was worth it. And he was right. Erin and I quickly perked up the minute we approached the cave and realized what we were in for. The cave we entered was called the "Burial Cave" because it had old coffins placed all along the outer walls on the way into the cave. Ancient tribes in the Northern region would bury the dead in small coffins in the fetal position, the position we are born in. The coffins were placed on the outer walls of the cave because each day, the coffin had to be exposed to light and darkness. The evolution of the cave including natural environmental situations, such as typhoons which are very common in the Philippines (and necessary to meet agricultural needs), had created various rock formations that resembled all sorts of things. Our guide, Mike, would let us use our imagination first to state what we thought the formations looked like and then he'd share the "real" answer. We saw marble cake, a pregnant lady, mushrooms (although to me, this looked like the bad guys in the Pac-man game), and well, what cave would be complete without a penis formation? So we got a little of everything in that department. As for exploring the caves: Climbing, swimming, walking, squeezing, bending, traversing, stretching - whatever position a body can get in to, that's what we did over the course of the four hour trek. Our guide lit up the way with kerosene lantern. There were parts when we had to step on his feet, leg or shoulder to make the next move. He was professional, aware, helpful, informative and absolutely adorable. In case I haven't made it obvious in previous blogs, I adore Philippino men, in the general sense (and individual sense!) and Mike was no exception. We shared with Mike our desire to join amazing race and he gave us some additional challenging routes for fun. He may be our biggest fan! The trek through the caves was by far, the coolest activity I did in the Philiipines....I'd highly recommend it. And if you can get Mike as your tour guide, you.are.golden. He was awesome.
Mike was surprised we wanted to walk home after that trek, but it's what we do. It worked out perfectly because we walked past this off-the-beaten-path vegan restaurant, Gaia, other PCVs have told me about that I completely forgot about. We went home to shower and get Marjie just to trek back to the restaurant and it was worth it. Not only was it vegan, but they used all natural, locally grown, organic products, a rarity. The owner was this adorable 31 year old woman who was super environmentally friendly (she is a reduce, reuse and recycle badass!), smart, friendly and knew how to create a freakin menu. I also got to eat the most well known Philippino cuisine, Adobo, that usually has chicken in it, but this one had tofu....delish! We literally spent over 3 hours there eating, talking and relaxing. It's super possible to do this, largely because the restaurant is placed smack in the middle of the mountains. Gorgeous.
Erin's last night with us came up quickly and we had to celebrate properly. We finished off the Tanduay and hit up our Rastafarian Philippino friends, Bazza (we named him Cutie patutie because that is what he was) and Dimps (this is what I named him, because he has a smile and dimples that will just make you melt) at Kimchi's for a Red Horse. Red Horse is the other Philippino beer but its much stronger than San Miguel. Kimchi only sold Red Horse. Gotta love a place that sticks to their guns. Not sure how to explain it, but it was yet another extra special fun night, mainly because of the people. People can really make or break an experience and we met some really cool ones in Sagada.
The next day, again a struggle, we spent the morning taking care of the necessities including the creation of mine and Erin's Amazing Race application video. We send Erin off on top of a jeepney (there were no seats left inside...perfect sendoff), a very sad good-bye. After 3 weeks as my travel companion and eating partner experiencing various interesting adventures, we were parting ways and my heart ached a bit. But she was off to India for a month to get her yoga certification...gotta love that girl.
So, despite our sadness, Marj and I embraced the fact that its her and I for the next 3 months! We set off on our first adventure to the hanging coffins. These are more coffins, well hanging, on the side of the mountain for the same reason I explained earlier, that you can trek to and almost touch. I came across this second path upon meeting a family with a tour guide and was told it led to an underground river. I asked what that was and was told it was a river under the ground. Ok, I guess I deserved that. They extended an invite and I accepted. I informed Marj I'd be a little longer (the trek to the coffins was really steep and Marj opted out) and followed the family. The family was walking very slow and a few minutes later I hear Marj calling my name. She decided to face her fear and come on the hike! It was a really great afternoon and a beautiful hike.
By day 4 in Sagada we had been there long enough to know that each evening around 5pm there would be a hard downpour for about an hour. With this knowledge, we set out on a hike to the Mt. Kiltepan viewpoint early afternoon. There are many hiking opportunities in Sagada, this just being one of them. On our way up, things started to get dark, cloudy and thundery. I stated we should stop at a shelter and wait it out but Marj encouraged us on. We make it to the top, take the view in for a hot second and then the rain comes down. hard. Damn Mother Nature! We see a bunch of guys working on this shelter of sorts and run over to them. A young man welcomes us in and says "oh, you again". Taking a second to get my shit together, I realize that it's Joseph, the guy who helped us along our journey to Sagada!! Well, I was so grateful Marj encouraged us on because we were stuck there for almost 2 hours and at least we had good shelter and lovely company. Small world.
Later that night, showered and dried, Marj and I hit up Kimchi for live music. I spent the last 2 nights at Kimchi meeting cool people and this night was no exception. First, we meet an older RPCV who served in the Philippines 30 years ago and never left, our usual locals and a new group. I now feel like I have to go to Israel because I've met half the population on my travels! we met a group of adorable Israeli's and a lovely Dutch couple, celebrating a birthday. As Buffalo soldier played on, I learned a few new card/drinking games and clearly did not do well because I left very drunk, maybe as drunk as the birthday boy! The best part of the games was Gil, the dealer. He was just a treat to be around: funny, sarcastic, sweet and adorable. I've officially dubbed him "monkey man". How many people do you know who travel and volunteer to take care of monkeys? I gotta love a fellow animal lover. I met up with these guys again the following night for light drinking, and I mean that literally because I think we were all hurting that day from our card games the night before.
Our time in Sagada was chock full of hiking, caving, relaxing, getting caught in the rain, delish food and most importantly, great people. We left Sagada on an overly satisfied yet sad note as we made our way to the airport to begin the 2 day journey to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City. Still, 1 week later as I write this, I miss the Philippines. We were told by almost every Philippino we met that they love Americans and that our countries are "friends". I didn't want to spoil it by reminding them of how we tried to take over back in the day and relished in our friendship instead! At the end of the day, it was great to be in a country that was open and warm to us, but I believe that is simply their nature. We met such amazing people, saw beautiful sites, got caught in a few interesting adventures and were embraced by the beautiful, warm and friendly people of the Philippines. I can't recommend it enough for all to visit. It's still fairly underdeveloped and so it's not stacked with accommodations / transportation for tourists, but if you are willing to work around that, don't miss this place. After all, it is more fun in the Philippines!
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