Sagada is a small town that lies 275 km north of Metro Manila (according to wikipedia). Went there for two days in March.
Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip.
Animal encounters
Touristy stuff:
Saw the famous hanging coffins of Sagada. Went to two sites for it, Echo Valley and Lumiang Burial Cave.
The Big Falls were shut down for a cleansing ceremony by tribal elders, so we hiked to the Small Falls instead.
I was able to ride on top of a van for the first time in my life on our way to Lake Danum to view the sun setting over the Cordilleras.
I managed to survive going in and out of Sumaguing Cave, despite some hair raising moments dropping down in the middle of two rocks with no foothold.
Our guide had a pretty cool old school kerosene lamp that he carried all the way the three hour caving trip.
The food in town was unremarkable, but the yogurt was really good.
Scenes from the road:
Even stopped by the highest point of the Philippine Highway System.
More photos from this trip here on Flickr.
—driving notes: —
We followed Google Maps’ navigation suggestion and somehow ended up taking the Ilocos route after TPLEX, and ended up only 8 km away from Sagada, but couldn’t proceed as the dirt road was blocked by a tree that fell in the night. The route the whole way there was devoid of passing cars. It turns out that’s not the typical route people take going to Sagada- which would be Halselma Highway.
After some difficulty backing out of the empty and narrow dirt road blocked by the tree, we saw a local who pointed us the right way towards Staunton Road, which leads into town. It was 6:30 AM, 9-10 straight hours of driving.
Map:
