On Day 12 of my Philippines Trip, I along with the family and extended ones went to Sagada, Mountain Province to celebrate Nilda’s actual birthday (October 13). Sagada is a town in the Cordillera mountains with an elevation of about 4800ft. About six hours from our hometown in Bacnotan, La Union on good days.
The Crew at Sabangan Overlook.
Top: The Tagudin-Cervantes Road to Sagada.
Bottom: Jun trying to overcome the mud; the landslide we saw with houses washed away.
We left the house around 530AM and took the Tagudin-Cervantes Road to Sagada. Twenty six years ago this road was non-existent; the only way to go to this place is via Manila-Bontoc bus- the route that I remembered. Our drive up to the mountains consisted of many zigzag roads; reminiscing of me and Bob’s drive to Andorra from southern, France when we accidentally made a wrong turn- minus the fog and the rain and of course, the well developed road. This one you can literally see debris that just recently had fallen, and some that about to. At one point of our drive, we encountered a landslide- from the way I see, it looked like a recent event. Some houses were washed away by the mud. When our car tried passing, it encountered what seemed to be a minor resistance; which we eventually overcome. Inside me, I was just hoping that we get to our destination safely.
The different hanging Coffins of Sagada.
T- Cool infrastructure of the restaurant we had lunch;
B- The Bessang Pass Memorial Monument; The view of Bro’s restaurant;
We made three stops- the first one was Sangbay ni Ragsak Falls in Ilocos Sur and its overlook. We enjoyed the view, took some photos and continued driving. The next one was another overlook called Sabangan- it has better view of the mountains than the first stop; and again took more photos and continued driving once again. The third one was Bessang Pass Natural Monument. It is a memorial that commemorates the victory by Filipino soldiers serving the US Army Forces in the Philippines over the imperial Japanese Army (wikipedia). Among the three, this has the best view of the Cordilleras. While admiring the scenery, I noticed that the Philippines’ mountains have a distinct characteristics in comparison to other mountains I have been around the world. I can’t actually describe it without being bias, but it has its own mystique. Then we finally proceeded to Sagada.
It was around 12 noon when we arrived. Since it was too early to check in, we decided to find a place to have lunch and we found Bros Chicken Inasal. It was a unique hole in the wall restaurant; an upside down house overlooking the panoramic view of the mountains. I must say that the view and ambiance was impressive, including the dog greeter. But the food could be better.
The Shire. Our accommodation for the Sagada Trip.
The Shire and the Hanging Coffins. After our lunch we checked in. Damian, my brtoher-in-law previously showed me a photo of our hotel, but didn’t expect much. Sometimes photos can be deceiving; but to my surprise- our accommodation was exceptionally impressive. From the outside it looked like just an ordinary hotel, but the inside- it’s unique “Lord of the Rings” themed bedrooms and common rooms just wowed me. The details were intricate; the bed is comfortable, and mostly- the view of the mountain is just simply amazing. Oh, their food was also the best! Two thumbs up for Damian in Booking our accommodation😉.
When I was here more than two decades ago and we just winged everything we did through the help of Lonely Planet and our friend Janjie. But like all other things, exploring Sagada also changed- we have to have a tour guide doing tourists’ things now. Once we’re done checking in, we met with our tour guide. Since we have limited time to explore the place, we started our tour in the Hanging Coffins in Sugong Cave after resting for a bit in our hotel rooms. It was quite a descent for most of us, there’s so many steps to do. I vaguely remember how we saw the hanging coffins the first time, all I remembered was we were driving back then and we stopped to see them by the road and not the way we did it now. This is a different site; I thought these coffins looked newer. As I listened to our guide talking she confirmed that this is a newer coffins with the most recent activity in 2010.
On our way back up, we also enjoyed the scenery of the mountain and sunset despite the lingering clouds. Back at the hotel, we had our dinner (the best ones I had in this entire trip to Sagada; at least in my opinion).
The Sea of Clouds Experience. Our call time for our hike to Marlboro Hills was 4AM. We all woke up early. We started on time, and after almost 2hrs of paced walk, ascend and descend, we reached the hill. Originally we aimed for a sunrise, but with so much fog and thick clouds; they blanketed the entire view. It was a complete overcast. We waited for about 45mins then somehow there were some clearance.. the wind breaks so much clouds creating wave-like formations. This moment enabled us to see the mountains and some of the landscapes. It was surreal. Now I understood why locals called it sea of clouds. WE stayed for a bit until we started our descend. It was during our way down where the most fun happened amongst my family. While we walk uphill and downhill, the family had some jokes and banters- boy, it was just so much fun. Even Sarah and big Kevin (not fishbone Kevin) were enjoying it so much. Not to mention that the “black forest” has the most words mentioned. Right Kuya Joel? I am so happy that we did this all together though we missed Damian on the trek.❤️
THe Sea of Clouds experience at Marlboro Hills, Sagada Mt. Province
T L-R: The Crew at Blue Soil Hills; the start of the trek at 5AM;
B L-R: The crew at Marlboro Hills with clouds drifting away;
Then we briefly stopped at Blue Soil Hills after a couple of hours of descent. Blue soil is a patch of limestone rocks with a distinct blue-green hue due to a high concentration of copper sulfate. This place I’ve never been.It was good to see; a place to rest and relax for a bit, and took photos, then off we go.
I guess the trek drained much of our troup, so we headed to the hotel and decided whoever wants to stop and needed to rest can get off the ride; and others continued. I chose to continue. The next stops we went were the pottery and the weaving place. So much changed since I was here last, but the art of weaving and making pottery with the locals remain the same.
Once done with the tour we had lunch; a big lunch (surprised with the size of every meal) that we all ate. We all left with the happy tummy😉.We decided to go back to the hotel and rest too. Around 6PMish when we went to town and had dinner at Maafe Bar. After then we decided to do local wine tasting at Patiik Wine House/Honesty Bar down the road. Curious what it’s like, we tried different tastes until Sarah bought a bottle of Bugnay- the talk of the town… the must have for the wine tasting. Bugnay is a local shrub, the fruit is sour when unripe- similar to cranberries, and becomes tart but sweet when ripe, thus making it suitable to be made as wine. As I took my shot, it is no different from getting a shot of balsamic vinegar on the sweeter side 😂. Still made it a good experience for all of us. Shortly after we all headed back to our hotel and rest. Thank you Sarah for buying the whole bottle.😉
T: Dinner at the Shire;
B L-R: Campy with the Bugnay Wine; the winning family of Orange Picking Contest 😂
The next morning after we woke up and have our breakfast, we checked out. On our way back to La Union, we passed by the Sagada Heritage Village; we started taking photos until we were shooed away. Little that we know it was a private property with private accommodations; and no picture allowed. LOL. Then we went orange picking instead. There was game we played- that any one who will not make any sour face while eating the most sour orange will win. And all eight of us won with bags of oranges. Good times.😂 After this the long winding ride to La union began. So long Sagada, until we meet again.
T L-R: The descent to the hanging coffins; the descent from Marlboro Hills;
B- L-R: Lauren an Justin orange picking; Conor and Rebecca made it first to the bottom of the Blue Soil Hill; the crew being corky with Black Forest!🤣