Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines

Well, we made it to the Philippines alright. Shortly after getting there, I took off for Sagada with Dad, my brothers-in-law, Paul and Alpie and Dad's step-son, Lucky. It was about a 5-hour bus ride through the mountains north of Baguio which was pretty nice. Upon arriving there, I found a room with 5 beds at the Sagada Guest House ($25) and we went and got something to eat.
After eating, we went to the tourist center to sign up for a cave tour. While most folks opt for the Sumaging Cave tour which is more of a short scenic tour, we opted for the more adventurous "Cave Connection" tour where you enter through the Lumiang Cave and exit through the Sumaging Cave.

Entrance of Lumiang Cave.

What makes the "Cave Connection" tour different than the other tours is the technical difficulty. There were several 10-15 foot drops we had to maneuver...an easy enough feat above ground, but much more difficult on wet, glassy limestone.

Due to the very poor light conditions, I was not able to take alot of good pictures. The highlights of the trip were the more technical sections and seeing thousands of bats near the end. The bats were a mixed blessing though as I often found myself on all fours crawling through bat droppings;) While I did enjoy the one-time experience, I don't foresee myself investing in any spelunking gear.

The next day, we decided to take a hike to the big waterfall, Bomod-Ok. Along the way, we saw an old Ifugao lady walking down the road wearing the traditional weaved skirt and carrying some sort of farming tool on her head. The Ifugao people are an indigenous Filipino tribe who managed to survive the Spanish and U.S. occupations with most of their indigenous culture largely intact....a real raritiy.

Along the hike, there were some nice vistas with the steap valleys covered in the Ifugao rice terraces. In the mountains of the Northern Philippines, there are thousands of these terraces which were built by hand thousands of years ago to support the agriculture.

Now for the disappointing part of the trip. The hike to the waterfall takes about 2.5 hours and we made it all the way to within about 10 minutes of the waterfall when we came to a "tourist registration center". A lady asked us where our guide was. We stated that we were making our way just fine and did not need or want a guide. She said that we weren't allowed to proceed without a guide. I refused to pay even a dime for a guide to show me the way to a place I already know how to get to so we turned around and made the 2 hour walk home. The one thing that kind of bugs me in the Philippines is that you're ALWAYS treated like a tourist, even when you've been there a dozen times and can comfortably get around on your own. In a sense, I think they're usually just trying to be helpful, but it can become suffocating after awhile. My intent was to go and kick back by a waterfall. I had no interest in hearing a stranger yak on and on about it or wait around on me.

Upon arriving back at Sagada, we grabbed our bags and headed back for Rose's home, Pangaoan, Rosales.