Sagada: Heaven on Earth
Lately I find myself thinking more and more of Sagada. I’ll always remember Sagada with fondness.
The trip to “heaven on earth” is a grueling, bone-rattling 14-hour stretch. We traveled 300 kilometers to the tiny ancient village at the heart of the Gran Cordillera mountain range.
We stopped in Baguio for a short rest and caught the first bus for Sagada, through narrow, winding and dangerous roads. These are enough reasons to stop the weak-hearted from coming to this tiny mountain hideaway. And yet, day in and day out, foreign and local tourists flock to this place and come back for seconds, and thirds. Some never leave.
As soon as one arrives, the senses are overpowered by the glorious lush scenery, the smell of thousands of flowers, by the colorful costumes of the natives, the old and western-style houses.
Above all, city folk whose ears are bombarded daily by the cacophony of urban life are stunned by the silence, so marked it’s deafening. You suck in the sweet, cold air and stare into the distance. You adjust your hearing and catch the gurgle of the hidden streams, the rustling of the leaves, the endless chirping of birds and the hum of the insects. And you utter a prayer of thanks for being in this place, perhaps only once in your lifetime.
It’s impossible to be in the Sagada and not believe in God, says a friend. The serenity that greets the weary wanderer is worth all the pains and aches one has to endure to reach this charming village.
Sagada is home to kankanays, from the Igorot tribes. They are peace-loving folks who nevertheless become fierce fighter when their communities are threatened. They successfully resisted Spain’s mighty sword.
However, the American missionaries’ amiable ways and the teachers’ friendliness won them over. Proofs of this are the American-style houses scattered around Sagada.
Curfew is strictly followed at midnight. Despite the absence of police, the village remains crime-free.
For the first-time traveler, we advise a trip to the bat cave. On my first trip, I took on the hardest and most popular trek to Sumaging Cave where one descends the cave’s slippery concrete steps. Inside, you are met by the terrifying sight of thousands of creepy bats hanging upside down the ceiling. Don’t flee, guides will assure you that these are generally harmless creatures.
Going down the cave’s belly, you will notice an overpowering musky color. The limestone formulation is out of this world. The locals have given each one a cute name: Pigsty, Elephant’s feet, Nuclear Power Station, the pregnant woman, virgin chocolate cake, rice granary, turtle, and king’s pig pen.
The descend soon takes on the atmosphere of an Indiana Jones movie – lots of death-defying leaps, sidesteps, squeezing and crawling past small openings, slippery rocks. The destination: Icy, waist- deep water. Going up is perhaps even more agonizing. And while doing this death-defying climb, look for Saga’s burial sites. The Igorots refuse to bury their dead beneath the damp, dark earth. Instead, they place their dead beneath the damp dark earth. Instead, they place their dead on pinewood coffins, which they hang at the cave entrance or up high on cliff sides.
So, why not try Sagada one of these summer days? It will surely be tough and exciting but you will not regret it. - Article courtesy of Manila Bulletin.
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