Sagada tour - first day high (second half)

a little past 12 noon, we checked in at St. Joseph's Inn, a nice and warm accomodation overlooking the Sagada town.

afterwhich, we immediately grab a bite at Masferre, a photo-gallery cum restaurant cum souvenir shop, i ordered the masferre chicken (their specialty), lyn got a boneless bangus (dalawang bangus na malalaki ha), and the rest of the group got a pinakbet, adobo, sandwich, etc. the food was good though a bit salty for my taste, but their serving is huge and can feed two hungry people, fortunately i am hungry (that makes me two) and i have left in manila whatever diet i have to splurge on good sagada food, and wow, the red rice is really filling! the lunch was P160, don't raise that kilays yet, it's like you've got two servings of World of Chicken set meal for the price of one, not bad. i didn't take pictures, i am so hungry i forgot the camera in our room.

we went around a little and i observed, there are a lot of tourists (why i am not surprised to see koreans here?) and the saturday market is teeming with vegetables (a kilo of brocolli is only P40).

at 3 pm, after a bit of siesta, we went to St. Mary's Episcopal Church, it's a beautiful church, not as grand as some of the cathedrals in Manila, but very serene to the point of being mystical, bagay na bagay sa sagada.

our group of seven is just part of the 31 individuals who joined the tour

we went to the public cemetery on the back (or was that the front?) of the church, it's on the top of the hill, it is also known as the Calvary hills and it is the "modern" burial grounds for Sagada. following a trail, we went to the Echo Valley (why it's called echo valley? go figure hehe) and from here a little downward trek (yung mga oldies medyo umurong na dito kasi mahirap nang bumaba dahil medyo madulas) and we were greeted by a steep limestone cliffs and the famous Hanging Coffins. photo-ops here and there followed.

we are just waiting for the go signal to go down and see the coffins closer, but we didn't hear any. naturally, i asked our team leader kung bababa pa ba kami o kung pwede pa nga bang bumaba, pwede raw but the two guides told us that it's going to be hard like a 30 minute trek going down and then 1 hour going up, it's okey, we don't see any problem with that, but it seems that not everyone is sold to the idea of going down. so we asked who are willing to go down and it was only me, lyn and julie who raised our hands.

hah! surrender? me? not yet! some were saying what's the worth of going down anyway? we already saw the coffins so why go down? and it's going to be risky according to them. i told them since we're here, why not maximize the opportunity? dedmahin daw ba ako. bwahaha

while walking towards the exit trail and a couple of pictorials here and there, i am thinking of asking again. and when we re-joined the group in the cemetery, i asked again. this time, i felt that the other young members of the group are also inclined on going down with us, i saw an opening (ha, parang basketball? hehe) and from the willing three we are now 14! yes, i don't give up that easily you know hehehe. Patrick, our team leader told me "Masyado kang desidido, bro hehe".

and our trek going down started in less than a minute (while those who did not join went back to the inn or gone shopping) and it was so easy! asan yung 30 minutes na trek pababa? eh 10 minutes pa lang yata nasa ibaba na kami?? mukhang tinatamad lang yung mga guides! anyway, here are some of the pics of the coffins (fast fact: the latest burial or should i say, hanging, was made last august 17, 2005, it was the one with the big cross).

the trek going up is also easy. see?

the trek going to the coffins' worth the sweat, and while on the cemetery on our way back to the church i saw this:it's possible that he's a son of Gen Yamashita as the famous japanese general had stayed in Sagada before he was captured and executed. trivia yan ha. :)

while resting in the church's ground, i went around the church and took these:

and this is the Sagada sunset, it's the best that i do could as i need to be in a higher place (mt. ampaclao maybe) to see and/or capture a better shot (this is not the beach anyway, not my territory hehe)

next: DINNER AT YOGHURT HOUSE

PASILIP: