A Walk to Remember (Part 3) – Visiting the Magnificent Tappiya Falls

So we gave ourselves a couple of hours’ rest and after the so very long walk, we are yet to make another long walk going to Tappiya Falls. Tappiya Falls, by the way, is one of the tourists’ attraction in Banaue.
They say that 1 out of 10 Filipinos visits the Tappiya Falls because foreigners usually visit the place, probably because some (like us) are not used to walk and walk and walk and walk; and yes, we are proud that we conquered the long journey going to the magnificent falls. It took us an hour and a half (or so) from the village going to falls.
The trek going to falls is a very very very hard for the six of us. There are plenty of times that the steps are sooo steep going up and down. Minus all the hardships in our trail, it was a great sight as we hiked along the terraces

Rice Terraces along our way makes our hard walk an ease...at least

Walk, walk, and more walks!

The lovers and the falls. Love! Love! Love!

The beauty of Tappiya Falls

From the falls going back to our lodge. See the terraces on background? Amazing isn't it? Oh yeah, and we're already tired, did I say from all the walking?

Barefoot me!

A Walk to Remember (Part 2) – Living an Ifugao’s Life

Our journey up North has begun. We embarked the bus going to Banaue and rode it for 9 hours. We had stopovers along the way tho. But we weren’t a quarter of our trip when the bus broke down. At first, nobody paid attention to the heat inside the bus, then, my friend Ryan just bursted “ang init! (it’s hot!)” that’s when we realized that the air condition is broke and so, the bus made a quick stop on a gas station and made a quick fix and thankfully, it’s cool again!

On our way to Batad!

But it wasn’t a long drive when the air condition broke again. So this time, we needed to stop for a while in another gas station (I don’t know where). Since it’s getting hot inside the bus and my butt’s aching due to pro-longed sitting, Jennie and I went down and watched the mechanical hands of the driver and his assistant.

So, again, bus fixed and we went on again. I slept on the way and woke up on the 2nd and last stop-over. Washed up, had a few chat with the gang, and ate some noodles then head back to the bus and sleep again and waited for our landing in Batad

A photo bomber on our back!

AT LAST!!! We arrived in Banaue to register and had some breakfast. While there, we had a small talk with our tour guide, Irene (Mang Ramon’s niece; Mang Ramon is the owner of Ramon Homestay and he’s supposed to greet us but he had some errands to do) about the rates of the jeepney going to Saddle Point. Thing is, we are to transfer from Banaue to Saddle Point then from Saddle Point, we will walk all the way to Batad. And instead of Irene being our tour guide, she referred us to Eric (her cousin).

Jen, Eva and Me

Jen, Eva, Karen, Sheena and Ryan

So after our energizing our bodies with lots of carbs, we are now ready to embark the jeepney to get us to Saddle Point and from there we needed to walk going to Batad. It’s no joke for us who are accustomed to city where long walks are not always required as we have taxi, tricycle, jeep, all kinds of transport vehicles.

We stopped somewhere for a group pic!

 It took us about an hour walk and imagine the burden we have to carry! We have heavy bags and other extra bags! (Next time, I’m gonna buy those mountaineering backpacks).

• We stayed at Mang Ramon’s homestay which has 4 native Ifugao huts. We took two huts. One hut for the lovers, and one for the four ladies.
• It was hard for us who grew up in the city to adjust without electricity or even a light. Luckily, we have a flourescent light in our hut, as for Ryan and Sheena’s, they have to use a candle – romantic di ba?
• During dinner, we didn’t talk much because we are ssoooooo tired from our long walk. We just ate, plan for next day and had a vodka shot! yey! Vodka courtesy of one of the guests – whom, I cant remember the name :p
• In the morning, we had a chance to try the native’s costume. Jennie, Ryan and Sheena had the chance to try “mag-bayo” or pounding the rice grains
• Sad, because the food are very pricey  

Trying the native Ifugao costume for ladies

 Wait for the continuation of our journey in Batad!

A Walk to Remember (Part 1) – Itinerary has been completed!

Let me just give you a head’s up on our trip. We were to visit Batad, Sagada, and Baguio. For many days, Eva and Jennie carefully planned and revised the itinerary and then one day, boom! Itinerary has been completed. Here’s our list:

Day 0 (March 15)

• Meetup (in office), then head to Ohayami bus station where our ETD is 0900H bound for Banaue
• All last minute buying of needs

Day 1 (March 16)

• Batad overnight to take rest via Ramon’s Homestay
• Visit Tappiya Falls

Day 2 (March 17)

• Off to Sagada (Batad-Sagada)
• Check-in in Canaway Lodge
• Cave Connection

Day 3 (March 18)

• Sight-seeing in Sagada
• Souvenir shopping

Day 4 (March 19)

• Sagada – Baguio – Manila

A Walk to Remember (Part 5) – Spelunking!!!

“We came, we saw, we conquered”
After a day’s rest, Ryan woke us up early to have breakfast and prepare for the highlight of our trip – yes! Spelunking. Our guide, Kuya Gareth defined that spelunking is very different from cave exploration because for one, spelunking is done by tourists who would want to have some adrenaline pump whilst cave exploring is being done by professionals.
We are scheduled start our cave connection (yes, walk again) at 7am with our tour guides, Kuya Gareth and Kuya Rocco. Too bad, Karen has to leave early for Manila.

Big Picture: Lumiang Burial Cave entrance

Our entry point will be Lumiang Burial Cave -  is the home of a hundred piled coffins of the ancient Ifugao natives. Kuya Gareth told us that the coffins are rather short because the dead is being positioned in a fetal position, in the belief that we were born in that position and it should be same as position when we die. Also, I was surprised that they weren’t mummified.
The entrance to Lumiang Cave was rather hard compared to Sumaguing entrance (I once tried Sumaguing way back 2007). Lumiang is very rocky and steep. There were times that we needed to remove our sandals because the rocks were smooth and walking with sandals wouldn’t help with keeping our balance with our rocky path. By the time we got tired putting back on the straps of our sandals, we all decided to take those off and walk barefoot. Some paths are even, some aren’t.
Inside the cave are the most fascinating and wonderful rock formations, talkin about stalagmites and stalactites. Words cannot express our awe, so I will just post pictures with captions :p

Working our way...

Water here is cold but it's soo refreshing

Shadow play

Me!

Climbing our way up to the exit (via Sumaguing)

We came, we saw, we conquered! Most fulfilling moment was after we survived our way out in a matter of 5 hours 

Left: Finally! Light!!!!
Right: Bruised arms and legs, but that's ok 

After our exhaustive activity we went back to our lodge and washed up and ate Pinikpikan for dinner! 

A Walk to Remember (Part 4) – Chillin’ at Sagada

It was a looooong journey from village back to Saddle Point. And since we walk slow and we’re tired they hired a porter to carry their bags, I didnt because I dont want to spend 150 pesos. But a porter was so kind to me that he offered his porting service for free! so without any second thoughts, i said yes!

Separate ways.

See the roof at the top? That's Saddle Point. See the stairs on the right, that's about a hundred and more steps going up. It was the shortest and the hardest path tho

I took a different path going to Saddle Point. I took the shortest but the hardest. Hardest because I needed to climb up to around hundred steps.
So, I came to the Saddle first. While waiting for them, I took a quick rest and handed a PhP50 tip to my porter, but since he said he offered it for free, he refused to take the money. Me, being on “tipid-mode” I didnt insist

Yes, I'm proud of that! I bought this shirt even if it doesnt fit me at all :p

Jen and I never missed the chance to take picture atop of the jeepney

So, continuing our journey, we arrived at Banaue nearly noon-time. From there we’re supposed to take a bus going to Sagada. But a local approached us and recommended us to get a van instead for PhP 2K!!! since the bus normally arrives full of passengers and there will be chances that there will be no seats for us.  It took us a hard time haggling with the price of van going to Sagada and thankfully, the lady from Batad, who apparently brought the vodka (whom, I dont know the name haha!) got us a cheaper van.
Originally, we had a plan to do spelunking on this day but since we were tired from yesterday’s walk, and yes, today’s walk as well, we decided to just relax.
Food and accomodation in Sagada is more cheaper than in Batad. We ate lunch at the famous Yoghurt House. For about a PhP120, you can have a decent meal and the meal has huge serving, so if you eat less, a meal can be good for two persons. Affordable, isn’t it? And oh! I forgot, the yoghurt is fresh and sooooo delicious!

this is fooooodd!!! grabe! we were deprived of food at Batad, so eto, bumabawi sa pagkain Veggies are soo crunchy and that's the way I want it.

Eva's sandwich. Look at those veggies! *drool*

 

 

Strawberry Preserve

Eva's smilin now

 After our lunch, we took rest in our room. We stayed in Canaway guest house by the way. They have the superb and cheap room rates plus free wifi! They took their dinner at Lemon Pie House but I decided to stay and have some more rest.