3 Destinations in 3 Days: The torture we volunteered for

Before we turned in the previous night, one of the tour guides approached us while we were chatting. He also tried to wake up our other companions but failed since they were already fast asleep. Anyway, he simply asked us what we wanted to do for the next day. He informed us that the highlight of our tour would be spelunking.

Sagada is famous for cave activities such as spelunking. This is so since the trail is relatively easy (as we're informed). During our briefing, the tour guide made us choose between a short course spelunking which is roughly 1-2 hours (200 Php/head) or the cave connection (400 Php/head), which would take us 3-4 hours.

For the short course, explorers would simply head down Sumaging Cave take some rare photo-ops then climb back up. While the cave connection would be from Lumiang Cave all the way to the exit of Sumaging Cave. Since it's not everyday that we get to experience something like this, we decided to take on the cave connection.

We woke up pretty early the following day since we were informed that we will be leaving by 6AM. However, due to some miscommunication, we started the tour pretty late. We were picked up by past 8AM by our van and dropped off at the starting point of Lumiang Cave.

Before heading to the opening of the cave, we had another short briefing on what to expect. They also informed us to buy some chocolates (if we haven't brought one) so that in case of emergencies, we can boost our sugars up.

We had a relatively short walk before getting to the cave's entrance.

And after a few minutes...

Our tour guides!!!

There was a number of coffins on the wall of the entrance of the cave. Some bones can be seen just by peeking to one of its holes. 

Lo and behold! The cave opening!

Ok, so the starting point was beautiful and a bit scary if I might say, cause one wrong step and you can pummel down to the rocky bottoms. Anyway, we were advised that due to the weather, some of the areas might be too slippery so better to remove our shoes since our feet has more traction. We also stayed at the entrance for a bit since our guides were fixing the gas lamps we are to use. THEN, we are off!

Obviously I couldn't take that many pictures (much so a proper one) since I needed to use my whole body when moving around (TIP: wear clothes that offer great flexibility, also for women, wear your leggings inside your shorts hehe) especially when we're climbing down rocks. But here are some I took when I had the opportunity!

So if you have an extreme fear of darkness and enclosed space, this one is not for you. With only 2-3 gas lamps to light your way and an awfully tight space to move around, we had a hard time crossing this cave. There were times where you need to slide down between two boulders without seeing where you're going to land and there was also one instance where you need to move sideways whilst sitting down along a cliff.

It got to the point when we hit the 1 and half hour mark, I was already dreading what obstacles we're going to face next cause (1) I'm physically and EMOTIONALLY (srsly, my mind was in chaos sometimes) tired and (2) I slipped for more than 1 occasion (I didn't say I was highly coordinated).

But when I encounter thoughts of backing out, I just contemplate the fact that if I ever want to get out of this cave, I still have to use the trail we followed when we entered. So yep, that's what kept me moving forward HAHA.

So even inside the cave, we still encountered some traffic in areas where there is only one way for all explorers. For one, there was this part where you need to rappel up a wall of rock with the help of a rope (as well as the guides who you can step unto to).

After that, it was still another series of not getting yourself scarred by the sharp rock formations and not getting yourself injured by accidentally slipping.

There were also water-filled areas inside the cave which you need to cross. The original explorers made a bridge in the middle so that amateur explorers don't need to swim.

After some time, we reached the boundary between Lumiang and Sumaging Cave.

We then proceeded to a dome-like structure which is probably the highest point we reached.

After that part though, I didn't get to take that much pictures cause the following trail was very hard. I had to put the camera inside our bag cause we really needed to use the entirety of our body to climb down or rather, slide down? We actually considered it the hardest part of the trail cause you don't have any protection at all and the land was pretty slippery and steep. The fall would be very disastrous (thank God it didn't happen) cause it was very, VERY high with boulders to meet you at the bottom.

Anyway, after that ordeal, we headed to some sort of water-fall spring inside the cave. There were many holes filled with water inside and you need to move from one hole to another to get down

Explorers were packed in this area since it was already near the exit. This is also where the short course explorers enters and exits.

After battling tons of tourists for the exit (not exaggerating here), we finally got out in time for our late lunch!

We we're informed that we still have our city tour right after the cave connection, so we headed straight back to our accommodation to clean our-selves up and fill our empty stomachs.

After cleaning ourselves up, we noticed we got some souvenirs from our brief spelunking in the form of random bruises and scratches.

We headed down to where our van had been parked by past 3PM for the city tour.

Our first stop, Sagada Pottery!

Followed by Lake Danum :)

PAK GALORE!

We we're ushered back to our van since we still had one destination to go to which is the Ganduyan Museum.

Ganduyan (Sagada) Museum (photo grabbed from here)

Don't let its facade fool you cause this place offers such great artifacts and the chief curator will tell you everything about all the stuff at display. Taking pictures inside the museum is strictly prohibited. I guess they implemented this so that guests will start paying more attention to listening to the history of Ganduyan (now know as Sagada) rather than taking selfies.

We finished the tour by past 6PM and since it was already pretty dark, we opted to go back to our accommodation to have our dinner. We bought some BBQ on the town proper for our ulam and decided to ask the owner of Mapiya-aw to cook some rice for us.

Due to our earlier cave activities, most of our companions decided to retire early for the night. We were also informed that we needed to get up early the next day cause we still have one destination before heading down to Baguio.

But since Jem insisted that we use his emergency light, kidding he wanted to explore Sagada one last time, we dressed up and headed out to check out the cafe we saw the day before. With only our phones and his emergency light guiding our way (TIP: bring flashlight! there are very few street lights in Sagada), we treaded through the cold night.

After a few minutes of walking, we finally reached Rock Cafe. Can't seem to find a reference for this cafe cause Google always show results for Rocky Inn & Cafe. But I tell you, PLEASE visit this one. It's an underground bar (not a cafe) and has one of the greatest interiors I have ever seen!

 

PREACH!

So right after our short drinking sesh (for the second time in a row), we headed back up to Mapiya-aw and turned in for the night.

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Click here for the 1st part of our Sagada tour :D