Sagada

That same night in Vigan, we had to embarked on another journey, this time to Baguio then finally, Sagada.  The travel would last four hours and would have us traversing several provinces before reaching Baguio City. After reaching Baguio City, that was around 2:00 AM, we took time to rest and eat. We had to take another bus ride to Sagada. We arrived at 1:00 in the afternoon. And, so the adventure began.

 Allow me to backtrack a little bit. The six-hour or so trip to Sagada would surely not bore any first time visitor. We happened to have been stuck on the road for a few minutes due to an ongoing road construction. We took the time to take these pictures. We also chanced upon a Bisaya guy, who is already married to someone native in the area. We don't have a picture of that guy, though. 

JUST FOOLING AROUND ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. IT'S COLD!! COFFEE, ANYONE?

Moving forward, Chode, the official photographer of the trip, was able to capture these pictures while I was busy catching a nap. Notice that the place going to Sagada is also mountanous. But hey, Sagada is in Mountain Province in the first place. Well, my point is that people in this place had to plant their crops in the mountainside. So, they also employ the same method used in Banaue, the renown terraces.  We will have more on the Banaue Rice Terraces in the succeeding part, meantime, enjoy the following.

Upon reaching Sagada, I was amazed at what I saw. The place was very cold and you could never see a single bahay-kubo (the one made of nipa hut and bamboo). One thing I had observed was that they utilize galvanized iron (other wise known as corrugated iron)  as walls for their houses. Their houses usually have second floors. The first floor is concrete and the second floor is covered with galvanized iron, just like the ones below.

I PERSONALLY TOOK THESE TWO PHOTOS USING MY BLACKBERRY JUST SO I CAN SHOW YOU.

As we were trying to play catch-up-with-time, immediately upon arrival, we were ready to explore the major attractions of Sagada. We had to register first at the Municipal Information Center as this poster conveys. 

The Mother Nature is a huge thing for the people of Sagada. In this predominantly Christian town, remnants of animistic beliefs still abound. According to Wikipedia, animism is the "belief that non-human entities are spritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life principle". We will have more of that later on. 

So, we trudged on to our first real adventure in this mystic town. Our first stop is Sumaguing Cave. I remember myself asking the name of the cave so many times so that I wouldn't forget it. We were briefe as to how to conduct ourselves as we journey to the bowels of the cave. We had to wear only slippers as some parts of the cave were slippery. The cave is home to several bat species so one needs to be very careful lest one gets himself hit by bats in flight. 

THE CAVERNOUS ENTRANCE TO THE CAVE

As you can see, we survived Sumaguing. Next stop was the burial site. I simply call it a burial site but it's not a burial site in a real sense of the word. This is where some of the coffins of their long-lost ancestor  following an old funeral ritual that is uniquely Sagadan. This is another part of the same cave system located opposite of the main cave entrance. This is where some of the "hanging coffins" are located. 

These are just a few of the coffins

If you notice, the coffins are way shorter than normal. We asked our guide if they are for children. The answer is no. The dead remains are in fetal position, that's why. It is part of the animistic belief. A human being is born in that position. When his spirit returns to Mother Nature, he must be on the same position as when he was born. More on the  hanging coffins later. 

That night we ate at a local restaurant. The owner was Bisaya, who is already married to someone local to the area. As expected we found their their vegetable dishes so fresh. Chode tried their pinikpikan, a local dish prepared by beating a live chicken with a stick prior to cooking. We tried its pinikpikan soup but the salty taste left something to be desired. Well pinikpikan must be salty as the chicken is immersed in a salt solution first before cooking. Unfortunately, we were not able to take photos. The outside was very cold that we had to head back to our foster home immediately. 

 Early the next day, we ate breakfast at the house we were staying. Our itinerary that day would take us to the Echo Valley, the Hanging coffins, underground river and the smaller falls. I can't remember the name of the falls. All I know is that there is a bigger falls called Bomod-ok Falls and a smaller one. We only got to visit the smaller falls. We enjoyed the breath-taking view of the town from atop of the hill we were climbing.

 This is a picture of an Episcoplian Church. The town of the Sagada is predominantly Episcopalian. The town was never penetrated by Catholic missionaries during the Spanish period. An American missionary, Charles Henry Brent, seeing that Catholicism had long been established in most areas, mentioned that "we were not building an altar over and against another altar".

This is across the Echo Valley. The valley is so named for the simple fact that when you shout you would hear voice coming back and forth as echoes. From this vantage point you can also see some of the hanging coffins but we would be coming closer. 

These are the actual "hanging coffins". Notice their names. As you can see, the newer coffins are quite easy to spot. They are usually longer than the older coffins. The remains are no longer positioned like a fetus and the coffins being used look just like the normal coffins. If one has to be buried in the traditional way, his reamins would be seated on a death chair (notice the chairs attached to some of the older coffins). This would ensure that one's remains would easily fit into the coffin in fetal position. The traditional coffin are usually made of carved pine hardwood as one can see. I would also like to share some anecdotes our tour guide shared with us during the tour. In the whole of Philippines only the Sagadans have  this practice of hanging their coffins. There are different burial sites for different kinds of deaths. These ones featured here are deaths under natural or old age causes. Deaths caused by calamities or diseases are separated as they are considered unclean. Remains of children are normally buried near the vicinity of their houses as they still need the guidance of their parents, our tour guide explains. 

Somewhere on the side of this cliff,  the oldest coffin is located. Until now, they are still wondering how the earlier Sagadans could have put the coffins on the that cliff. The usual material for scaffolding is a bamboo tree. The location of the coffin is  higher than the tallest mature bamboo. According to our guide, there is also a group of people in Sichuan, China that practice the same. According to my research they are the Bo people of Gongxian County. The people in Gongxian are also having the same dilemma according to our tour guide. Unlike the native Sagadans though, the Bo people have long been lost from the pages of civilization.

This one is a tree fern. It is now in danger of becoming extinct in Sagada but I still see a lot of these in the mountains of Valencia, Negros Oriental. People normally use the stalk for fences due to its durability. The leaves are good for ornaments too. 

So I created another video presentation of our travails from this point on until the falls. We visited first the underground river then proceeded to the falls. We took a dip on the iced-cold falls. So enjoy the video. 

As you can see on the pictures, Sagada is characterized by huge rock formations. Our tour guided offered the information that the place was previously submerged underwater. In some areas one may notice fossilized rocks in the form of aquatic plant and animal life. 

There are still a lot of things that we have yet to try in Sagada. One of them is there coffee, called Cafe Alamid or civet cat coffee. It is made of coffee seeds collected from the droppings of civet cat (though they are not really cats in the real sense of the word as they are more related to mongoose). BBC reported that they are normally seen as "pests and are hunted down for their meat". Click here for the full report. That was just unfortunate that we were under time constraint that we were not able to try this coffee. A cup of Cafe Alamid costs around P200.00 but it's well worth it. If one could spend that much for a grande or a venti in a huge multi-national coffee chain, Starbucks, why not contribute to a local industry like this one. 

Let me show you a t-shirt design for Sagada souvenirs showing them one of their symbols--the lizard. Lizard is actually a symbol of longevity. One would not miss the lizard design on the t-shirt. Won't it be nice to sport a nice lizard tattoo?

Finally I would like to share some insights I have about Sagada and its people. For one the people speak the English language with finesse. And, this is not just my own observation. I overheard one British national asking an old lady about "why people here speak very good English". Then she replied in English, which was totally effortless, without any trace of accent whatsoever.

Moreover, I noticed how they use the word "kami" or "namin" when referring to their beliefs and ancestry. Both words denote ownership. Every time they use the words, it seems like they are sending a strong message of ownership. It seems like they don't hesitate to embrace their heritage.  To me it's like they are not just bound to the place but to everything that is Sagada, even to its distant past--ancestry, history, culture, beliefs and practices.

I just admire these people for the pride that they have in their place and the way they protect their ancestry. We learned that they would rather lease their land rather then sell it to outsiders. If one would think if selling his land, he has to ask permission from the whole community. This is to ensure that their ancestral lands are preserved for posterity.