Hanging Coffins and Caving in Sagada

Sagada is a backpacker town high up in the mountains. I’d heard great things about it, and when I arrived, I could feel a difference in the atmosphere. Very relaxed, friendly place. A good vibe, if you will. I spent the next few days doing assorted tours around the town.

Sagada is actually very organized when it comes to tours. You go to the tourist information center, pick a tour, and they assign a guide to you. What a delightful change than the usual chaos from desperate wannabe tour guides on the street! We were assigned Keith, a 19 year old local boy. My group included Rahima, the French woman Francoise from Batad (who we ran into on the street when we arrived in Sagada), an English guy in our guesthouse, Alex, and four Lithuanians, surprisingly enough.

The short hike took us through Echo Valley (named for obvious reasons) where there are coffins suspended from the cliff sides. Some are over a century old, and some are only a few decades old. Keith told us that before there was a town cemetery, there was nowhere to put the bodies, so that’s why the coffins were on the mountain. And because it “made them happy to be there.” It was an interesting sight, especially since there were a few chairs attached to the coffins. Keith said those chairs were the deceased’s favorite chair, and according to tradition, the deceased was actually propped up in that chair for a time so that the family and friends could visit and mourn properly. He asked me if I had a favorite chair, but I really don’t think Dad’s Laz-E-Boy would look quite right on the cliff side.

After the valley we walked through an low, open cave with a river running through it. It was very cool inside, so nobody wanted to go back into the sun! The last place was a small waterfall. Several local families were playing in the water, and I convinced Alex to go leap off the small rock jump with me. The water was so cold, but very refreshing. We played around for a while before heading back to town for

some food.

Now let’s talk about food in Sagada. For some reason, Sagada was really into baked goods. Sure, I went to the bakery in El Nido al the time, but it was simple breaded items with a bit of sugar most of the time. Sagada had chocolate cake (the real kind!) and lemon pie and chocolate chip cookies! Yes, I ate all of them, and I enjoyed every bite!

The second tour the next day was a longer walking tour that took us to the Big Waterfall. The walk itself was about 8km to the falls alone. Tiring! Our group had changed a bit. Rahima, Francoise, and Alex were

still there, but we’d lost the Lithuanians and gained two more French. Alex and I had to stick together because otherwise we got lost in a sea of French! One of the best parts about doing this hiking was Francoise. The woman is almost 60 years old, and she’s been traveling mostly on her own for over 20 years. Sometimes I really don’t understand how she’s done it, because the lady is a wee bit crazy. She’s oblivious to most things, has vertigo (why is she in the mountains then?), and an extreme phobia of dogs. Let’s face the fact that this is Asia – stray dogs are everywhere! She was a one–woman show, muttering to herself in French and in English, and scooting on her behind down the “steep” parts. She accepted a hand now and then, but became very indignant if you questioned whether she could do it or not!

The path took us on a beautiful route down and across some rice terraces.The path was more crowded than before, so I assumed we were heading to the big thing…and I was right. The big waterfalls were 10 times better than the small. You could climb/crawl across the rocks to stand under the falls themselves, and jump off a much higher place! Of course I wanted to do both! Here’s a video of Alex and I jumping. It took me seriously about 10 minutes to hoist myself up the falls and around to that rock.

The walk back to town was much more tiring...so many steps to go up! When we arrived in to

wn, there was a procession lining up. Women were dressed in native skirts, matching t-shirts, and had bowls of fruit balancing on their heads. I wondered what was going on and then I saw several priests. Two of them were white, so I asked them. Turns out there was a synod for the Episcopalian church, and people fro mall over the area met in Sagada for three days, including the two white guys from England and Australia. They led the procession in singing hymns. I ate a piece of lemon pie while I watched them go by.

The last tour was the cave connection, which connects Lumiang and Sumaging Caves, and it was by far the coolest thing I've done in a while. This time, only Alex, the French guy Sasha, and I did it. The girls were iffy, and we had to convince Francoise this was probably not the best thing for her! She conceded, if grudgingly, that it might be beyond her capabilities. The entrance to the cave was filled with coffins in a very eerie manner. Some had fallen down from their perch and had burst open. You could see bones inside some, and there was a skull and bone just sitting on the rock below. I opted not to pick it up like others

did...I don't need any bad juju! Some of these coffins are hundreds of years old, and unfortunately many were vandalized by nursing students who wanted to study the bones. Here's a pic of our group in front of the coffins.

The cave immediately narrowed down to a crawling space. We had to use ropes in several places to lower our bodies or pull them up. Our guide Keith joined us up with another guide and his two Filipino guests, so we had two big lanterns (in addition to my head lamp) to light the way. The guides were really great about helping us down the tight spots, telling us where to put our feet, and sometimes letting us use them as a human ladder. It was a strange cave...it really didn't have the stalactites and stalagmites that I'm used to seeing. It was mostly just rock and boulders. I think it's because the cave still floods with water in the rainy season and can be quite dangerous.

Once we entered into the second cave, we began to see more interesting rock formations. At one point, we all took off our shoes and did the next 20 minutes barefooted because it was a different sort of rock where your feet would just stick instead of sliding around. It gave me a very Spider Man-like feeling to be able to shimmy up rocks without a hitch! Other parts had us wading through waist deep water. It was at those moments that I felt like I was living on the set of "Lord of the Rings"...I kept expecting to see Golem! So spooky down there! At last we emerged, in one piece, if just a little bit dirty.

We celebrated the last night by drinking a bad-decision persimmon fruit wine...hello headache.