FALLING IN LOVE IN SAGADA (Day 1)

posted from my FB account May 5, 2010 

They say love comes when you least expect it.
Cliche! That's what it was for me before I came to explore Sagada.Though one of my all time favorite tagalog movies was shot in Sagada I have never pictured this place as romantic.

Scenic for its lush green rice terraces, panoramic in its abundance of pine trees and picturesque for its mountainous surroundings, that’s how I imagined this paradise.

As the itinerary prepared for us by Ms. Jen of Explore Island Philippines spelled of big ADVENTURE, I have never expected to fall in love with Sagada, atleast not in the same way I fell in love with the romantic Vigan and Laoag.

Six hours of spelunking on our first day, with hardly a clue as to what to expect, my friends – in alphabetical order, Abi, Aiza, Annie, Baby, Charm, Ellen, Marie, Pia, Radney and I braved the Lumiang or burial cave and Sumaguing cave.

Excitement was all over our faces as we started our hike downhill to the entrance of the Lumiang cave.

Each step heightened our sense of thrill and uncertainty all at the same time. Thrill as this will be our first taste of spelunking, with the exception of Annie and uncertainty because we honestly didn’t know if we made the right judgment in joining this quest.

After a short account of how their ancestor buried their dead and a safety briefing, Gareth, the lead of guide - with his occasional jokes managed to calm down our chaotic emotion.

One by one the guides who will not only escort us inside the cave but will also be our rope and our HOPE, our ladder and our BROTHER and the LIGHT that will lead us out of the cave safe and in one piece was introduced to us.

Drew, Clyde, Clement, Jeff, John, William and Sylvester of SAGGAS (Sagada Genuine Guides Association) were our guide-and-angels whose extended helping hands, shoulders and legs became an extension of every rock that provides extra step where there is one missing.

As the trudge to the unknown began every gaps, cracks and hole became visible and every corner that comes in contact with the light emitted by the lanterns revealed of art in its natural form.

My friends along with at least a hundred other adventurers bare witness to the magnificence hidden in the cave.

I will try but I don’t think I’ll ever give justice describing how beautiful it was down there. Words will never be enough in this attempt to relive what we experienced and what we survived.

As we start slithering our way into small openings we never thought we would fit in and as we rappel down a 12-feet gap where only one people can squeeze in, our respect for our guides began mounting the same way our admiration for the beauty of the cave builds up.

But it was not all small cracks and hole down there. I was amazed every time we’d end up in vast ballroom like area after coming out of a tiny gap in the boulder of rock.

The temperature was cold in the dry and damp areas but an hour or two later it was icy and freezing yet bearable as we progress deeper into the cave. Another hour later we came into contact with the ice cold water as we near the Sumaguing cave.

The adventure itself fired us up and gave us energy we wouldn’t imagine we’d still have in the absence of a decent meal but the bitter cold water awakened our senses all the more. It was like a brain freeze except that it was in our feet.

After a 45-minute rest in one of the cavernous areas Drew announced that we will be gliding our way down the slope using our butts instead of the rope. 

By this time we completely entrusted our lives to them but I can't help but ask why we  wont use the rope when the group before us did?

The answer got us to the bottom of the slope in less than two minutes while the group ahead of us took almost an hour.

This earned us an applaud from our guides and we were awarded the title “best group” to which we are proud of even if we know they’ve awarded this same title to all the groups they’ve guided before.

As we cross the boundary for Sumaguing in the region where the spelunkers from Lumiang merges with the spelunkers from Sumaguing a spectacular site awaits us.

The crystal clear water that runs through the limestone formations in sparkling amber, the golden glow of the lanterns in procession and the parade of colors represented by the hundreds of tourists in that cave was absolutely breathtaking.

Suddenly, all our physical exhaustion was forgotten.

Everybody just went gaga as each group took turns for a photo-op with the formations resembling of miniature rice terraces, giant mushroom and giant chocolate cake, a curtain and so on....

What we experienced next was the toughest challenge my friends and I ever came face to face with: the highlight of the Sumaguing – the secret cave!

At this point of the journey, for once – we were given the choice to proceed or not to proceed.

Being the brave souls that we are and after what we’ve been through for the last four hours, we thought why not! We may never try spelunking ever again, we might as well make the most out of this journey.

By now we already have an idea of what to expect: a chest deep pool of water where we are required to submerge to get to where we should be next.

With the exception of Abi and Baby, we await our turn for the death-defying stunt in silent prayer.

For the second time since I entered these caves, I asked myself the why I ever tried this. I have no idea what my friends are thinking but somehow I have a feeling that they were asking themselves the same question.

This portion of the cave proved to be the most challenging of all for only here did I hear my friends SCREAMING!

First to cross the devious crevice was Aiza who screamed her way to safety non-stop.

Next in line was me. If Aiza with her long legs had trouble crossing the tricky surface, what will become of me? How will my short legs and short arms manage?

My ears did the trick. I listened intently the way I’ve never listened to anyone in my whole life. I could only hear kuya Jeff’s instruction and nothing else. In no time I reached the end of the rope in quiet terror.

As soon as I jumped into the chest deep water I started shaking. Though I thought of waiting for Charm, I couldn’t stand the freezing water so I scampered to higher ground where I witness how she “splak” and almost fell at the bottom where our guide-and-angels say there is a deep hole.

It was a scary site: flat on her stomach, leg spread like a frog kuya Jeff struggled to stop her from sliding all the way down and brought her back to her feet. All these time I was afraid for her but Charm wasn’t. She was even trying to convince our guide to let her swim instead but kuya for her own safety did not allow her.

After Charm, I no longer have the courage to watch Marie, Annie, Pia, Ellen and Radney go through the same stunt and so we waited for them in a corner where we can still hear them screaming.

After the perilous secret cave everything else was chicken for us and so we thought, until we reach the final stage where we are to climb a steep slope of approximately of 120 degrees. But climb we did not as we literally crawled our way up and held on to the surface full of bat poops for our dear lives.

We were literally romancing the bat poops as we pressed our whole body (and soul) so we can all go home.

Who said bat poops are yucky? It is not! Not when you still want to explore and discover the rest of SAGADA.