Best Birthday... so far :) Day 3

I didn't notice that I was never able to make an entry about my last day in Sagada this April. To refresh your memories, I spent my birthday weekend in Sagada as an independence/milestone trip. This was the first trip I did alone--no friends and family with me. I was a solo traveler! :) I met a lot of cool people, and I'm actually still in touch with a few of them until now. Patch was one of the people I met in this trip. It's so great how traveling can lead you to new friends. About three weeks ago, I went to Lucban which is a town in Quezon Province to attend the Pahiyas Festival. I'll make another entry about that soon :) Anyway, Patch also joined the tour group my brothers and friends signed up with (the same one that organized the Sagada trip and my Mt. Pulag climb--Travel Factor). This time, she was the solo traveler so we "adopted" her in our group. It was so fun! Okay, I'm veering off...Back to Sagada. Let's see.....

We woke up really early so that we could get a table at the Yogurt House for breakfast. Of course I was a bit slow due to my sprained ankle, so it took a while for me to prepare. You know, I really was a trooper and am quite proud of myself. I didn't want to miss anything for the remainder of the trip, so even if my ankle was hurting like hell I still joined the walking tour that day. And yeah, It was exactly my birthday on our last day! Even if I injured myself on this trip, I'd have to say this was the COOLEST birthday I've ever had. I'm hoping that next year I'll do something as cool, or something cooler for my 24th.

If you're planning on going to Sagada, you HAVE to eat at the Yogurt House. The food's sooooooo good!

The Yogurt House's version of Beef Tapa...I ♥ brown rice!

I forgot what this sandwich is called but my groupmate told me it was really good.


I should've ordered this one :|

Group shot!

Little boy on the street :)

I conquered Sagada! :)

Church of St. Mary the Virgin

The cemetery

Echo Valley

The Hanging Coffins (although you can't see them...too small in the picture)

Give your life the TRAVEL FACTOR! :)

Pasalubong shopping

Lunch at Lemon Pie House

Chicken Curry was good, according to Ila. I didn't order lunch because I was still full from breakfast. Gotta love the brown rice :)

The famous Lemon Pie...although I didn't like it that much :|

Here's to more adventures in life! I hope you guys enjoyed the pictures and were able to get a glimpse of Sagada :)

Best Birthday...so far :) Day 2

Finally posting about Day 2 of my Sagada trip. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I sprained my ankle while inside the Lumiang Cave. Stupid accident, really. It would've been more understandable if I sprained it while spelunking or while going down into the deep holes in the cave. But no! I stepped on an unstable rock and ended up breaking my fall and twisting my right ankle. Hurt like hell, good thing the guides were quick to respond and twisted it back in place and bandaged it. So basically, what we did on the second day was spend the entire morning until mid-afternoon INSIDE the cave no thanks to human traffic. It was a long holiday weekend so there were really a lot of people in Sagada. It was okay, considering there were just a few tour groups that actually did the difficult cave connection. Can't help but be proud :)

Basically, I'll be posting pictures of our trek to the cave, inside the cave, and my birthday "salubong", which is sort a party/get-together to wait for one's birthday and everyone will just shout "Happy Birthday!" at the strike of 12, although we weren't able to make it. We were all just so tired we drank a bit and decided to sleep...at 11:30!

I have more group pictures on the third day so watch out for that :) And lots of food pictures from that day as well, haha!

Our jeep

Coffins in the cave...the locals believe that people can choose where they are to be buried. Usually, women who've died giving birth are buried in caves' entrances. I forgot the complete explanation..

On our way to Lumiang Cave's entrance...

At the cave's entrance

Our group's "before" picture. We were still all clean and guano-free.

The coffins up-close

This is it! We're starting our spelunking deep into the cave

I have no idea where we were in this part of the cave, but I think we were already about...umm...less than 1/4 of the way. Haha! Keep in mind we were inside the cave for 6 1/2 hours!

Group shot again

We were in the "dance hall" of the cave. It's a huge flat area overlooking this deep drop (scary, I tell you!). But we could also see the bats above us. The cave's ceiling was so high and we could only see the bats' shadows from our flashlights. And we could hear them, so creepy.

After I tripped. Aaargh! And this happened before our 30 ft. rappel down. Bad timing.

...so instead of tying a rope around me and harnessing me down, the guide had a better idea. He carried me on his back and he rappelled down with me. Hahaha! I was so scared because if I accidentally let go, I'd either be dead or I would've suffered even more serious injuries. I think I almost choked him with how tight I was holding on, hahaha! And yes, someone was kind enough to take this very dignified picture of me, hahaha!

Although my ankle was really killing me, I tried to smile for the camera

For my birthday "salubong". Our travel consultant bought a bit of booze and snacks. Alas, we lasted only until 11:30 and had to go to sleep.

Tired, a bit buzzed, but I was very, very, very happy :)

Day 3 will be posted soon (hopefully). I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!