Sagada

I've been in Sagada for over a week now; the longest place I've stayed since I started my journey. I've started some of the editing for the video. However since the shooting there's not much to do. Instead I've spent the weekend exploring the area.

Sagada is a small mountain village. It's supposed to be a backpackers haven and at certain times of year tourists outnumber locals. Although slowly more tourists are filtering in, I still don't believe that. However the typhoons have had caused a decline in tourism.

It's nearing the end of the rainy season, but it hasn't rained since I've arrived. Apparently after typhoons there's really nice weather. It cools down very quickly at nights. This is the first place I need to carry a sweater with me. The sun sets around 6 pm, and gets very dark since there's no street lights, so I also have to carry a flashlight when I go out for dinner.

There's not much of a nightlife in the town, since there's a curfew at 9 pm. All the restaurants and stores close by this time. And the ladies brigade (who are the older women in the community) makes the rounds to ensure everyone gets home. I've only been out late enough to witness this in the neighbouring town where curfew was at 10 pm.

Instead I've been taking in the nature while I'm here. There's a lot of hiking and caving to do in Sagada. I opted to the cave connection which is the most difficult option. I wanted to get the full cave experience. I spent four hours underground crawling though bat poop and clinging to rocks for dear life. There were a couple of times I wanted to give up although there was no going back only through. Every time I started to feel comfortable and couldn't imagine how it could get any more challenging, it did. At one time I had to climb along the side of a rock and could barely see where I was supposed to put my feet. Luckily my guide was amazing, and many times would act as a ladder, telling me to step on his knee or shoulder so that I could get to the next foothold. My guide described my caving skills as like teaching a two year old to climb stairs. I guess he wasn't too impressed.

Me and my caving buddy in front of limestone rock that looked like curtains.

The limestone formations were amazing to see and well worth the effort. But it will be awhile before I recover and go into a cave again.