It’s just hard to imagine that this place was once submerged in water. Rocks that were once in the abyss of the ocean seemed to have risen as the waters disappeared; a mountain is born. This lovely place located in Mountain Province—Sagada—now exhales, after a billion years, cool and crisp air to visitors who come from all corners, mostly, from the lowlands.
After letting the hours slip by inside a bus or a private vehicle and filling your eyes with the green spectacle of terraces that seem to reach the sky; Sagada is another treasure that unfolds in front you in full resplendence, without pretensions. Walking along the streets you’ll find the locals getting by with their lives. Here you can find rows of restaurants and stores offering native fare like pinikpikan (a live chicken that is beaten before it is cooked) and tapuy (local ricewine) together with food with western flavors like hamburgers and fries. But really, do you want your hamburgers and fries when you are already here?
Activities like caving and spelunking guarantee that there will be no dull moments as you explore the vast network of caves in the Sagada underground. Add that to trekking and mountain climbing and you get a picture of engaging activities available for the right rush of adrenalin. Sights of hanging coffins will astound you with how tradition literally and precariously hangs in the balance of things.
Though this place has acknowledged its tourism potential, there seems to be a presence that glides through the streets and alley that refuses to be monetized. And it is this spirit that gives Sagada a touch of the fantastic mystic, a fermented blend that pervades through the ages aided by nature and culture. There is just this sense of harmony with the way the locals make way for visitors, vice-versa. Their roots are very much intact with the ground they step upon. There are no fast food restaurants that will provide instant gratification. No heavy partying and the noise that comes with it because of the curfew that strikes at 9 pm.
It is a backpacker’s dream destination come true and an essential itinerary for the near-to-purist traveler. For the spirit of this place does not rely on commercial conventions to make it a tourist destination. It has a tradition of its own, and it does not plan on trading it away to make way for the changes wrought by the pressures of commercialization.
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