Note for fellow travelers: Even the locals could not believe the 4-hour wait for the "first trip" van to "leave-when-full" from Bitalag. From 8:00 am onward, the van driver kept saying we were waiting for 14 people total, but eventually left at noon with just 9 of us total. And he tried to get us tourists and a local woman who worked at a resort in Cervantes, to pay for the empty seats. Oh my.
Sagada 1472 m.a.s.l. is popular with Filipino tourists. While we enjoyed the cool weather, I disliked the town even more than I had expected. Everyone in town was there to gouge tourists without a trace of hospitality. Our guesthouse, while very clean, charged for drinking water, when all the other places we stayed in the Philippines provided all the water we could drink. The village tourism office charges a head tax, but to actually see/visit anything you'd have to hire a guide, maybe a car. Restaurants charge double-the-normal prices. Our bus ticket out of town was very inflated. None of these is a huge amount, but really left a bad taste. Sagada may just be my least favorite place to visit in PH.
So, we walked around on the roads by ourselves, not venturing near anything that's considered an attraction. A major draw for Sagada is the hanging coffins, a practice is also known to exist in China. We also came across rice gods and village granaries, though they looked to be reconstructed or possibly they were just "modern artistic " versions. There were also some rice terraces, even though Sagada is not really known for them.
The mighty, shiny, Partas Bus preparing to pull out of Vigan at 6:00 am sharp.
Sunrise Over the Cordillera
Selected moments from our 4-hour wait in Bitalag for the UVExpress van to fill up.
Up Into the Mountains on our way to Cervantes. See the curve in the road at lower left.
The van passes an Itinerant Plastic Basket(?) Seller (and family?)
Down into a mountain valley with rice paddies.
Our Bus Driver on the bus towards Bontoc - we will get off at Sagada Junction.
Waiting a Sagada Junction for the Jeepney. "Welcome to Sagada".
In the jeepney.
The view from Isablo Inn, our home in Sagada.
On our only full day in Sagada we walked south past the Hanging Coffins (2nd below) to Gaia Cafe, which has a rice terrace view, for lunch.
On the return home, we took a route through the nearby villages. Most of the houses had a big water tank and a small or large vegetable garden.
Grainary with Grainary God at left.
On our 2nd day we had a 2pm bus to catch but we were able to walk north in the morning to the Aguid Village Rice Terraces and back. There are many pine trees (3rd below) at the higher elevations.
As vegetarian food was hard to find in Sagada, we ate pancakes several times.
Tourist Map of Sagada
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