SAGADA ADVENTURE PART i (Trekking)

May 31 - June 3, 2013

SAGADA ADVENTURE PART I
(Day 1 - Mt. Ampacao Trekking)

 "A lovely sight to see"
(got this picture from Mavic)

I always wanted to go to this place three years ago when I saw my team lead's post via facebook but I never had a chance. Luckily, my friend invited me to their outdoor get-away. Sagada is a MUST-see place! We traveled for almost thirteen hours from Cubao to Sagada, Mt. Province. Though it was tiring, but seeing such a beautiful place it's like winning a novel price.

For some of you who are planning to go to Sagada, below is our itinerary. Thanks to Rosa for all the detailed information.

Victory Liner fare from Cubao to Baguio = 450php
May 31 -
9:00 pm - ETD from Cubao to Baguio
June 1 - Day 1
3:00 am - ETA Baguio (ride a taxi/cab going to Bondoc terminal)
Since the first trip to Bondoc will start at 5:00 am, we decided to take our breakfast first.
5:00 am - ETD Rising Sun bus to Bondoc (Bus fare = 212php)
10:30 am - ETA Bondoc
From Bondoc, we rode a van going to Sagada
10:40 am - ETD from Bondoc to Sagada
11:30 am - ETA Sagada, Mt. Province
11:45 am - Check-in at Residential Inn
Room rates:
For three or more pax = 250/head
For two pax = 300/head
(Lunch)
1:00 pm - Registration site (We rented a van and tour guide for our trekking, & spelunking activities. That will be for three days).
1:30 pm - Start of our Trekking going to Mt. Ampucao
June 2 - Day 2
7:00 am - ETD going to Pongas falls (our van already took us at the jump off trail to Pongas falls)
10:00 am - ETA at Pongas falls
12:00 pm - Left Pongas (Lunch time)
1:30 pm - ETA at the entrance of Lumiang Cave (Kuya Kirky told us some stories first about the cave and gave us instructions that we should follow. It took us approximately 30 minutes.)
2:00 pm - Start of our spelunking adventure from Lumiang going to Sumaging Cave.
It took us 7 hours from Lumiang to Sumaging.
9:00 pm - we finally arrived at the entrance of Sumaging Cave.
June 3 - Day 3
5:00 am - ETD from Residential Inn to Kiltepan Peak (we didn't do any trekking because our van took us at the Kiltepan peak)
6:00 am - ETA Kiltepan peak.
We watched the sunrise!!! It was A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!
10:00 am - ETD Benguet to Baguio (Fare = 230 php)
4:15 pm - ETA at Baguio
4:30 pm - Buy pasalubong
6:20 pm - ETD from Baguio to Cubao

On our day 1, we met Kuya Kirky, our "pinaka-pogi-daw na tour guide". We're all thankful that our guide was nice, "kalog", funny and joker! We kept on laughing on his jokes. Anyway, you can see our trail going to the peak of Mt. Ampacao. Here's Kuya Kirky's contact number: 09081122647.

That's the lovely Mileah with her beautiful and sweetest smile

The weather was awesome. It was not humid so we enjoyed our trekking a lot. It was a bit cold but hardly noticed not until we reached the summit and all of us wore our jackets. We kept on praying that there will be no rain during our climb. We're lucky that our prayers were answered. You can see another pictures of our trail going to summit.

Rosa took a picture of Paeng and Eric. On the other hand, I took a picture of her.

More fogs please ha ha ha...

Now it's getting cold ...

Finally we reached the summit. Ooooppss ... can't see anything >.<

No one can stop us from climbing even without sleep, we were able to rise up our energy high and reached the summit of Mt. Ampacao. Hopefully, we can do this again and I'd love to go back to Sagada and exprience it one more time. Part II of Sagada contains our spelunking activities.

- Liz Lagasca