Sagada

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We are now in a town called Sagada. We arrived yesterday but didn’t get up to much other than eat food. There is a lovely restaurant called the Yoghurt House that serves delicious everything. We’ve found ourselves there for every meal. When we went to try somewhere else they had nothing on their menu available, so we left. We also went to the Lemon Pie House. Can you guess what they serve? Yep.. Lemon Pie!

After breakfast at the Yoghurt House we got ourselves a guide to tour the surroundings. We first got to see the hanging coffins. Due to natural reasons the bottoms have given out on them and the coffins no longer hold bodies. On the middle coffin you can see a skull. The purpose of suspending the casket from the mountain rocks is to bring the deceased closer to heaven.

After seeing this we went to Lumiang cave, also known as The Burial Cave. The Sagada Burial Caves is an ancient burial ground full of coffins piled on top of each other. The coffins are placed near the entrance of the cave so the spirits can come and go as they please. It is said that the oldest coffin is 600 years old, but no one knows which coffin it is. Some of the coffins have designs on them made by the deceased. When someone is no longer able to work in the field they can spend time wood carving. Some carve their own coffins. A lot of the coffins are very small. This is because the deceased is placed in a fetal position like in the womb, rather than laying straight.

The third part of the tour was a surprise. We thought we would just be going to an entrance of a cave, having a look and leaving. When we were told we were going to get wet up to our armpits we didn’t believe him. We entered Sumaguing cave with our guide who carried a gas lantern. Single file, we lowered ourselves into the cave, being careful not to slip. We took our sandals off and walked the rest in bare feet. The rock was surprisingly really grippy and easy to walk across. We climbed, we crawled, we ducked, and jumped. We repelled, we walked through water and we swam. We had a blast. The best part was we had no idea what we were in for! The tour exceeded our expectations, and our guide was really friendly and had a great sense of humor. We are glad we didn’t miss this!

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Photos

Limestone
It is said that this whole area was under water at one point

Coffins
They are put here by people climbing on scaffolding

The Queen
Pregnant woman, and her private parts