Caving and Coffins

Rice terraces near Bontoc

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Waking up at Banaue View Inn to no view due to fog, we found that the mandi (bucket and ladle used for washing) was warm!  What a treat for us!  After packing (again) we met a jeepney that was going to Bontoc, where we would meet another jeepney bound for Sagada.  We climbed on board and waited.  We thought it left at 8:30, but that depended on whether or not it was full.  An American couple climbed on board and we chatted with them the whole way.  She was born in the Philippines, very handy to have someone around who knows the language!

The bus eventually left at about 10am and we had a bumpy windy 2 hour journey to Bontoc (P150 pp).  The views were pretty amazing though!  Rice terraces, steep cliffs and small towns hidden down valleys.  Bontoc was much bigger than we expected, but we didn't have time to see any of it as we jumped onto our second jeepney.   This trip was under an hour, but as bumpy as the previous one with the added bonus of dust.

Entrance to limestone cave

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After finding accommodation (Sagada Guest House P400) and eating lunch, we caught up with Evan and Val for a tour around some caves led by our guide Binky.  The first stop was a limestone cave that we crawled around in for over an hour.  It was very slippery in places, but bare feet did the trick.  In places the climbing was slightly difficult for the girls, but Binky was always there with a helping hand or two.

Cleaning guano off our hands (there was a small collection of bats in the cave) we jumped in our vehicle to our next stop, an walk downhill to another cave.  This one had coffins piled up in the entrance, some as recently added as 1986.  It is a tradition of the area that when you die you can choose to have your body left at the entrance of a cave, and you can even choose which cave entance you want to be left in.

Inside cave

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Another option for your body once you die is to have the coffin hung from a cliff.  We drove further down the road and Binky pointed off in the distance at some coffins just hanging there.  The downside with hanging coffins is that they get rained on, so you have to make your decision wisely.

We were dropped off back in town and Binky led us on a short walk to Echo Valley.  More hanging coffins can be viewed in this valley.  It is a beautiful and peaceful place but with steep drops to the valley below.  Sean broke the myth that a quack doesn't echo as his quack did!

The evening was spent with Evan and Val over dinner and a couple of beers, chatting about the US, NZ and the Philippines.  Sagada has a curfew of 9pm, left over from a military enforced curfew on European hippies during the 70s, and we had an early bus trip, so it was an early night.