Sagada Things to Do

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Everytime I hear adventure, the Sumaguing Cave would always come first thing on my mind. I really conquered all my fears in this cave. Just upon entrance you will have to climb down on a steep rock formations for 5 mins. in a sitting position using your hands and your butt, yes you read it correctly. Any mistake you can slip and fall down and I can't imagine falling down coz I'll have to drag all of of my10 companions in front of me. Just imagine the rocks are sharp, wet and slippery due to bat droppings. Inside you will be amazed by the large chambers cathedrals and smooth rock formations. But wait that is just the entrance. We still have to climb again, crawl backwards or on our stomachs, hang, rappel, be carried by our guides, jump and swim to get around the cave.

-Included in the pay for spelunking, asked our guide to bring us to Lumiang Burial Cave.
-Traditional belief that the dead are better buried above ground since this allows their souls to freely wander near loved ones.
-Sagada is famous for their hanging coffins.
-About 30 minute walk if you will come from the Town Proper.

Have a taste of their local food. It is actually a smoked salted pork and they usually use this as part of their local cooking. They sometimes add this to some viands like Pinikpikan, Stew and chopsuey (there could be more)

The municipal hall has a travel desk where you can arrange the trip that you want. Considering the age of our group and being there the first time, the trip where we go through the Sagada cave was suggested for us. We were given 2 guides and the package cost P400 per person. Bringing a large backpack is not advisable since it could just get into the way. At the mouth of the cave, you can see the hanging coffins, and so begins our journey. It's a 2hour trek of going through narrow boulders, climbing rocks, rapelling down, crawling with your butts, stretching arms as far as you would. In short, it was a total workout. The best footwear, I think would be Crocs. Flip flops would do but it twists off your feet when the trail gets slippery. One of the foreigners who joined us was wearing hiking shoes, but she didn't seem to have a hard time with it. But there are wet areas which we had to go through, so she keeps on taking them off and putting them on afterwards. When you get out, there's a small store waiting for the hungry hikers. They also have a wash area, but you have to pay for its use.

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It is also known as "the big cave" in Sagada. It is the cave we exited during our cave connection challenge.There's a concrete stair way leading to the cave entrance starting from the road. Like the Lumiang cave, you can visit this cave by normal caving if you are not courageous enough to try the challenge. You also need to a guide in exploring this cave. The guide will show you the different forms of the cave rock formation if you didn't notice it yet like the queen, princess, king, prince, turtle, chocolate cake, pig pen, etc. Some are really humorous. There's a part of the cave where you need to rappel down a rock wall barefooted because it's slippery. There's water everywhere, I love it like a waterfall and it looks very refreshing to swim but i didn't because I am cold. It's tempting though because the water is fresh and crystal clear. The palatial curtain is the best rock formation for me with a narrow pool. I also found out that there are fossilized sea shell on the lower part of the cave. Sagada is located on the Mountain province so the entire Philippine archipelago was once submerge to sea water.

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Tourists usually visit Sagada not only because of its natural beauty but because of its famous caves and 2 of which are the Lumiang cave(Burial Cave) and the Sumaging cave. These 2 caves are connected to each other actually that is why they have this tour called cave connection. This challenge is not for the faint of heart because no safety equipment provided to us. If you hate darkness, bats and claustrophobic then just do the normal caving. Your only source of light is a gas lanter.
We entered at Lumiang cave then exied to Sumaging cave. We thought it was easy but it was the most thrilling, nerve racking and dangerous adventure I ever had. I can’t believe that I made it until the end. It took us 3.5 hours to finish the challenge. Both caves offers different attraction. The hanging coffins at the main entrance of Lumiang cave is just an appetizer and from there we started our descent for more than 100 feet passing through small passage. Aside from walking, we also did rappelling, climbing, embracing rocks, sliding down using your butt, going down high walls until we reached the part where different kinds of rock formations are located which are part of the Sumaging cave. Just be careful on this challenge because it's really dangerous, don't be on a hurry take it slowly and carefully. Watch what you touch and where you put your feet. Don't think that some pot holes are shallow because there are some which are bottomless pit. Your guide will take good care of you just listen. We went there only with shorts and no gloves etc but we finished the challenge unscratched.
You shouldn’t miss this one if you really want an adventure but remember that you should have an average to high level of fitness for this job. A local guide is a must for this adventure because of its dangerous nature. P800 guide fee for two people. You can arrange a schedule to the Local tourism office located inside the town hall. I will never forget this one.

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It is the entry point of the cave connection challenge. But you can still visit this place without going through the challenge just the normal caving. Going to caves even just the normal one requires guide so coordinate with the tourism office for this tour for safety reasons. I just read things about this cave on textbooks before and its more thrilling to see it with my own eyes. The coffins were mounted on the cave entrance wall and some were already on the ground toppled down by earthquakes. You will see some bones as well. Some are scared but it's not scary. They look like coffins for children, they look small because the dead inside are in fetal position.

It is a one hour walk also on the road to Besao. We thought its near but no it's far. It's because I asked someone if we can go to the lake by walking and he said yes. Well, actually he answered right you can go there by walking. I should have ask him if its far :) We started at 4 PM. Don't go by walking you can ask for transportation at the tourism office. Nothing fancy about this one and not worth the long walk but you can do some picnic and camping here if you like and the sun set is really amazing.