sagada: sumaguing cave

sagada burial cave

The Sagada Burial Caves is an ancient burial ground full of coffins piled one on top of the other and can be found at the entrance of Lumiang Cave (the start point of the 4-hour cave connection trekking where the exit is the Sumaguing Cave).  Unfortunately, some tourist found a liking to getting some 'souvenirs' from these coffins hence the warning sign you see in the last photo.

sagada

If there is one place you should visit in the Philippines, that is Sagada. You have to at least go and see this place and natural wonders it can offer.  Sagada is a 5th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, and is located 275km north of Manila.


There are two ways to travel to Sagada from Manila: (1) via Baguio route or (2) via Banawe-Bontoc.  I prefer the the second route because for me it is a much faster route and going back to Manila you can choose to have a side trip to Baguio and get to travel the whole cordilleras region just like what i did. :)

The place is so laid back and the climate is soooo nice. Sagada is 140km away from Baguio but it is much cooler here than in Baguio. The crops are like those of Baguio and Benguet: cabbage, tomatoes, green pepper, potatoes, carrots, beans, and other temperate products.  But they have a special Arabica coffee as well.  And they have rice terraces in Sagada to, though the terraces in Sagada are smaller than the Banawe rice terraces.

According to our guide, Sagada used to be submerged in water hence the abundant limestone mountains at Sagada, kinda hard to believe considering how high is this place but you have to because how else would there be limestones without water right? Also if you look closely in the above photo there are "hanging coffins" in this limestone which is also one of the famous tourist attraction in Sagada.

Sagada is famous for its hanging coffins and burial caves. This was a traditional way of burying people that is not being practiced anymore. But the photo above is the burial cave, you can found this hundreds year old coffins at Lumiang Cave entrance. 

A peek inside Sumaguing Cave. I will post more pictures inside Sumaguing Cave in the next few days.  Spelunking is one of the popular activities in Sagada and doing the cave connection Sumaguing-Lumiang Caves really requires that you are in good health, tiring but definitely worth it. 

Sagada has many natural wonders. Backpackers and tourists can enjoy spelunking, rappeling, trekking, seeing the Bokong and Bomod-ok Falls (which unfortunately i havent got a chance to see when i visited Sagada, but there's still next time hehehe). 

A street in Sagada, the red "house" is actually a Sagada weaving house.

Sagada Church

Sagada Hospital

Sagada was also featured on a local film Don't Give Up on Us.