Hello!
A quick thanks to everyone who has been keeping up with us! We are nearing the end of our first month of travel and are incredibly excited to continue this crazy adventure we are on. Of course, it goes without saying how much we miss our friends and family back in Canada! We hope everyone is doing well, and love love hearing from you :)
Okay, back to business. This last week and a half has been a busy one! As of now, Andrew and I are PADI certified divers! But I'll talk more about that on the next post. This post will be dedicated to our time spent up in northern Philippines.
After spending a couple nights in Manila, we jumped on a 9 hour night bus to a town called Banaue. At about 6am we arrived, groggy and stiff, to a rainy, but absolutely breath-taking view. Banaue, in the Northern part of Luzon, is based around mud-walled rice terraces created around 2000 years ago. Being that Banaue is a little touristy these days, we decided to head right up to an even smaller village called Batad. Andrew and I, along with our new friends we met on the night bus, Maaike and Anouk from Holland, and Val from Switzerland, got some breakfast and tea in our bellies, then hopped on a Jeepney. Now these roads are single lane type back roads on the very edge of a mountain. In the Philippines, there is no such thing as "single lane". Passing, weaving, and speeding doesn't seem to change outside of city limits. To add to the already sketchy roads, the rain had caused some major damage, so we were forced to stop for tractors and construction workers as they were fixing the roads. Although bumpy and at times scary, it was a fun ride up, with an awesome view! Now Batad is not actually reachable by car/Jeepney, so we were dropped off with about an hour hike to go. The way there was easy enough with our packs, because it was all down-hill. Coming back was a whole different story!! Anyways, we got there all in one piece and headed to Batad Pensionne House. This quiet little hostel is literally in the middle of the rice terraces. The view was unreal, and the air was fresh! We were greeted by a barking dog (whom Val later named Perksie) and tw sweet girls, Lisa and Gina. These two locals really took care of us during our two nights stay. These girls do ALL the cooking(the Mountain pizza is really something to try!)cleaning, etc for the hostel. With all their hard work, they still managed to sit down with us at night and learn how to play Crazy 8's! Out first day in Batad was pretty relaxed, the boys played Chinese Poker with a local at the hostel, our Dutch friends had s nap, and I went up to visit with some little ones. Thankfully I brought my camera and some Peso's for candy, because these kids were adorable! I took a couple pictures and then motioned for them to come over and look at them. Well,after that they were hooked! I had little hands, little noses, little eyes, all over the lens, just so curious as to what this "machine" could do. We played around for a while, one little boy took over as photographer, and then I headed up, with some very excited kids following, to buy candy! It was a really great way to spend the afternoon. Every one of them just as precious as the next.
Our second day we spent hiking through the rice terraces surrounding Batad, and then to the Tappia waterfalls. The falls were gorgeous. We got there, took off our shoes and sunbathed on the rocks. That night we met Maarten, also from Holland, so the 6 of us had some dinner, then played a few (some a little vicious) games of Spoons, Bullshit, and Crazy 8's. We may have been the loudest guests Batad Pensionne has seen in a while...yelling BULLSHIT and leaping across tables for that.last.damn.spoon!! It was a hilarious and ridiculously fun way to spend our last night in Batad. We were sad to say goodbye to our new friends, but will keep in touch, and maybe even meet again in El Nido!
The next morning(Sunday) we took the grueling up-hill hike with our heavy packs and the bumpy Jeepney ride back to Banaue. From here Andrew, Val, and I jumped on yet another Jeepney(this time for 3 hours)to bring us to another town called Sagada. This ride introduced us to Luke and Josh from Australia, and Chris from New Zealand. Sagada is a super chill mountain town, with a slightly isolated feel. Isolated in a good way! Being that it is 12 hours from Manila, there really arent a lot of tourists there. Its another place to get in some awesome hiking, which we did, see some crazy/creepy hanging coffins, which we saw, and explore the dark and mysterious caves, which we also did! I'll explain a little more on the hanging coffins thing. If you have Facebook, take a look at our pictures because we posted a couple of the coffins so you can get an idea of what they are. Some of these coffins are centuries old, while others were put there recently. Other coffins are actually embedded right into the caves surrounding Sagada. It is really something to see. There are mini coffins that we at first assumed were children, but we found out later they are actually adults in the fetal position. Being that you enter the world that way, they also believe you should exit the same. The whole concept of suspending a coffin, with a deceased person inside, is a little hard to grasp, but it's been done for years. I plan to research a little more into the reasoning.
We spent that evening chatting with our fellow travelers over some San Miguel(yes even I had one! Ok,I added a little sprite..but still!)and food! We didnt stay up late, as we were getting up at 600am to go caving! Googling this particular cave expedition ALMOST changed my mind...as we were told, it's not for the claustrophobic, and definitely for the courageous. Ummm..courageous?? Last time I checked that wasn't exactly one of the words I would use to describe myself. Andrew courageous? Most definitely. None-the-less, I geared up and got ready to face 3 hours 700 meters underground with the boys! It was a wicked morning!! We had 3 guides pick us up at our hostel at 630am, the begin our walk to the entrance of the first cave. These guides weren't exactly what you would call "professional" looking, but experienced would be a better word. After a few stops for them to buy cigarettes(uhhh??) and pick up the GAS lanterns that would be our light source(huh?!) we began our descent. We were scaling rocks, squeezing through holes(that's when being small came in handy!) and propelling down with ropes. Most of this we did barefoot to get a better grip (and one of the Aussies sandals broke, so the rest of the boys went barefoot with him). I kept my sandals to avoid bat poop, but eventually it was just easier without them! We stopped at the bottom for a swim, a cold swim!! The guides watched, smokes in hand. By the end of it we were muddy, soaked, hungry, and happy! It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Most definitely the most adventurous! Another pro is it was only about $10 to do it, haha! Being that you are pretty much thrown into an unknown cave, with no idea as to what you are going to be up against, to charge any more would be ludicrous. All in all, it was crazy and fun, and we would both do it all over again.
Aside from adventure, Sagada brought us the best homemade hot chocolate (real chunks of chocolate) and BEST homemade yogurt. Mmm, I would go back strictly for the yogurt. Thick creamy, and deeelicious! I think I'm drooling...
Well I hope I didn't leave anything out, if so I will be sure to fill you all in next time! It is Thursday evening here. Here being Sabang Beach, right outside of Puerto Galera. After going back to Banaue, catching the night bus to Manila, then another bus from there, we have spent the last 2 nights in Sabang Beach. As I said before we are now certified divers! We leave here after one more dive tomorrow morning to go back one last time to Manila. This will be a very exciting stop in Manila as Andrew and I are picking up my little sister Danni from the airport!!!! Dan is gonna spend our last 2 weeks in the Philippines with us! Safe travels Danni! We will be waiting with wide open arms!
Who else wants to come for a visit?!? Thailand anyone??
I'll post another quick blog possibly tomorrow evening to share our diving experience :)
A&C
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