Place Above Clouds

Feb 8 - It was two years (to the day) since I last visited Sagada. Today is my third time in this difficult to access charming town atop the mountain province. When they say it's the trip not the destination. They must mean Sagada. The road from Baguio to Sagada is abt 150 kms. That's six hours of sitting in a bus. But you will be in for a treat. I love the scenery in this route. You will see green ravines, twisting roads, lots of pine trees, clouds flowing on mountains.

You would pass by the highest point in the Phil. National Highway system at 7900 feet in Atok, Benguet. That is the house in the picture below.

You would see endless rice terraces. En route to Sabangan from Dantay, a river runs parallel to the scenic road. I tried to capture the beauty of this scenery through my phone's camera but I can't. The depth cannot be captured by any 2D image. But I keep on trying and keep on disappointing myself on the shot. There are only two stop overs, Mabaay in Mt. Province and Sayangan in Benguet. Mabaay is where you can see a spiffy Caltex service station in the middle of nowhere. Old women sell vegetables, peanuts, potatoes and other local delicacy like fish crackers (yes on top of the mountain). And people who look like Tibetans with babies strapped on them, would get on the bus. I notice people here have nice rosy cheeks. Upon reaching Sagada, the town may look ordinary but after a while you realize this is not your typrical small town. The weather is cooler. There are limestones strewn all over the town. There are coffins hanging on cliffs. There's a magical cave with amazing formations. The food is superb particluarly the greens. It is a charming quaint town with proud folks. And the locals speak in straight English. The waitress in Youghurt house told my friend, she can't take her sandwich out, as you can see it's open when my friend requested that the sandwich she ordered be packed. (She spoke with an accent reminiscent of British movies.) The local dialect is Kankana-ey, an Igorot dialect similar to Mandarin, one word can have different meanings depending on the tone. As I learned from my busmate, Anglican missionaries taught them to speak English. And as it turns out, mixing that kind of English and the Kankana-ey accent is In the boundary between Benguet and Mt Province,there is a town in the middle of a valley, Buguias. It's a bustling town with several service stations (signs of civilization for me) and banks in the town proper. Buguias is your first glimpse of civilization coming from Sagada en route to Baguio. Seeing the town from the top of the mountain is breath taking with the rice terraces, countless pine trees and a whole lotta trees surrounding the valley, seeing Buguias is a reminder that people actually live in this beautiful part of the country. Then after Buguias, you'll see another visual feast. Saclalan-Sagundoy Valley with huge masses of mountainside carved with rice terraces. That's to your left. After a few minutes, to your right, you will see the Sookan rice terraces. I tried to capture the beauty of this valley. But then again, I failed. Then there will be rice terraces again. Can you see the rice terraces or the bus conductor in the picture above? Then there's Natubleng, a barangay of Buguias with a mountain with different hues of green. It's like seeing a paint company's sales pitch on the color green. Add to that a little brown and the effect is like a postcard. The first time I went here in June 2006, I fell in love with the place. And when my friend Emee, invited me to go to Sagada after our friend's wedding in Baguio, I didn't have any second thoughts. I would gladly go this place over and over again. Even if it means getting stuck on a bus for 13 hours with just this in sight.....