The Sagada Saga: Stopover at the Banaue Rice Terraces
And 5 months later... I'm finally back to blogging, still trying to finish up posts about my favorite trip of 2012 to the beauuuuutiful Sagada, Mountain Province. Before life got in the way, I only got around to posting about the food. So now, here's the rest of the trip. :)
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One long weekend last August (almost half a year ago.hihi), Jessa, Ria, Eliel and I, together with Jessa's childhood buddy McBeau and her boyfriend, Gjerico, traveled all the way to Sagada for the ultimate outdoor adventure of the year. We had so much fun, I'm really glad Jessa and Ria decided to fly in from Cebu for this, despite the storm warnings (thankfully, the storm never materialized and we only got a few rain showers here and there). But I'm getting ahead of myself.
On August 24, Friday night, we all met up somewhere in Makati with the rest of the tour group. Dexter of Anywhere Philippines was our travel guide for the entire weekend. We were the last group to be completed since we had to wait for Ria who came straight from the airport. Once she arrived, we split up into to vans and started the long drive to Sagada. But before that, we would be having a quick stopover at the Banaue Rice Terraces viewpoint.
After 11 hours and a couple of stopovers, we arrived at the postcard-famous Banaue Rice Terraces. I can't even explain the feeling of joy at finally seeing this masterpiece with my own eyes. It really is as amazing as they say it is. I can't imagine how the Ifugaos of two thousand years ago made these with their bare hands (and probably just a few tools). Wow.
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| The requisite
couple-shot
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| The Anywhere Philippines tour group |
The Bisaya group
(plus Gjerico, the honorary Bisaya!hehe)
It would take us another 2-3 hours to get to Sagada and this stopover only got us more excited.
What an amazing view to start a weekend of even more amazing views. :)
More in the next post!
Photos by Eliel Sarmiento, McBeau Babaan and Yza Urgel.
~o~
Read about the rest of our Sagada Saga here:
* Food Trip
* Stopover at the Banaue Rice Terraces
* Spelunking at Sumaguing Cave
* Power Trekking to Pongas Falls
* Hanging out with the Hanging Coffins at Echo Valley
xoxo,
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