Sagada Part II

At around 2 or 3 AM, we sped down a dark and misty uphill road to chase a beautiful sunrise view on top of a mountain. There were no street lights but the driver was able to navigate with ease.

Jeremie and I sat in the front seat and had a conversation with the driver. He seemed to have a distinctly American accent for someone who grew up in Sagada.

Things I learned from him:

• There used to be a lot of hippies from the US who traveled to Sagada in the 70s.
• Most people in their community believed in animism. This is the belief that when people die, their spirits roam with them in this world.
• Non-locals can’t purchase property in Sagada. This is to ensure locals can own property in their own land. However, some outsiders purchase property through marriage. I haven’t, however, verified if this is accurate or not.

The place suddenly felt too crowded as soon as more vans arrived. It was getting really hard to move without bumping into people.

Disappointment came when we realized there was no sunrise since it was too cloudy.

Our next destination was to an orange farm to do some orange-picking. And in another stroke of bad luck, they ran out of oranges for people to pick.

Nothing seems to be going our way, so we decided to grab some breakfast and get the bad vibes out of our system.

Afterwards, it was time for a 2-hour morning hike.

We learned our lesson from the other day and got a guide from the information booth so we don’t get lost this time.

Wait for me guys! I think I might get an award for being the slowest hiker.

We reached the waterfalls. It was crowded with people so we didn’t go swimming and headed back to the starting point.

It was exhausting and sweltering, but we survived the hike.