Sumaguing Cave - Sagada, Mountain Province

A day of being a speleologist.. 

Spelunking is the exploration of caves for recreational purposes or just for fun. Spelunkers do not collect scientific data. Spelunkers are not trained in advanced cave exploration techniques. People who enter caves with the bare minimum of equipment are said to be spelunking. Spelunkers do not venture to depths beyond a 300 meters, or lengths beyond 2 kilometers. Once a spelunker gains some experience and training, he is said to be a "caver." And once a caver begins contributing to the cave science community by publishing articles, he is said to be a "speleologist.

Ingredients:

A few LONG walks and couple of LONG bus rides


Cooking Time:

From Manila take a bus going to Baguio - travel time 6 hours

From Baguio take a bus going to Sagada - another 6 hours

Nutritional  Facts:

There are two ways to get to Sagada from Manila: either you ride a bus going to Baguio or a bus going to Banaue.If you are coming from Baguio, the expected travel time is about 6 hours however, to set the proper expectation there are instances that your travel time may take longer  than 6 hours - like what happened to us.  We thought that it would only take 6 hours but it lasted for 10 hours. We had 2 stop overs but our bus had to take a different route as there were several rock slides at the time we visited Sagada. 


You may also take a Manila to Sagada route which will take about 9 hours which is faster compared to taking a Manila to Baguio then Baguio to Sagada route.  


We suggest that you take the early morning trips to Sagada since there's nothing much to see at night time as you will pass over not so well lit-landscapes.  

We had an overnight stay in 1 of the hotels in Baguio.  The next day, we went to Baguio's Dangwa bus terminal, took a local bus and left for Sagada (after lunch time).  Our travel time took longer than expected due to the weather condition which caused several rock slides along the way.  We enjoyed that 10-hour ride with Benguet's locals, their goats and chickens on board.. hehe  

We arrived in Sagada night time - past 7pm.  And looked for a place to have dinner and a place to stay and prep up for next day's spelunking.  We settled for Sagada's Igorot Inn for there was hardly any rooms available in all other accomodations.

We have been to Baguio several times already, but back in 2008 our main reason for visiting Baguio was to connect the trip to Sagada and the main reason why we were gunning for Sagada was to visit the that speacial place called "Sumaguing Cave."

Callao Cave - Tuguegarao City

Now, don't worry you're not the first and only person who asked "What is there to see in Tuguegarao anyway?!" And we suppose, you wouldn't be the last person who would hear our reply - "That's the exact point of going there." You have no idea what to see or if there's anything worth seeing, that's why you have to visit the place yourself.

So vacation leaves were filed and we started planning our trip to Tuguegarao - it wasn't easy, considering how far Manila is from Tuguegarao and we had to look after our expenses since it was a 1-week trip covering Tuguegarao, Ilocos Norte and Sur destinations. I wouldn't be surprised if you would have second thoughts of traveling to Tuguegarao - most people prefer going to destinations that have shorter "how to get there" list - you just get on a plane, ride a traysi, or a jeep, or a cab and you're there.

Nothing worth having comes easy and we thank Tuguegarao and its people for not failing to meet our expectations.


Ingredients:
Plane or Bus
Jeepney or Tricycle
Banca
Feet fit for 120 stair steps


Cooking Time:

• An hour plane ride from Manila to Tuguegarao (you may take a bus from Manila, travel time 10 hrs)

• From Tuguegarao airport, you may ride a tricycle or a jeepney taking you to the road that leads to Callao Cave Resort leading to the Pinakawan River - travel time is roughly 45 mins, to an hour (Php 35.00 per head)

• At Pinakawan River, ride a banca to get across the river to Callao Cave - less than 10 minutes (Php 40.00 per ride not per head)

• At drop off point, you will need to pay an entrance fee of Php 20.00/head and local kids will approach you asking you if you would want them as your tour guide.

Nutritional Facts:
Touring Callao Cave doesn't require a guide really you can go spelunking Callao cave without the fear or risk of falling into deep pits. But we suggest that you accept the offer from 1 of the local kids to be your guide. They are smart, ranging from 10-15 years old and most of them started at a young age of 3.  Most of them dropped out of school and decided to work as guides for tourists. They will tell you almost everything and anything about Callao, its people and the cave.

Wait till you see Tuguegarao airport's luggage carousel.. ahihihi

Pansit Cabagan - this is no ordinary pansit, there's just so many things going on with this pansit. From the airport, we hop into a traysi (there are no cabs in Tuguegarao, by the way) and asked the driver to take us to a food corner that serves Pansit Cabagan - we do not know the Ilocano dialect well, so lahat kami nagnosebleed, it was like "earth to manong driver" conversation..hehe. Note that, almost all Filipino food corners ("carinderia") in Tuguegarao serve pansit cabagan and each has its own secret ingredient making the taste a bit unique. Make sure to tell the driver to take you to the place known for the BEST served Pansit Cabagan in town. We tried to search for that 1 place serving the best cabagan but due to language barrier we just ended up with a randomly picked food corner which was not that bad at all. Now, we ordered 2 pansit cabagan and while we wait for our food, we noticed that almost all local customers are ordering cabagan - parang rice na hindi mawawala sa kainan. We absolutely had no idea what it tastes like. They eat Pansit Cabagan with chopped red onions and lots of calamansi. Pansit Cabagan is also called Batil Patung.


After our cabagan experience, we asked for directions on how to get to Callao cave - which turned out to be another nose bleeding moment. I just don't know what's wrong, I believe I did ask the right question and a simple one -"Paano po pumunta ng callao cave? Ano po sasakayan namin?" and they were like, "Huh? Callao??.." then, Ilocano terms were all over the place. That was a perfect situation where I could use the famous Rush Hour line - "Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth???" I mean, masakit sa ulo definitely... Despite that, we were able to get directions.. but it was a funny experience. All's well that ends well.