Today we went straight to the tourist office to get ourselves two guides to go and explore Sagada. One was called Madrid the other Sam. We first took a hike to a cave with loads of coffins. They were made of wood and were actually quite small. They first put the dead person on a ‘death chair,’ then they paraded around him /her for five to six nights and eventually put the body in an embryo position and carry it to the coffin.
We learnt that there had been an earthquake in 1998 and all the coffins had fallen to the bottom of the cave and had to be recovered back to the top where we saw them. That is why there are lots of holes in them. We saw a skull peaking out of one!
We learnt that there had been an earthquake in 1998 and all the coffins had fallen to the bottom of the cave and had to be recovered back to the top where we saw them. That is why there are lots of holes in them. We saw a skull peaking out of one!
After this we went to the “Big Cave” where we had to hike down about 500m b
elow the surface. Manong Sam and Manong Madrid (Manong means “mister” in Tagalog) carried kerosene lanterns around the cave so we could see. Personally I think they were better than flashlights because you could see all around. There were some stones called limestone that were extremely slippery, and even more if they were wet. The cave was also quite smelly because bats had pooed on all the rocks and you had to keep putting your hands in it – yuk!!Half way down we had to take our shoes off and go bare feet down into the darkness. A few minutes later we also had to take a rope down a steep piece of sandstone called “the Kings Curtains”. Here is a picture.
After that we took a path leading to a small place 
where you had to duck really low to squeeze through and not bump your head. This was the exciting part because (1) we had to climb a rope going across an underground pool and my mum fell in (2) we waded through some deep water – it was up to my chest (3) Euan fell into another deep pool of water and had to swim to the edge!
After that we had to take a steep hike back up to the top of the cave and went for lunch.
In the afternoon we went to the Small Falls and gosh they really were small – I reckon the tallest one was about 3m high. We jumped off a few cliffs into the pool and had lots of fun playing about in the water.
In the evening we went to Lake Datum to watch the sunset but it was too cloudy so we left early and went back to Rock Inn to toast some marshmallows over the fire. It was an amazingly fun day and I hope to do it again sometime when I am older.
In the afternoon we went to the Small Falls and gosh they really were small – I reckon the tallest one was about 3m high. We jumped off a few cliffs into the pool and had lots of fun playing about in the water.
In the evening we went to Lake Datum to watch the sunset but it was too cloudy so we left early and went back to Rock Inn to toast some marshmallows over the fire. It was an amazingly fun day and I hope to do it again sometime when I am older.
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