November 24th, 2012
After our 3 days of lazing and relaxing in Baguio, Felicia and I made our way to the local bus station and boarded the bus for a mountainous 5 hour ride headed into Sagada. Of course the only bus company which plys this route also uses buses which are sized for the average Filipino, or about 8-10 inches shorter than yours truly. So the 5 hour journey was a mixture of me twisted half in my seat/ half in the aisle, or crunched up in the fetal position with my knees in the back of the seat in front of me (which turned out to be moderately comfortable and I was able to nod off for a little bit) or else just wedged up against my wife, making her uncomfortable.
We eventually did make it up the winding roads, arrived in Sagada and found a place to stay just in time to watch the sunset and go out and find some dinner. We spent a quiet evening reading and chilling out together.
We went to sleep, only to be fully awakened at about 4am when EVERY dog in the city decided to have a bark-off. 15 minutes or so of that and the mutts calmed down, giving us about another hour and a half before the roosters started crowing. Even with our ear plugs in, the noise was crazy – and this is coming from two people who live a block from the Burbank Police and Fire Departments – The sounds of dogs, roosters and turkeys seem much more startling than a fire engine.
When we finally did get out of bed, we spent the day wandering the local Saturday market, walking the paths around the valley and finding our way though a narrow muddy track to get to a local swimming hole where I jumped in for a freezing dip.
Read Felicia’s narrative of our mud-riddled hike at her blog!
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