Roadtrip - Banaue-Bontoc-Sagada - Part 2

Banaue – Bontoc - Sagad

After lunch in Banaue, Becks and me decided to take the bus to Bontoc and Sagada, we heard some stories about a landslide that happened a few days ago and he said it was impossible to pass with a car we have to change the bus there. As usual no space inside the bus so up on the roof again.. we really like it, u can see so much more from the country side, just be careful with the hanging cables in the villages. After about an hour drive along the Cordillera we finally came to the mudslide.. but honestly it was more like a landslide, half of the mountain came down and the road was buried under a few 1000qubik meters of rock and mud. We had to wait for a while as the tried to clean it up a bit more and make a small path to walk along. Busses arrived from both sides; all passengers walked through the debris field and catch the next bus on the other side. But it wasn’t so easy as the whole thing was not really stable and rocks kept coming down while people run across and I had to do that run with a kite bag on my shoulder.. ok most of the locals had some bean bags or rice bags on their heads as well. So ones the road worker gave us the ok we run for our lives.. and for the adrenaline rush of it (-: We made it without a scratch but a little worried about the rest of the road, as u can see landslides every 500m on this cordillera road. When they built this road they mostly just dug the road into the mountainside but did not support much of the shoulder. They also had some little earthquakes here lately.
The second half of the ride was really scenic, passing through rice terraces, green valleys and pine forest vegetation all the way to Bontoc. The whole price for the ride was 100PHP for the first leg and another 70PHP for the second leg.. but the driver told us that the normal price would only be 140… so I donno but I think math is not a major thing in the Philippines.

Bontoc has a good charm and I think it would be worth a revisit with a few more hours to spend around town. We headed straight for the tourist info to find out about the next possible ride up to Sagada, probably the most popular backpacker town in the Philippines. We got the info about jeepnees going up there for very cheap, so we went to the location where they supposed to leave and ask a young lady about the next possible ride, she said “oh sorry sir no more today”. So we got a bit worried if we can still make it up there or not, but while we discussed our options a jeepnee arrived heading for Sagada. The young local girl also jumped on the bus with a few other people, so we had a ride on the roof again.

 


Sagada is famous for its hanging coffins, few big caves, waterfalls, endless hikes and the best Mary Jane in the Philippines.

We decided to stay here for more than one night, so we can relax a bit and do some sightseeing.  We had a really disappointing dinner in Masferré restaurant, meat tasted like few weeks old and we got served more fat than actual meat. I’m used to a lot of not really mouth watering food here in the Philippines but this was probably the worst in the last 6month.

So for the next night we made a reservation at one of the best restaurants in town, called the Log cabin, a French chef is cooking at his best. Pork chop as tender as it gets with a creamy sauce, fresh salad with local herbs, homemade bread!! And a blueberry cream with chocolate cake.. uahhhh.. if u ever come here and it happens to be a Saturday night, make ur reservation early during the day and you also have to pay a deposit, but you will definitely not be disappointed.
The second day was filled with walking around town and checking out the hanging coffins and a cave with an underground river, and yeah.. souvenir shopping, because we don’t have enough oversize luggage yet (-: