The beauties of Northern Luzon

Northern Luzon is not as famous for its beaches as the rest of the country, but it has a ton of offerings for those that want to look. There are the rice terraces of Banaue, Batad and the surrounding barangays and countryside. The caves, hanging coffins and festivals of Sagada. And the bustling city of Baguio.

Banaue
First, Lily and I headed from Manila to Banaue. It is an overnight 10 1/2 hour bus ride. It is also freezing cold on the bus when they have the air on full blast all 10 hours, you are wearing shorts and your vent won't close because it is broken. It was a nice change from the extreme heat that I have been feeling though. We left at 10 at night which got us in at around 8:30 in the morning. We grabbed a hostel room and took a quick nap.

Batad
The next day, we decided to do the hike to Batad. It was a long 2 hour hike up to the saddle (the valley between two mountains) and then an hour or so down to the city of Batad. The view was beautiful, the engineering of the ancient filipino people
genius and the air was crystal clear. The sound of chickens was everywhere, and you could see ant-like people working in the terraces far below and far away. We grabbed some food, ran out of time and started the hike back.

Sagada
The next day we took a private van for a two hour ride to Bontoc since we missed the much, much cheaper jeepney ride. (For those that don't know a Jeepney is an extended Jeep that people ride all over the Philippines in.) We got to Bontoc with just enough time to catch another 1 hour Jeepney to Sagada. We got to Sagada and then I had to go back to Bontoc because the only ATM in Sagada wasn't working for international cards. The ride back, I rode on top of the Jeepney, as it was too full for me to fit inside. I much prefer this style of ride to the normal "in the back of the Jeepney" sort.

We did some caving in Sagada. It was amazing. We squeezed through holes that I had to twist and turn and scrape my head to get through. We walked barefoot up 45 degree rocks because they were just that "grippy". The water was freezing, but we waded through it to see some of the other parts of the cave. The rock formations like the turtle, the pregnant lady and the t-rex footprint were all amazing in there by lamplight. There were also a lot of bats, but they didn't bother us. We did remember to close our mouths when we looked up at them though.

We also checked out the hanging coffins of Sagada, which were interesting, but not that great. The history and culture behind them is much better than actually seeing them.

We were also in town for the Sagada yearly fiesta. There was a beauty pageant that lasted hours and hours. There was a street market and dancing and a parade. It was a great experience to see the "small town" side of the Philippines.

Baguio
We headed back from Sagada by long bus ride to Baguio. We both did not enjoy the rumbling, turning, up and down of the mountain road back, but we got there 6 hours later. We spent little time in Baguio, as we were trying to get back to Manila, but it was a very modern town with a huge mall where we grabbed our first McDonald's in a long time. (Strangely, they have McSpaghetti here). We then took another 6 hour snore-filled ride back to Manila, finally getting to our Pensionne at around 11:30. It was a long day, but the travels to Northern Luzon were definitely worth it.

Next is the island of Palawan with its underground river, archipelago and beautiful beaches.