We arrived at 9:00am. First thing we did was to get settled, take a shower and get ready for the adventure ahead. Then, breakfast at the Sagada Lemon Pie House. Now I don’t remember what we had for our meal but I made sure I saved some space for the pies! We had a tasting of the available pies that day…lemon pie, egg pie and blueberry pie. They were great but I particularly liked the egg pie topped with whipped egg white that was caramelized on top. The lemon and egg pies are available year-round and cost Php20.00 per slice and Php150.00 for the whole pie. There are also special fruit pies such as strawberry and blueberry, which are seasonally available. They cost Php28.00 per slice and Php220.00 for the whole pie. These pies run out fast so you must order them at least a day or two before you leave if you want to bring them home. After a heavy breakfast meal and the sugar rush from engulfing all those pies, we got into the van to start our tour for the day.
It was a Saturday morning, the town’s market day. Our van had to squeeze its way through the hustle and bustle of the town with people coming from everywhere, buying and selling anything and everything. It was pretty hot that day so one vendor selling halo-halo and another selling boiled peanuts caught my eyes. Halo-halo turned out to be a mixture of some of its usual ingredients with unusual additions like fresh melon and macaroni. It was personally not to my liking but the peanuts were excellent.
Our first drop off point was in front of St. Mary the Virgin Church for picture taking. This old church along with the schools grew out of the mission established by Reverend John Staunton the Mountain Province in 1904.
Already past lunchtime, when we went on our way to the Bomod-ok falls. It was roughly an hour trek/walk through bright green rice fields which probably would have been a 30-minute walk if not for the constant stops to take pictures along the way.
5 minutes after a terrain of woods and rocks, we finally reached the falls. Again, packed with tourists and local kids offering foot and back massage, the falls was nothing really grand but the cool breeze from the dropping water was such a relief after a hot trek. We couldn’t resist a swim but we only lasted for 5 minutes in the ice cold water. After my dip, I tried the foot massage where the kid just rubbed and poked my feet with two small sticks from a branch that he picked somewhere. It was more funny than relaxing…but hey, what do you expect from a Php10.00 massage? At least the local kids looked like they were having fun, laughing and chatting in their local dialect.
As we walked back, it had started to rain…I remember regretting the short dip earlier because by this time, it started to get too cold and I was shivering to my bones. Good thing I still had a small bar of Goya dark chocolate which I ate to keep myself a bit warm and to get my mind out of the chilling cold.
When we got to the town proper, it was only around 4:45pm. It was too late for lunch and too early for dinner but since we heard that the Yogurt House would be packed within an hour, we decided to have a really early dinner. We had tuna pasta and chicken curry. The serving was big although the chicken was, for me, a bit tough. All in all it tasted alright, the food was served piping hot and the price was reasonable and we slept with happy stomachs.
Day 1 : Exploring the town of Sagada and trekking to Bomod-ok Falls
Day 2 : The Cave Connection Expedition (Sumaguing and Lumiang Cave)
Day 3 : Quick stopover at Yogurt House and Strawberry Farm
