To Sagada We Go

Early Sunday morning I left with Tita Karen, her husband, and four kids to the mountain province of Sagada. We met their family friends at one of their homes for breakfast and hit the road by 7 AM. It's possible to reach Sagada from Dagupan in maybe 4 or 5 hours but with all of our stops (bathroom breaks, lunch time, and picture moments) we ended up travelling for a total of 11 hours. Nuts, I know. The main reason for our extreme extension of time though was the route we chose to take. The families had opted for the longer, scenic route. And while normally taking the scenic route wouldn't make up for all of those extra hours, this time it did.

We took the extremely narrow, twisty, not-so-developed roads up to Banaue (thank GOD for Dramamine) and got out of the car twice for pictures at the designated picture stops. The reason? Banaue (pronounced "Bahn-ah-way") is known for its rice terraces. As a matter of fact, the background for this blog is a picture of them.

By the time we made it to the large house we were renting (there are around 30 of us) everyone was exhausted and ready to settle in. But, alas! There was not enough space! What a surprise for a group of tired travellers. So after half an hour or so we were finally able to organize sleeping arrangements to ensure that everyone had a bed. It was dinner time by the time we finished and everyone enjoyed eating at the long picnic table outside together.