ten pesos

photos of the towns of Sagada and neighboring Suyo in Mountain Province, Luzon, Philippines

Click some to enlarge them

rooster in Suyo

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view of Suyo from a rice paddy near the river

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Suyo’s friendly kids were curious about the white man with camera walking down the road

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riding a jeepney to Sagada from Bontoc

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a Sagada Guest House southern view of downtown Sagada

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weather-beaten limestone of Sagada

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I’d like to have for a vacation home one of the two houses atop a bluff overlooking the north end of Echo Valley.

- what a view from the top –  The one on the left was being built.   

 

a river flows underground from North to South and emerges in Echo Valley

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I enjoyed hiking the length of Echo Valley

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more craggy, eroded limestone in Sagada, south of Echo Valley

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From a distance one might see coffins strapped to a niche in limestone south of  Echo Valley

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observation is easier in afternoon light

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rather uninteresting snapshot of Sagada, Mountain Province

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Each month that I visited Sagada, I enjoyed delicious Mountain Tea in cafes

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coffins in Echo Valley

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approaching Lumiang Cave in Echo Valley

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entrance to Lumiang Cave

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mouth of  Lumiang Cave in afternoon light

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A guide told me that this is a coffin of a chief  (because two lizards were carved in the lid)

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caribao and farmers beside the river in Suyo

coffins in the southof Echo Valley

This coffin had fallen and was open to the weather and leaves and twigs falling

Beside it were a skull and bones which had likely spilled from the coffin

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I wondered how the end of this coffin was opened

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Notice that the skull is perched precariously at the near end

Did nature just weather and erode the end of the coffin? Or did a vandal/thief pry it off?

A case can be made for carving coffins from logs, rather than assembling them from boards and nails which rust.

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cows near Mount Ampucao

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entrance to Sumaging Cave (the ‘big cave’)

Sumaging Cave

Korean tourists, guides and I spelunking in Sumaging Cave

lousy, grainy photo from first visit to King’s Curtain in Sumaging Cave

King’s Curtain calcite formation in Sumaging cave

King’s Curtain

All these calcite formations and the smells made Sumaging Cave exploring an ‘otherworldly’ experience

We enjoyed wading and swimming in very cool pools of water hundreds of feet below ground

emerging from Sumaging Cave at the south end, near Sagada Cave Man store

See also the weblog posts which mention Sagada, including this: (click here)