Viaje Sagada | I Survived Cave Connection

Sagada's cave connection is my very first true spelunking experience. It's tiring but definitely enjoyable. All photos on this post are from Darwin of trackingtreasures.net and Smarla of everydaysweetnotes.com, my batteries have gone dead upon entering the cave.

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Day 2 - October 30, 2011

Even though our eyes failed to witness the famous sunrise at Kiltepan peak, our tummies still won the prize. Located at the foot of Kiltepan Peak is a cafe called Cafe Bodega (popularly known as the Rock Inn Cafe). We had our scrumptious breakfast there which I truly enjoyed. It's quite pricey though.

We told our guide, Kuya Hansen, that we'll do the cave connection as soon as we finished our breakfast. So by 8:40 am, after finishing our meal,  we went back to our inn. Our guide gave us 30 minutes to change our clothes into light and comfortable preferably shirt, shorts and slippers.

When everyone was ready, our jeep brought us to the opening of Lumiang Cave. From the road we still walked for about 5 minutes to reach the mouth of Lumiang cave.

| Cave connection is composed of 2 cave systems, namely: the Lumiang Cave and Sumaguing Cave. Both caves offer different cave experience. 

us BEFORE the cave connection

into the mouth of Lumiang Cave

Twisted Inside the Lumiang Cave

The time was 10:00 am when we reached the mouth of Lumiang. A lot, probably hundreds of old coffins are stacked up at the entrance of Lumiang, some have fallen to the ground exposing the bones it concealed. While our guide were busy preparing our gas lamps, our group prayed for the safety of everyone (sometimes prayer can give you the strength you needed). When everything was set for the spelunking, our buwis-buhay adventure has started.

one of the numerous coffins at the mouth of Lumiang Cave. A Lizard on its lid symbolizes long life.

Goodbye outside world

It was pretty dark inside the cave, our guides' gas lamps were our only source of light. Better follow every instruction the guides will say. A series of jumps, hops, twists, turns, crawls, splits, tucks, and slides encompasses our whole Lumiang cave experience. We also entered big holes, medium holes and small holes. There was even a part that you'll have to swim a chest-deep cave pool.

I crouched to enter the hole

I hopped from rock to rock

konting pahinga sa mga walls ng cave.

pose.

into Sumaguing Cave

Courage is one important thing you must bring inside the cave. One careless mistake and you'll surely break a part of your body. Thanks to our well-trained guides, we managed to surpass all the miseries inside the Lumiang cave. Now I feel proud of myself.


Awed by the Sumaguing Cave

The magnificent rock formation, they call "rice granary" marks the start of the Sumaguing cave. Sumaguing is different from Lumiang for it is much easier to explore its cave system. It also offers a number of astonishing rock formations that only the hands of God can make. There are rock formations that depict an elephant, a snake, a table, a turtle, even a woman's genitalia.

the whole Team Sagada at Sumaguing Cave. the rock formation behind us is what the guides refer as the "Rice granary"

sliding isn't hard to do

Any person who'll enter this cave will surely be stunned and awed. This cave's wonders would take hundreds of years to form, the people of our generation must not miss the chance of exploring this outstanding cave.

hello again outside world

us AFTER the cave connection

We finished cave connection at 3:00 pm. It took us 5 hours to complete the whole cave connection. I must say that the whole spelunking experience will totally suck up your stored energy, it will also get your butts dirty but I assure you that it is worth it. Now I can proudly say that I survived Cave Connection.
   

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Viaje Sagada-Baguio Series, Sagada-Baguio Trip for 7D6N (Oct 29-Nov 4, 2011)

Viaje Sagada-Baguio |  Preview to my Sagada-Baguio Series - Preview

Viaje Sagada | The "Topload" Way to Sagada - Part 1

Viaje Sagada | No Sun at Kiltepan - Part 2
Viaje Sagada | I Survived Cave Connection - Part 3
Viaje Sagada | Lost in Echo Valley - Part 4
Viaje Sagada | Pongas Falls and the Death-defying Trek - Part 5
Viaje Sagada | Witnessing the Begnas Ritual - Part 6 
Viaje Sagada | The Might of Bomod-ok Falls - Part 7
Viaje Sagada | Blazing Rituals of Panag-apoy - Part 8
Viaje Sagada | Indigenous Flavors of Sagada - Part 9
Viaje Sagada | Soloing the Hanging Coffins of Echo Valley - Part 10
Viaje Sagada | Foodtrip in Sagada - Part 11

Itinerary | Sagada 
 

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