I had shared with you our 24 hours stay in Batad, we had a whole day of a walking tour around the community and then had a lot of talking with the locals who were eating "moma" which made them look like eating lipsticks, if you are from the Ifugao province, please don't get me wrong, it was a surprise to us who were not from there but as we encountered more locals, we got used to it.
It was time to say goodbye to the beautiful and greatly incredible rice terraces of Batad. We traversed the path back to the drop point to meet our trike driver. We had no cellular phone communication, but we are sure that he's coming at seven in the morning. True indeed, he was there waiting for us at the waiting area.
Batad to Bontoc
From the drop point, we reached Banaue where cars and vans for hire have routes to Bontoc. After a lot of conversations with other passengers, our van driver started his vehicle's engine and off we go to Bontoc but there were still stopovers as well while on the way.
First, we stopped by the famous Banaue Rice Terraces, it's quite familiar because that's being printed in our Philippine bill. Then there was another village cluster of which we had a stopover as they have a comfort room. There were natives as well wearing a cultural dress who welcomed us and allowed us to take photos of him.
Bontoc to Sagada
Our van driver arranged a jeepney which took us to Sagada. The ride was just one and a half hours. We headed towards the tourism office, paid all the needed document stamps and we checked in at Isabelo's Inn which was located at the heart of the town, it was also very near to the tourism office which was good.
For all of our guest houses and hotels, I booked them online before our trip. It is quite challenging to find rooms in Sagada because of the influx of tourists to this area so booking ahead of time is the best thing to do.
Sagada's Echo Valley Hanging Coffins
One thing that I realized when we reached Sagada is that most of their tourist spots are just nearby, it seemed like you can go out from the hotel and by just walking, you'll get to the desired destination but the local government here had made it a point that tourists must hire guides and there are specific rates per destination. Unfortunately, the rates are not very friendly to those traveling solo or couples, they are mostly fine with groups.
We have to adhere to their rules. We still made this tour DIY by renting a motorcycle and our first destination was the Echo Valley Hanging Coffins.
This is a well-known thing in Sagada and this is a traditional way of burying their locals. Our tour guide has been working as one for two decades already! Amazing!
So we started by walking past their town's cemetery, the guide showed us some graves of their town's prominent personalities which I found very weird. It's not very nice to be showing off such things to those who are strangers to the dead but anyway, that might be one of their ways of killing time.
It doesn't require much walking to reach Echo Valley. It's a spot where we can shout and echo follows.
After a few walking and then we reached the hanging coffins. Our tour guide had explained everything to us. Those who have been buried are true elders of Sagada. The dead body during mourning is usually positioned in a chair, if one wants to bring their chair with them, they include it together with the coffin. This is decided by the elder when they are still alive. They put the bodies in fetal position too, this is because they believe that when we came into this world, we were in fetal position thus we should also be positioned this way when leaving the earth.
During the burial ceremony, the coffin is being passed from one resident to another until they reach the valley. There were other caves as well which houses coffins and our guide showed us some of them too.
The coffins were hanged as they believed that getting hanged will bring them closer to heaven, that they could also watch over their families from there. There's no mystery at all of how these coffins were hanged as the tour guide showed us pictures of how they build scaffoldings so to be able to bring the coffins up.
Still, it is a great thing that these traditions are still alive in this time and age. The locals still do the same ceremony and hanging coffins as well but only to those who are a local of the town. According to our guide, the LGU sets it as a holiday when a local is going to be buried.
Have you been to Sagada? What were the activities that you had done there?
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xoxo,
mommy jean of momentswithmatti
Love harder than any pain you've ever felt.
Not sure if it is with you or with ARTicLEE that I saw this hanging coffins. I would really want to explore more of the northern region. 😊