Sagada Adventure: Trek to Pongas Falls and Dinner at Yoghurt House

Around 12:45 p.m., I received a message from our driver, Kuya Bong. He said our tour coordinator, Kuya James will arrive at 1:00. So we started fixing ourselves and went down. Kuya James arrived. Kuya Bong introduced him to us. Then, we got on the van and the first part of our trip began. After less than 10 minutes, Kuya Bong stopped and parked the van. He told us that the van can't go any further, so we have to start trekking from there. Kuya James told us to follow him. We walked down and saw Ankileng Elementary School. Kuya James told us that the school was built by the American missionaries in 1947.

 

Ankileng Elementary School

I looked around and I saw this beautiful white flower near the school fence. I don't really know what flower it was. I just took a photo of it. Here it is:

It's beautiful, isn't it?

We continued walking down the steps that lead us to a bridge made of iron. It moves every time we move our feet. Below was a stream. It reminded me of the bamboo bridge at my grandparent's farm in Tigbauan...a little scary to walk through...

My husband walking on the iron bridge, while taking a picture of me..hehe..

After passing the bridge, we started trekking up until we reached a small village. Our tour guide told us that the community is lead by an elder and he had to pay an entrance fee in order for us to get to the waterfalls. We stopped for a little bit. The village is composed of small huts with roofs made of galvanized steel. Something I didn't expect to see up there. Very far from what was described in the books I read before.

Kuya James returned and we continued the trek. Along the way we saw various crops such as bananas, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, rice and some fruit trees; such as persimmons, jack fruit, citrus, papayas and star apples.  After passing through the field, we started walking on a concrete path (another thing that surprised me).

After almost an hour trek, we reached our destination, the Pongas Falls. The scenery was really breathtaking. The most beautiful waterfalls I've seen (in reality). The first thing my Dad did was climb the huge rock. The first time I saw my Dad so happy (like a little child). Then Vince followed him up there. Then there were four of us up there...:)

Kuya James told us that we can go near the falls, so we went around that rock and climbed the small ones behind. There...we saw the magnificent beauty of Pongas Falls. I couldn't stop myself from clicking my camera in every angle.

Then Kuya James started climbing higher, Vince followed him and they told us to come...my Dad did....

My mom and I said we're good..it looked so hard to climb...but moments later...we're there..hehe
We couldn't resist it...

and we didn't regret it. It was more beautiful up there. The water was crystal clear, inviting us to drink from it.. I didn't drink but I washed my face with it..It was refreshing....I couldn't have enough of it....
But we had to leave....
We went down and started trekking back. On our way back, Kuya James pointed a small hut to us. He said though it looked simple, it is very crucial to the villagers. The small hut is called dap-ay. Dap-ay is a place where village elders meet and talk about stuff concerning the people of the village. If they need to make important decisions, they meet in that hut and talk with honesty and sincerity.

Dap-ay

The trek down was a little faster than going up. We arrived to the place where our van was parked in less than 45 minutes.We headed back to our room, rested for a little bit, and cleansed ourselves. Then we headed out to eat dinner. We asked Kuya Bong to come and join us. We went to Yoghurt House. There were some foreigners inside. We looked for seats and ordered food. We ordered Breaded Pork with Rice or Mashed Potato but the waiter came back and told us that our order was not available. So I just told him to give us anything with pork..as it turned out, our dinner was Curried Pork with Rice.....

>>>>>>>To be continued>>>>>>>