If you are looking for the ultimate outdoor experience in Cordillera, then nothing will compare to Sagada. It offers a lot of experience for tourists such as caves, underground rivers, waterfalls, rice terraces and also the mountains in this place. Here, you will see a lot of tourists because of the place’s natural beauty. The first thing that you have to visit in Sagada is view of the hanging coffins. This is their culture of laying their dead to rest instead of burying them deep in the ground. Here you will see coffins that are centuries old.
Your next destination should be Sumaguing cave which is the main attraction of Sagada, there are a lot of caves in Sagada and you should experience spelunking in this huge cave. You will see a lot of beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. Going down this cave is tough but you should see how tougher it is to go back up. It will be quite an adventure and you will notice that some of the formations in this cave will resemble bears, elephants, pregnant woman, turtle head, pig pens and many others. You also see how strong the guides are. There is a part where you have to step on your guide’s legs just to go down, imagine if you are 10 in your group. The adventure will take about 3-4 hours and you will be scared when you see the mouth of the cave but you should not worry.
The last destination is Marlboro Country where you can see wild horses running around on the summit of Lamagan. Going up to the summit is just a short climb and you will see grass where you can sit and watch the wild horses. Sagada has so many tourist attractions besides the one that I mentioned. They also say that Sagada has more to offer than what the public sees. There are things that are being kept secret and only a few have seen it because they want to keep it as they are.
Since you mentioned again the Cordillera Area of the Philippines, I figured I would clarify some things for North American visitors who may not know too much about the Philippines …like me!
So I looked up your username first, CordilleraHiker and I thought that the Cordillera portion was referring to the definition as per Wikipedia writes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordillera A cordillera is an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges. The term derives from the Spanish cordilla, a diminutive of cuerda, or “cord”. It is most commonly used in the field of physical geography.
But Now I see that “The” Cordillera Area is a whole region of the Philippines! ..so here is an image that shows where it is….please please keep writing Cordillerahiker – I love this stuff!
Cordillera Area