Epilogue

5th and Final Entry in the Sagada Chronicles



Leaving Sagada

This entry begins as we leave the St. Josephs Inn which was our home away from home during the whole length of our stay in Sagada. During our short visit we have journeyed through the Echo Valley, famous for its hanging coffins. We dared to venture deep underground to marvel at the world beneath. We took countless pictures in Kiltepan and enjoyed the breath taking view of the big falls. It had been a fun and exciting adventure but this entry is not about Sagada…

We spent the better part of the day sitting on a bus over the country’s highest highway system called Hanselma. It was a seven hour long bumpy ride through a narrow and winding road that seems to be perpetually under repair or construction as sections of the said road is in constant need of maintenance due to the regular landslides and erosion. The highway was so high up that visibility was often limited to about 10 to 20 meters ahead due to the thick fog or was it clouds. We eventually reached the outskirts of Baguio and it became obvious that we were back in the kind of civilization that we have grown accustomed to, the traffic was bad. The scenery has also changed from sparsely populated mountains with either natural vagetation or vegetable gardens to mountain tops filled with houses. We were in Baguio.

We found a place where we could dump our bags and gear so that we can roam around the city unencumbered by our heavy load. We walked down sesion road to look for a place where we can eat. Session Road has definitely changed from what I remember as a small boy years ago. Baguio I guess has changed, it has embraced the demands of modernization and development till it has become what it is now.

As if drawn by an irresistable force we eventually made our way towards this new edifice that dominated the landscape of Baguio. It was like a monolith of stone and steel, we ended in up in SM. We had dinner at Terriyaki Boy and spent the equivalent of what we spent on food during our whole stay in Sagada on a feast of Japanese food. After dinner we walked around Burnham park and decided to have coffee but resisted the call of Starbucks and Seattles Best and instead sought out a local place. We had our fill of caffeine with orders of iced coffe, milkshakes, and other concoctions while we lounged on soft sofas while listening to laid back lounge music. We could have been in Starbucks in Valero, Greenbelt, or Rockwell. After that we retrieved our packs and headed for the new Victory Liner terminal which looked even better than the Manila Domestic Airport. We started the last leg of our trip on our way home.



Session Road at night



Dinner at Teriyaki Boy at SM Baguio



Just chillin out…

It is safe to assume that Baguio was not unlike Sagada Fifty years ago. I wonder if there will be a Starbucks outlet in Sagada the next time I go there? I dread the day when Henry Sy or his descendants builds a mall in Sagada. There a lot of issues that arise as we go forward in our march towards development. To what extent should we allow the “development” of a particular area in the name of progress? Should development be restrained in the name of environmental and cultural conservation? There are a lot of arguments that would arise including the right of people living in those areas to enjoy the comforts of modern living. No one can tell at this point how things will work out for Sagada, but whatever happens I will always have wonderful memories of that rustic and enchanted place and I have a lot pictures to prove it…

Let me end this chronicle of our trip to Sagada with a picture I took of a wild flower in Echo Valley, its speaks of Sagada, beautiful and wild.



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