Lost Into The Woods [Sagada] | Travel Blog 1-B

It was my first day in Sagada, travelling alone for the first time. First thing I needed to do was to eat lunch so from my place, I explored back to the tourism office and looked for any restaurant (which was included in my must-try list) that is along the way. The first restaurant that I passed by was Sagada Brew and so I tried to have lunch here.

Source: Tripadvisor

I ordered the Rosemary Pepper Chicken which was around P200 I guess. The price of food here ranges from P100 to P300. I actually expected that since I did my research for my food budget but in my honest opinion, there's nothing special with what I ordered for the whole trip except my last meal before I left the province (Will talk about it on other travel blog post). Most of the food I ordered are okay but not that special for me. I was convincing myself that time that I might just ordered the wrong dishes although I asked for their best-sellers.

After eating, I went to the tourism office if there would be co-travellers who's going to my destination that time. They told me no one was going but they told me that I can trek the mountain by myself because the trail is easy. Since I also did my research about it, I tried to do it alone and went to the jump-off of Mt. Ampacao. The weather was scoarching hot that time and along the way, I saw this seller of Halo-halo (It is a Filipino dessert with mixture of shaved ice and various ingredients like sweet beans, fruits, jelly, etc.) so I bought one and ate it along the way.

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So upon getting to the jump-off I asked someone there if I was on the right track and gladly I was so I continued to go up.

Here's a photo of me after i finished my halo halo (lol) and the carabao that I encountered:

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After more than an hour, I reached the peak of the mountain.

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Here was where I started to push myself and feel like I could do more by myself.

Since I had this blog which I was following for the trail. Going down the mountain, they traverse other mountains to get to the Lake Danum which is also a famous tourist spot in Sagada. Since I'd like to visit it too, I tried to followed on going there. So by this time, I was using my Google Maps as my compass and the photos from the blog post as landmarks to check if I was still on the right track. Fast forward after two hours, I felt like I was on the wrong path already. ~The next things I'm gonna tell were the bad decisions I made during that time~

Here's a photo of the sign that I was following:

I found out after what happened to me that these were correct signs as these were used from the old marathon event happened there.

I actually thought that I was going to die in the woods because I got lost track and during that time there were no signal. Sometimes I got a weak signal so I called the tourism office, the caretaker of the place I'm staying, even the police in Sagada just to tell what's happening to me that time. No one was answering but after few redials, my caretaker picked up the phone and I told him what my plan was that time and asked him what should I do. So he asked me to try to trace back where I started so they can fetch me back to the top of the mountain. I was already traversing for 2 hours so I was already tired to go back. I tried take a break every after few minutes of walking back. There came a time that I forgot to wear back my eyeglasses and I lost it and I just realized it when I got home at the lodge. There were also instances that I almost had accidents. I was crossing this small river(?) by walking on a long wood and it was like 10 feet high from the river and I was so scared that time because I have my fear of heights. I also experienced sliding on a hill just to lessen the time of travelling back where I started and did I mention that I almost hit a branch of a cut tree at the end of that hill? There were many instances where I risked my life that time.

After an hour, I was able to hear someone shouting which meant that someone was already there looking for me. I was shouting every 5-10 minutes just to know if there were any people around that forest. Few minutes after I heard them, we were able to see each other and I told them what really happened.

One of the souvenirs I got because of what happened

We stayed at the top of the hill for about half an hour to rest for a while. It was almost 6PM when they saw me.

We already went down after resting and went home.

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I actually learned so much about this incident. I learned to love myself again and realized how blessed I was to have this life that is given to me and to make the most out of it. Maybe this was an eye-opener for me because during that time, I was so lost in life in general (lol up until now I guess) which made me decide to travel alone.

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📍 Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines

📸 Photos without source are all mine

📸 Photos without source were taken using iPhone 7

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Previous Travel Blog Posts:

Going up North! [Sagada] | Travel Blog 1A

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Thanks for reading!