I was waiting at the municipal hall when my guide arrived. His name is Ian “Enzo” Killi. He seems to be a nice and cheerful guy probably around 20 something years of age. The guides here are hired on a rotation basis. This means that since every guide is more or less guaranteed a customer, there is no touting going on, which is good for the tourists. The customer comes and the municipal hall calls them for work. Although not exactly free economics here it assures them of a livelihood.
We exchanged pleasantries along the way to the cave. He told me that he is a true Igorot unlike some of the others who have some from elsewhere. The customers do not come very often so they do not really earn a lot of money from this. Most of the time they will be tending the fields and doing other chores. He began to tell me of the nature of Sagada and how different it is from other places.
As I have already noticed earlier, Sagada forbade the use of tricycles in the village. Although people here do not earn a lot of money they are quite well educated and his English was good. The Igorots have a coming of age rite here that includes men having to wear their G-Strings, that would probably be an interesting sight since this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often anymore.
The way to the cave is along the main road until the houses run out. This is where the pine trees start to line the path. It was a very impressive walk so far. Until I spotted the green fields on the valley to the right of the path. It seems that rice terraces are not limited to the Banaue area. Sagada, being a mountain village also has their own rice terraces. The rice terraces here are more spread out but there are also parts where the fields really become stairs up the mountain.
It was a wonderful sight that I couldn’t stop taking photos of the place. However, I was here to see the cave not the terraces, though I’m sure that seeing them was already a huge bonus for me.
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