Saturday in Sagada and Bontoc
I woke to the sounds of dogs wildly barking and was surprised, as usual, that bright sunlight from the eastern sun flooded the hotel room.
Dominic and I ate breakfast on the terrace of Bana’s Café. We walked north back toward Olahbinan, and I detoured to room 7 to retrieve a camera. Then we perused the wares in the Saturday morning outdoor market all along the main street, from Masferré past Saint Theodore Hospital.
Around 9:20 we boarded a jeepney bound for Bontoc, a neighboring city. The ride on the rough, rocky, dusty roads lasted about fifty minutes. Bontoc, capital of Mountain Province, was sunny and very warm, as Alwin had told us it was. We found PNB, used its ATM, took a few pictures, visited a pharmacy and a clothing store, found a jeepney on a side street loading passengers for a trip to Sagada, and we climbed aboard.
At 11:43 we were rolling back to Sagada. We arrived at 12:33 – fifty minutes later. Dominic and I ate lunch at Bana’s Café because he likes it, then I ambled downhill to Sagada Caveman, outside Sumaging Cave‘s entrance, hoping to do a ‘cave connection tour’ with someone. No tourists nor guides ever showed up as I sat and admired the scenery nor when I strolled southward to see what’s down there (a hill). So I walked back uphill to town center, resigned to doing ‘the cave connection’ another day.
Saturday evening, a bell at Church of Saint Mary the Virgin rang at 5:55, as is customary, as we ate dinner in Haddeku restaurant, which is highly recommended for delicious food and friendly service.
At 9:00, near Sagada’s Municipal Hall, I suppose, someone beat a gong to signal the onset of the nightly curfew.
Speaking of bells: if you want to sleep later than 6:30 on Sunday mornings, and you’re not a ‘heavy sleeper,’ don’t take a hotel room with eastern exposure to morning sunlight in the vicinity or Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. At 5:55 a.m., someone rand the bells. At 6:00 someone rang them twenty-four times! From 6:10 to 6:31, someone rang the bells every minute!
It was two rings for each of the first seven minutes then three rings for each of next thirteen minutes, with five rings on the twenty-first minute. I don’t know if that’s customary every Sunday or if the ringing was part of a ceremony in the church. I wasn’t in the church; I was in bed. Catholic Mass is at 4:30 p.m. down the road. †
