In Too Deep

Hello again! We have a bit of catching up to do so here it goes.. 

We left Manila Tuesday for Baguio City, and we were on a mission. Graham's mom and dad had stayed in a place called St. Mary's Pension that has reached near mythical status in the Matheson family due to the fact that Grandma Ruth had received a call from someone trying to scam her out of money by saying Cam had taken ill and she needed to send money immediately if he was to receive any care. This sent Ruth on a marathon of phoning operators to try and track down her son, which she did several hours later at St. Mary's Pension in Baguio City. This was the days before the internet so the chances that she could track down her son in some obscure pension house in the middle of the Philippines were slim to none. You can imagine Cam's surprise as one of the bartenders at the pension house approached him and said "the phone's for you... it's your mother."

So we arrived in Baguio City, watched some kids do backflips in the park and stuff, and set out to find St. Mary's Pension. We asked a police officer outside of the 7-11 if he had heard of it. He had not. He then asked the vendors selling vegetables outside of the 7-11 if they had heard of it. They got all excited and tasked the man talking to them to help us find it. Thus began what became two hours of being led through Baguio City by a man named Jed from Mindanao, almost hopping on a Jeepney to the far edge of town, at which point we also attracted the attention of one of the workers of the governor's building who also offered to help us. Alas, St. Mary's pension was not found (sorry mom and dad).

So this morning we woke up at 5 a.m. to the sound of Baguio City's army detachment running by the hostel on their morning exercises, singing their army songs ("I don't know what I been told, we're gonna wake up Baguio"). We got a bus up to Sagada at 630, drove through a very beautiful but very sketchy highway, were serenaded by a man singing "In Too Deep" by Sum 41 along the way, arrived in Sagada at noon, found a place to stay, and headed out to explore some caves.

A Claire in a cave.

A Graham taking a dip at 350 feet below the surface of the earth.

The caves were cooooool.

One of the permanent residents of the Sagada hanging coffins just hangin'.

A well deserved post-caving meal at a restaurant called Yoghurt.

See ya next time!

-Gus the Goose