Sagada: Kiltepan - What Happened?

I wrote a short one about Sadaga's Kiltepan sunrise here.

The first time I went to Sagada was back in the early 2000's and have been going back almost every year. Despite that, I never really went to experience Kiltepan until 2012 and I must say it was magical. 

We went with our good friends, Karen & Xy and we had a grand time taking photos and just taking in all the beauty of the sunrise over the mountains and the sea of clouds. There was only one other small group there with us. The other group left early and we also told our jeepney driver to go ahead because we plan to just walk back to town. Para kaming nasa kawalan, yung tipong matatakot ka kahit may araw na kasi walang ibang tao at feeling mo bigla nalang may werewolves na tatalon galing sa mga pine trees.

The following year (2013), we went back with my BIL, SIL and their friends. 

The view is still amazing although there is already a small crowd. 

Then a few days ago I saw some pictures taken in Kiltepan... and I was shocked. 

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Andaming tao, Bes! Nakakaloka! I haven't been to Sagada since I had my son.  Honestly, I really don't know what happened. So I did some reading up and stumbled upon blogs/articles also taking about this. There must be a correlation on the sudden influx of visitors to Kiltepan and the fame of the movie That Thing Called Tadhana. The movie was released in 2014. It's actually nice that movies and local soaps are promoting different places of the country because tourism helps create employment and income for the community. It also encourages the local tourism, you know, 'wag maging dayuhan sa sariling bayan. See as much of the Philippines as you can. But there must be some sort of regulation in place and environmental protection should also not be taken for granted.

You can't really blame people for wanting to visit Kiltepan, pictures just can't do justice on how beautiful and serene the experience is, well, at least for us.  I'm wondering how the experience is now that you have to elbow yourself into the crowd so you can get a good spot or a good shot of the view. 

I hope the LGU is doing (or has done) something about it. Regulating the number of visitors and proper waste disposal. And I hope fellow travelers stay responsible enough, too. I hope Kiltepan is still as beautiful and as raw as we've seen it a few years ago. Because, sayang naman. I've seen one of the most beautiful sunrises here, next to the one I've experienced at Mt. Pulag.