Tuguegarao City and Cagayan Province: Ten Best Things To Do

Copyright © 2009 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.

(Photo credits from cbcabalza collection)

Archaeologists discovered that the first plantation of palay (rice) in the Philippines found in early agricultural town of Tuguegarao. According to various oral history, the name Tuguegarao was coined from ‘garao’ (swift river current), ‘taraw’ (a species of palm tree whose trunk is used for many things), and ‘tuggui gari yao’ (this was cleared by fire). Perhaps, this gives me an impressive idea that this bountiful land is indeed majestic in nature and rich in history. Even dating back since prehistoric times, this heavily warm and humid province in northeastern part of the archipelago’s largest island, of slopes and bedrock foundations, was formed by diverse wonders of beauty. The place is gifted with cool, educated, multilingual, and smart group of people who knows how to party! This is my partial list of the best of the best in my hometown:

Tour de Tugue de Cagayan!

1. Dine-in at Tuguegarao’s best Panciterias (à la carte! on the menu!) – Every time I grab a break from work and schooling in Manila, I take a short vacation in my hometown in Tuguegarao, now a thriving city. By the time I arrive, I usually crave for the best pancit in town. The batil patong of Tuguegarao is a must try especially if I happen to bring with me first-time visitors, my wife and kids, to taste this one of a kind culinary tradition. Here I could find an innovative preparation of noodles between customers and cook. I like the idea of panciterias sprouting in various barangays with simple gastronomic ambiance: the panciterias standing in front the houses of thriving local traders and some avant-garde chefs who serve to customers. In the morning, avid regulars would sometimes bring their own fresh ground meat they buy from the slaughter house or in wet market; and then chopping of onions would be a group activity. Certainly it is a bon appetite. An interactive cuisine usually by groups. These bonding moments are as essential to students, employees, tricycle drivers, teenagers, families and peers who love pancit in the town. The batil patong (fried egg on top of the noodle) is appetizingly served with soups of stirred eggs. Sliced onions and chopped labuyo chili bathed with soy sauce mixed to the savoring handmade noodles of ordinary flour, cassava flour, soda ash and food coloring. Besides, the palate of noodles is also mixed with sliver of vegetables like cabbage, carrots, red chili, monggo sprouts and cooked with chicken liver, gizzard and ground meat. Also, Tuguegarao’s original longanisa is one of the best! You should taste it!

2. Bar-hopping (c’est la vie! that’s life!) – It’s so amazing to experience night–life nowadays in Tugue especially if you’re tuned in with Manila’s gigs. Before there were only pockets of disco, KTV, and scattered beer houses around the town. Now, there are options at par with Manila’s night life standard like BURPS and The PORT, which is bigger than Pier One in Libis in terms of space. Surprisingly, The Port’s design is a facsimile of Pier One and the price lists are also tantamount to Manila’s offer. Some of the best gigs are also found in malls and hotels around the city! Three-star for the effort! Quite an improvement!

3. An Adventure in Callao Caves (force majeure! greater force!)– These spectacular and breath-taking limestone formations are found in Penablañca (white rocks), historically known during the 18th as ‘Barrio de Bubug’ (Village of Fire tree). Dr. Robert Fox’s discovery of the earliest hominin in the Philippines predates that Philippine civilization started 36,000 to 58,000 years ago and was considered a Homo sapiens species. However, the discovery of Dr. Armand Mijares’ “Callao Man” in 2007 shows otherwise that we might consider an older civilization than what it is written in our textbooks. But from the rough trail going to the town, I could see the beauty of Sierra Madre mountain ranges; magnificent rugged rocks stretch along the mighty waters of the Pinacanauan River. A few sloping limestone formations above the cliff reveal the valley as one of the promising archaeological sites today. Behind the Callao Caves, the premier and most fascinating cave sites exude a hundred unexplored caverns of the town blessed with natural rich forest. In fact, the towering Callao Caves is 50 meters above the green river and within the long-stretched limestone formations on both ends. With my corybantic eyes meeting every time I see this magnificent wonder, I have my theory about the anticline formation; and speaking like a pseudo-geologist, the caves were results of eons of sedimentation which eventually rose from the sea in a remote geologic past. It was formed by a widespread platform under a warm and shallow sea from five (5) to 10 million years ago based from scientific researches. As the limestone was exposed on land, groundwater naturally seeped its way into dissolving the rocks, thus widening the openings within the limestone and created a complex network of channels and chambers. That geological change eventually broke the dome-like mountain for the river to exist. Of course, kayaking is my unforgettable experience in this site!

4. A Visit to Cagayan Museum (chic! stylish!)– In my archeology class in UP during my undergrad (college) years, I had learned that Cagayan is rich with extinct Paleolithic animal species like elephants and stegedons unearthed from arid Liwan Valley - between the fluent English-Itawes town of Enrile and warlike province of Kalinga. Now teaching Anthropology and National Security to graduate and undergraduate students in UP and NDCP, I truly admired my province and got enthused with its great archaeological treasures and artifacts; enlightened way back then when I personally visited, out of curiosity, the Cagayan Museum, which housed some important national treasures and historical relics of our country. In my amusement, I learned that archeologists, anthropologists, and historians today are forming theories that the supposed first man in the country (the Cagayan Man or Woman) could be found here because of abundant prehistoric relics and artifacts and not the Tabon man (woman pala!) unearthed in Palawan. In fact in 1970’s there were already grand scientific excavations in the so-called Cagayan Valley Pleistocene Open Sites wherein animal fossils recovered were precious in rewriting our prehistory. Remains from Miocene to Pliocene sedimentary bedding (formed from seven (7) to 25 million years ago) in some parts of Cagayan, together with Sierra Madres’ richness of Cretaceous bedding (formed in the Age of the Dinosaurs, some 135 million years ago), the lower relief areas had a bedding made of quaternary to recent alluvium (formed some one (1) to two and a half (2 ½) million years ago), and fossil remains from Pliocene to Pleistocene bedding (formed two and a half (2 ½) to seven (7) million years ago. As a result, the National Museum identified nearly hundred sites dating the Pleistocene anticline in the Liwan Valley, located between Cagayan and Kalinga. Some specialists predicted Liwan Valley as the killing site, wherein early hominids butchered the Elephas beyeri, an extinct elephant and other Pleistocene animals, in which some remnants are still preserved and displayed in the museum.

5. Pilgrimage to the Miraculous Our Lady of Piat (raison d’être! reason for being!) – I have some relatives who are devout followers of the beautiful Our Lady of Piat. It was long-time known as the Nuestra Señora de Visitacion but originally called the Lady of the Rosary. The Dominican friars brought this beautiful black icon from Macau, then a colony of Portugal in China. This almost four-centuries old image of Mother Mary first enshrined in Nueva Segovia. But was transferred to Piat, maybe to convert native Itawes and Zambal tribe into Christianity. Her shrine declared as Basilica Miñore of Our Lady of Piat. Proven after enormous accounts of miracles. It drives many pilgrims, situated on a scenic hill, fronting the Chico River and its fertile ricefields. Women and children shower faithful pilgrims with candles, novenas, medallions and rosaries. A lot of traders sell religious icons to ardent pilgrims. Even if you ascend the stairs to its colossal door, noisy children still throng people. My eyes have always drawn to the enigmatic and majestic image of a black beau Lady carrying her baby Jesus. Both are robed with elegant gowns; bejeweled with jewelries, and crowned with golden crowns. As I move inside the sacred portals, only that time the vendors give privacy to other pilgrims and me with the Lady, then they search for other patrons to sell their religious souvenirs. Devotees bow and pray to the Lady. Some mumble in conversation. Few are amused and posed for a picture taking behind her elevated royal image. As a practice, many Marian disciples fell in line going through a stairway which led to the back of the icon and they wipe her gown with hankies or touch her for blessing and luck.

6. A Stroll in Buntun Bridge via Calesa – Tugue’s authentic trademark! (roman fleuve! novel river!)– Every time I visit the talked-about pilgrimage site in the province, I have to pass an important marker - the Buntun Bridge, known to be the second longest bridge before in the country. Its massive steels built by the Japanese. A legend had that blood of children poured for its foundation. It connected Tuguegarao to nearby towns of Solana and Enrile. But the joyride wouldn’t be completed without appreciating the mighty Pinacanauan River from the bridge.

7. Site Seeing to Antique Churches around the Province (de rigueur! socially and culturally obligatory!)– The Cathedral in Tuguegarao City is a gem itself as well as a national treasure. It is one of the most beautiful antique churches in the province. Then temporarily built on sixth (6th) of May 1604, began the founding of Tuguegarao as a ‘mission-pueblo’, with Fray Thomas Villa, O.P. as the first vicar under the patronage of Saints Peter and Paul, two great apostles I considered in the bible. Not until 1761, its permanent construction, under the auspicious hand had then Father Antonio Lobato of the same congregation of the Dominicans finished the task after seven (7) years. The Dominicans’ emergent power centuries ago in the province manned and built many of the churches here. Proved to what known to be Cagayanos faith, which stretched its religious muscles as it entered the new ecclesiastical jurisdiction in 1905 to share power with Cebu and Nueva Caceres. Neuva Segovia in old Lalloc, one of the first four cities of Spanish colonial stay in the archipelago in 16th century, crowned as a bisphoric suffragan to the Archdiocese of Manila, covering the vastness of northern Luzon. With my mom’s expertise of Lalloc’s once grand era, she told me about its history and arts, the former ecclesiastical seat of power in north of Luzon which lost its grandeur after the privilege was moved to rival Vigan in Ilocos Sur in 1755. But Spanish authorities transferred the provincial capital to the booming Tuguegarao in 1831. Elatedly, she told me that St Peter and St Paul’s facade and its architectural design had almost copied the primordial and historic Lalloc’s (now Lallo) cathedral of Neuva Segovia.

8. Nature tripping and Casino at Sun City at Sta Ana (pied-à-terre! foot on ground!) My brothers and me usually dare for nature tripping. Cagayan province has plenty of it. It bears variety of ferns and other floral species hanged at the towering trees in most of its tropical forests. While on our trek, I am sometimes in my best appearance to explain to them families of wildlife species which subdue the almost dipterocarp Cagayan forests. Family Columbidae, Family Suidae, Family Cervidal. I am also fascinated with rattan, which is already scarce because villagers harvest it for furniture. This species are difficult but really charming plants, considered being a natural part of the forest. The coastal town of Aparri with wide expanse of black and fine sand beaches, early on and even today, are mostly inhabited by sea-faring Ibanags and migrant Ilocanos. A proud town and most of the times bagged the awards as the cleanest in the province. It was a butt of joke among my friends that this known town in Luzon was the shortest way to cross Taiwan since many of Taiwanese illegal vessels caught fish in this northern water territory. Better yet, but slowly chased by the Philippine Coast Guards. I like this average beach site, not because of its black sands, although there are better resorts and beaches in Bugeuy, Sanchez Mira, Claveria and Babuyan Islands, but because of its historical relevance! So weird! Way back it was a booming port during the Spanish times; Mexican galleons from Acapulco overflowed goods in exchange for native commodities like tobacco, lumber and dried fish. At present, it plays a vital role to alleviating the province’s wealth and economy. And it seems it is preparing itself to be the next city in the province. And Cagayan's counterpart of Subic - the Cagayan Special Economic Zone, houses little China's Sun City. Port Irene hosts casinos and other gaming facilities, scenic spots and historical landmarks are present in Sta Ana town. Tourists spots include Cape Engaño Lighthouse at Punta Verde point, White beaches like Anguib Beach, Mapurao Beach, and Gotan mangroove forest and waterfalls.

9. Lallo’s Midden Shells and Magapit Suspension Bridge (vol-au-vent! flight of the wind!)– According to my eldest brother, there is an interesting archaeological site about shell middens in the old capital of Cagayan. About 21 shell midden sites spread along the Lower Cagayan River. Charles, my brother, tells me that these sites are known to be the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia and South China. To see the place, we have to pass by the Magapit Suspension Bridge. It thrills me because many times dad mentioned to me that this bridge was first of its kind in Asia. It seems like trivia to me, though, with largest shell middens and first suspension bridge in the Asian continent? Huh, I realized this valley was truly special and historic in a way.


10. Alcala’s Milk Candy and Iguig’s Calvary Hills (joie de vivre! joy of living!) - Alacala town was originally known as “Fulay,” (red in Ibanag). Its soil has this distinct color. Milk candies are local delicacies and nice buy for pasalubong to friends, officemates, and relatives in Manila. Each pack is worth P 25 pesos. But it’s worth the price! Southward, Iguig is best site to buy hand-made pottery and ceramics. My erudite brother Charles lectured me again that Spaniards named this town after a renowned and flamboyant native chieftain “Ig”. But the highlight in Iguig is the historic centuries-old parish church, proudly built on the hill. Along its entrance, we spotted a mildew-coated well, dated 1768, but already abandoned and ignored. It was once a source of drinking water according to some locals. Then, a grandiose image of resurrected Christ would hail travelers. Its superiority absolutely intimidated a sinner. Though, its chapel had ostentatious design. Beautiful buttresses and bricks made it even enviable for tourists like me. In that hillock site, the best part of the tour would be the colorful bigger than life-size 14 stations of Jesus Christ on a rolling terrain, depicting his suffering before his death on Mount Calvary. Its images truly verified passion. For sure, multitude of faithful devotees during Lenten Season marched here, with its dramatic prosaic view of the beautiful longest Cagayan River and the hallowed view looked like that of the River Jordan.