Worth the Wait

This trip was 18 years in the making. Sort of.





Back when Britney ruled every teenage boy's wet dreams, I entered university and met this group of really wonderful funny people. One of them, Jen, is from Cagayan, and from the instance we started considering each other as friends, she began telling us that we should really visit her home province.

We wanted to but circumstances never allowed us: we were too poor when we were in college (we couldn't even afford to buy Starbucks then), and when we started earning money, we couldn't sync our schedules. I call it the "travel paradox."

By some miracle, however, we chanced upon a weekend where all of us were free, so we found ourselves in a plane going to Tuguegarao and making a promise to each other that the first thing we would do in the city was to eat pancit batil patong.

We only had two days to go sight-seeing, so Sierra Cave was our first stop (after the pancit, of course, since we had to keep our promise). Jen insisted we go spelunking here since she's never seen the cave, which has only recently been opened to a limited number of tourists.

Exploring the cave was a new and fun experience, but if you're not the type who enjoy wading through thigh-deep mud and snake crawling through a tiny hole, then I suggest you go straight to the much more civilized Callao Cave.


This wouldn't be a trip to Cagayan if we didn't visit the province's most famous attraction--- Juan Ponce Enrile. Just kidding. We went to Palaui Island, of course.

In Palaui, there's Crocodile Island, Anguib Beach, Punta Verde and Engaño Cave. If you only have time to visit one of these places, make it Engaño Cove because the view from the lighthouse is just breathtaking.

How breathtaking? Well let's just say that it's worth the 18-year wait.

Callao Cave and it's famous chapel.

Anguib Beach --- a view from above and below water.

Crocodile Island

The Pacific Ocean as seen from the Engaño lighthouse

The Engaño Lighthouse

Engaño Cove