Five reasons to visit Cagayan

Churches  

If you want a leisurely city tour, you can ask a trike to take you to the DOT office and ask for a calesa city tour. The tour costs P250/hr per calesa. 

 

Things to see in Tuguegarao include the St. Peter Cathedral and St. Hyacinth, both Spanish colonial churches, the latter located across St. Paul de Chartres, which is a replica of the church of the same name in Rome. 

 

There was a big Spanish settlement in Cagayan, which is why the province is dotted with churches. It’s a good place for religious tourists, especially during Holy Week.

 

Food  

Almost all provinces in the Philippines have their version of pansit and longganisa, and Cagayan is no different. Try the Longganisang Tuguegarao, small sausages filled with meat that are dry, sweet, and spicy, the flavors going well with vinegar, making it excellent for longsilog, where it is paired with garlic fried rice and a sunny side up egg. 

 

Another dish to look out for is the Pansit Batil Patung, a local noodle dish where the eater plays as much part in determining the flavor as the cook. The pansit includes a lot of shredded meat and vegetables and is topped with a sunny side up egg. It is served with a cup of egg soup, which one can drink on the side or pour into the noodles. Each customer is also given a saucer of chopped onions, which one can mix with soy sauce and vinegar to create his or her own sauce to further enhance the pansit’s flavor. 

 

Cagayan is also known for its milk candy, some of which are still homemade. Two popular brands are Alcala and Segovia’s Finest La-lo Milk Candy.

 

Nature

 

Don’t forget to stop by the Callao Caves and the Pinacanauan River, both located almost an hour away from the city. 

 

Callao is a cave system with over 300 chambers, most of them still unexplored. The caves are where the remains of Callao Man was found in 2007. The 67,000-year-old human bone excavated in one of the caves is said to predate Tabon Man, making it the oldest human remains found in the Philippines. Only about seven of the cave’s chambers are open to the public, each chamber containing something to see, whether it be a rock formation or, in the case of the second chamber, the St. Lourdes Chapel. There is a P20 entrance fee to the caves, with an additional P200 for a guide. All the guides here are trained volunteers, many of them out of school youths. They’re pretty knowledgeable about the area and can be quite entertaining. Tip them well.

 

If you are planning to take a tour of the Pinacanauan River, time your trip so that you can watch the bats fly out of their cave at around 5 p.m. The boatman will bring you to a small calcium island where you can get a good view of the bat cave. All you have to do is wait until the bats make their nightly flight. But this isn’t the only reason to take a ride down the Pinacanauan. There are many beautiful things to see along the riverbank, including rock formations and a very old balete tree.

 

Culture  

Want to learn more about Cagayan? Drop by the impressive Provincial Capitol and check out the nearby Provincial Museum, which chronicles the evolution of the province from prehistoric times up to the present. 

 

You can also visit the various hornos, or kilns, located around the province that the Spanish used to bake the bricks for their churches. Horno sites include Tuguegarao, Piat, Camalaniugan, and Rizal. Some of the local governments have failed to see the significance of the hornos, however, with one of them trying to “beautify” the site by building a cement wishing well nearby—and painting it to look like brick.

 

Beaches

If it’s the sea you’re after, head to Sta. Ana, where the locals go for seaside fun. There are many resorts in the area catering to different budgets, many of them with beachfronts that have either black or white sand. 

 

Make time to take a trip to Palaui Island, a beautiful white sand island with clear waters that is also home to the Cape Engano Lighthouse built by the Spanish in 1892, and waterfalls that can only be reached after a 10-minute trek to the center of the island. Bring food and make a day of it, or, if in season, buy fresh caught and cooked seafood like soft-shelled crabs from some of the residents.

 

Pop culture

If you grew up in the 80s, you know the importance the town of Aparri has in Filipino pop culture. It was named as the province on the northern tip of the Philippines (before it was changed to Batanes) in the variety show Eat Bulaga’s opening song, and, if you are a pop culture buff, should be visited for that alone. 

 

Aparri is a bustling community no different from many in this country. It is, however, also home to the Aparri Delta, the point where the Cagayan River meets the Philippine Sea. The delta is now a fishport, but watching the river water crash against the waves of the ocean is still quite a sight.

 

These are but a few reasons to visit the province of Cagayan. It’s a beautiful province that hasn’t become part of the tourist trail yet, which is why you should take advantage of it now, before others discover its unique beauty. –KG, GMA News