Travelling to Quirino Province: Another Philippine Destination Waiting to be Explored

I recently included being able to visit all the 81 provinces of the Philippines in my bucket list. Having this goal means I would also need to go to off-the-beaten destinations. This is the reason behind my decision to go to Quirino Province to make the most of the long weekend last August 21-25.

As a pastime, I like reading travel blogs and planning my own itinerary whenever we plan to travel. I tried doing the same for this trip but found that there are very few articles written about traveling to this place.  In fact, I have encountered a lot of people giving me a blank stare or asking me, “where is that?” or “what’s in there?” when I told them I’d be going to Quirino Province with Rafi. I couldn’t blame them though because Quirino Province is really not a popular tourist destination (just yet). Good thing though, the provincial website of Quirino posted contact details of their tourism office so I decided to contact them directly to help me plan the trip. Kuya Ian Nicolas was the one who helped me plan our itinerary for our two days and two nights of stay in their place.

Here’s a recount of those two awesome days that we spent in the province of Quirino.

GETTING THERE

August 20, 2014

Rafi and I planned to travel at night so we can start our tour the following day. We wanted to take the 8pm trip to Maddela via Five Star. We arrived at the terminal 10 minutes before 8 only to find out that no trip was going to Maddela that day and that the next trip would be 8pm the following day. I did not lose hope just yet as I know that there are other buses traveling up north. We could try to get into one of those trips and still arrive in Maddela morning the following day. So we went to Victory Liner in Kamias since they have several trips to Santiago and Tuguegarao. Unfortunately, we were told that the trips are already full and that we could line up as chance passengers. However, the queue was too long and we might not still be able to get into any bus until midnight. I was already thinking of ditching Quirino and going to the beach instead, particularly Baler or Zambales or even La Union. I told Rafi we should check out Genesis bus. The queue was short, however, when I tried contacting accommodations in Baler, I was told that they were already fully booked until August 24. My heart was almost crushed. I called kuya Ian to inform him that we might not be able to make it to Thursday and we’d catch the 8pm trip the following day. But he suggested that we travel in the morning instead, take the 7am trip so we could reach Quirino in the afternoon, take a rest and proceed with our tour Friday. That sounded like a good idea to me so my hopes were revived once more.

I also have apprehensions in the beginning because I thought travelling directly to this place is not as easy as travelling to other destinations in the northern part of the Philippines (e.g. Baguio, La Union, Tuguegarao or Santiago City). But then, I was wrong again. This experience taught me that there are at least two ways by which one could reach Quirino Province:

a.    You could ride a bus traveling directly to Maddela. These would include Five Star Bus, Florida (a.k.a. Dangwa) Bus, or Nelbusco. One way fare would cost you P489.00.

b.    You could also travel via buses going to Santiago, Isabela or Tuguegarao, Cagayan but get off at Cordon, Isabela. From here, you could ride a van going to Maddela. Fare from Cordon to their capitol in Cabarroguis costs P25.

You’d know you’re in Cordon when you see this junction.

When we arrived at the Capitol after nine hours of traveling, we met with kuya Ian who gave us a brief orientation, introduced us to his colleagues in the tourism office and showed us to our accommodation, the Abrasa MPC Hotel. We had a few hours of rest before we decided to head out for dinner in Palm Restaurant.

PLACES TO SEE

Day 1 – Trip to Nantugao Falls and Sinipit Falls

Day 1 was devoted to trekking two waterfalls. We left our accommodation at 8am, travelled for about 30 minutes going to Barangay Baguio Village in Diffun, Quirino, where we started our trek. It took us about an hour and a half to reach Nuntagao Falls including two rest stops.

Kuya Ian and Kuya Chris prepared our lunch while we enjoyed dipping in the cold water of Nantugao Falls. There is no basin though in Nantugao but you can bathe from one of the cascades.

A few minutes before 2pm, we started our trip down to Sinipit Falls. The cascade of Sinipit Falls was shorter than Nantugao Falls but bathing here was better than in Nantugao Falls because it has a wider basin.

Kuya Ian enjoying the waters of Sinipit Falls

Kuya Ian and Kuya Chris cut our bathing short when they saw that the clouds above already look dark and heavy. They were worried that the rain might catch us and make the descent more difficult. Indeed, it rained and we had to be more careful going down because the trail was already slippery. The rain drops mixing with my sweat felt refreshing.

We got back to our accommodation before 5 pm, our bodies tired from the day’s activity so we decided to have our dinner early from the panciteria across. 

Pancit Batil Patong

Day 2 

River Boating in Siniit River

I was excited for this trip. I was actually hoping we could do white water rafting but kuya Ian already informed me ahead that they only do river boating as of the moment.

Our starting point was the Bimmapor Rock Formation, named as such because it resembles a ship (bapor). 

Palawan? Nah! This is in Quirino Province :)

The formidable Bimmapor Rock Formation, the starting point of our boat ride

Dropped by this place to take our morning snack :)

After an hour and a half of boating, we took our lunch at the picnic area located at the end point of the boat ride. It is overlooking the bridge connecting Quirino Province to Aurora. From there, we were told that it would take another 3 hours to get to Baler if you have private car.

Spelunking at Aglipay Caves

After lunch, we headed to Aglipay caves. We only entered 4 chambers. Some of the ingress is too narrow requiring us to do a duck walk or enter lying down. Because we were only two, we were allowed to have a view of the secret chamber in Cave 2. Inside there were more rock formation and a wider room and higher dome where more bats live undisturbed.

I was informed that Aglipay cave has 38 more chambers but only 4 is open to the public as the other chambers has still not been explored. This is one of the challenges that the tourism office of Quirino is currently experiencing, as exploring the cave to come up with a map would be costly.

Kuya Ian making his way inside Aglipay Cave Chamber #2

Spelunking in Aglipay Cave marked the end of our tour. We had a trip to catch at 7pm that same day. Kuya Ian and kuya Chris helped us secure a ticket for our trip back to Manila. For our souvenir, we dropped by the place where fossilized flowers where being made. We bought some to bring home. Kuya Chris also took care of buying us tibukoy as additional pasalubong. 

Kuya Ian also opened his home to us so we could change our clothes prior to our trip back and have a place to stay while we wait for 7pm. It is during this time where we got to know our tour guides more personally as we had the chance to chat with their family. Kuya Ian also shared to us the plans to promote Quirino Province as a tourist destination.

During our two day trip to Quirino, I believe that what we have explored is just the tip of the iceberg. From what I heard, there are still a lot of places of interest, activities and eco-destinations in the province waiting to be explored – more waterfalls, caves and many more. For instance, water tubing in Siniit river is now under trial phase and wake boarding park in the Capitol is now being constructed. I really hope that the plans of Quirino Province to promote their province as a tourist destination would prosper and that more Filipinos will know that this beautiful place exists.