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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| Palawan? Nah! This is in Quirino Province :) |
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| The formidable Bimmapor Rock Formation, the starting point of our boat ride |
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| 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.
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| 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.
