Tuguegarao is a city located on the northeastern side of mainland Luzon. It is about 485 kilometers away from Metro Manila and is part of Cagayan Province in the Cagayan Valley Region. The province is bordered by Ilocos Norte, Apayao, Kalinga, and Isabela. Tuguegarao’s main claim to fame is the record temperature it set for the Philippines at 42.2°Celsius in 1912 and 1969.

But temperature aside, Tuguegarao has a few tourist spots up its sleeve that might surprise travelers who usually just pass through it on their way to the nearby town of Penablanca for spelunking, or Palaui Island and Claveria. It has a couple of historical churches, one of the longest bridges in the country, and a delectable noodle dish—pancit batil patong—that can rival the best of what the Philippines has to offer.

Before taking that bus ride up north once again, think about dropping by Tuguegarao City and let this travel guide and trip itinerary open your maps towards the hottest city this side of the Philippines.

Cresting a ten-foot wave, our boat crashed back down to the sea with a massive force, effectively smashing my face with a wall of cold sea water. This has been going on for almost half an hour now and I’m getting sick of wiping salt water off my face. The thought of sitting out front seemed like a good idea when we sailed off from the port of San Vicente, it definitely didn’t seem like a good one now. Another wave came into view. We climbed. We crested. We slammed. Wipe. Repeat.

NAVIGATING THE ROUGH WATERS OF PALAUI

Our Palaui Island tour wasn’t a hundred percent sealed even as our Lakbay Norte bus drove to Sta. Ana’s wharf. It was drizzling and the sky didn’t seem to approve of us boarding the outrigger boats dancing lightly on the choppy shoreline. We waited a few minutes for the coast guards’ verdict. And it’s a go.

I didn’t know if I should be glad or not.

After getting fully drenched by the boatride to Palaui Island, two tableful of bounties from the sea welcomed us—plates of crisply fried tilapia lathered in tomatoes, fresh seaweeds, hinalabos lobsters, shrimp sinigang and lumot. Lumot?! Yes, lumot. Lumot as in sea algae. Can we actually eat these?! I asked myself in disbelief.

And so goes our culinary adventure in the Province of Cagayan, a mix of familiar dishes in between food totally alien—but not less delicious—to us. There is, of course, the ubiquitous northern noodle dish, the pancit batil patong, in almost all the places we visited. But indeed, there is more to the north than carabeef and noodles.

 

 

CHICHARABAO

  WHERE TO BUY: LIGHTHOUSE COOPERATIVE YBANAG FOOD PRODUCTS, TUGUEGARAO • GPS COORDINATES MAP: 17.613028, 121.726361

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Tuguegarao City’s version of the chicharon (pork rind), is strangely enough, not made from pork, but from carabeef. Dubbed as the chicharabao, this uniquely Cagayan snack is lighter than your usual chicharon and without the crisply fried fat and meat. It is made from precisely cut carabao skin which are popped on an extremely hot cauldron of cooking oil. It comes in three flavors, garlic, onion & vinegar and, my favorite, hot & spicy. A note of caution, this snack is extremely addictive.

 

 

PAWA

  WHERE TO BUY: AROUND PIAT BASILICA, APAYAO ROAD, CENTRO, PIAT, CAGAYAN • GPS COORDINATES MAP: 17.786678, 121.480211

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Besides the venerated Black Virgin Mary, Piat holds another heavenly gem along its church grounds, the sweet pawa. The bite-sized snack is made from steamed glutinous rice filled with sweetened grounded peanuts. We were able to sample it for desserts when we visited the Cagayan State University for a brief tour of their farming facilities—which is free, by the way. But if you don’t have the time to visit CSU, there are readily available on the streets near Piat Church.

 

 

YBANAG LONGGANISA

  WHERE TO BUY: PUBLIC MARKETS AROUND CAGAYAN

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Made by the same guys that produce chicharabao, Tuguegarao’s version of the pinoy breakfast favorite, the longganisa, is made from, guess what, carabeef. Like the Vigan longganisa and Baguio longganisa, it is on the garlicky side with bits of fat interspersed with meat, making it really flavorful when slowly fried to a crisp. If carabeef’s not your thing, which is a shame since it is more flavorful, they do have a pork version of this one too.

 

 

PUTOFLAN

  WHERE TO BUY: SEGURO SNACK HAUZ, GATTARAN, CAGAYAN • GPS COORDINATES MAP: 18.106224, 121.671517

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After finishing three pieces of fried chicken, a scoop of veggies and a helping of pancit batil patong, we were treated with a variation of puto in the town of Gattaran by Seguro Snack Hauz. These are soft rice cakes made from flour and egg yolks, but with twist, it has sweet leche flan bottom. Lovely little things.
~ PHOTO BY MARTIN SAN DIEGO FOR NPVB

 

PANCIT BATIL PATONG

  WHERE TO BUY: CARINDERIA STALLS AROUND CAGAYAN

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We’ve had a total of four servings of Tuguegarao’s famous pancit batil patong throughout our journey across Cagayan Province. Indeed, this noodle dish, a concoction of miki, minced carabeef, topped with crunchy carajay and poached egg, and paired with batil soup and chopped onions is so popular, it’s available not only in Tuguegarao where it originates, but all over Cagayan as well. Besides Win-Mae Panciteria in Tuguegarao, we also dined on it at the towns of Gattaran, Lal-Lo (surprisingly, they use sotanghon as noodles and not the traditional pancit batil patong miki) and Aparri. Those last three were served in a bilao, good for big groups like us.

 

 

SINANTA

  WHERE TO BUY: CARINDERIA STALLS AROUND CAGAYAN

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Another noodle dish by the Ybanags, sinanta is usually eaten as snacks and served during birthdays. The soup is a mix of everything—sotanghon and miki noodles, chicken, pork and clams, all swimming on a soup flavored with patis (fish sauce). It is usually paired with pinakufu, a sweet rice cake, and hot choco. Talk about a mix-matched combo! This isn’t only popular in Tuguegarao, but the whole of Cagayan. Point in fact, it was served to us as a pre-dinner appetizer at the Lyceum of Aparri!

 

 

LUMOT

  WHERE TO BUY: JEROLYNDA WHITE BEACH RESORT, STA. ANA, CAGAYAN • GPS COORDINATES MAP: 18.516046, 122.159253

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And finally, lumot. Served with a host of seafood, lumot is lato’s (which they call pukpuklo, by the way) lesser know cousin. Both are seaweeds, the former having a more algae-ish consistency. Which is, of course, quite apt, since it is a kind of green algae. The taste is a tad similar to lato, which is salty, like sea salty. Speaking for myself, I can’t eat this on its own, but it definitely goes well when paired with fried fish and lobsters.

~ PHOTO BY MARTIN SAN DIEGO FOR NPVB

 

CAGAYAN PASALUBONG

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And as if these are not enough, we also brought home a taste of Cagayan with us back home. Besides Tuguegarao’s chicharabao, Ybanag longganisa and carabeef tapa, we also brought home packs of Alcala and Lal-lo’s carabao milk candies. And personally, after tasting how good the local chili dip is with pancit batil patong, I bought a couple of bottles of Puti’s spicy chili garlic dip in Lal-lo.

 

THIS TRIP IS PART OF NORTH PHILIPPINE VISITOR’S BUREAU'S (NPVB) LAKBAY NORTE 6 TOUR,
A FOUR-DAY MEDIA FAMILIARIZATION TRIP AIMED AT PROMOTING NORTHERN DESTINATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES.

It was almost twilight when I hefted my backpack from our Lakbay Norte bus. Like the rest of the day, it was drizzling. Totally bushed from visiting the churches of Cagayan and with rumbling tummies from helpings of Tuguegarao’s scrumptious pancit batil patong, it was finally time to rest. Or so I thought.

Coming from an all-night bus travel from the province of Nueva Ecija, it was with immense pleasure that we’re again sleeping on a real bed. And Balai Carmela’s fitted our needs perfectly.

House after house, alley after alley, we saw the same thing. Clay makers. The whole town seemed busy mashing, kneading, molding and drying all things clay. Most do it on their front yards, some on their porch—their kids looking on—and a few, right out on the street.

MAKING POTTERY IS A NORMAL DAY TO DAY THING IN BARANGAY ATULU

I’ve seen a few pottery centers in the country, from Vigan’s pagburnayan to Antique’s Tibiao clay pottery, but the scale of pottery production in Iguig is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Everyone seemed hell-bent on mashing these earthen lumps into something more useful. And surprisingly, I didn’t see a single potter’s wheel to mold their clay with. The Itawes of Iguig uses their bare hands, with the aid of simple wooden implements, to form these into jars, vases and even stoves and oven!

1581 marked the year that Spanish conquistadors set foot in Cagayan. Sent forth by the fourth Governor-General of the Philippines, a host of Spaniards marched through the valleys of Cagayan, together with their families, spreading the Catholic faith amongst the locals and building massive brick churches along the way.

OUR LADY OF PIAT’S RETABLO

To be honest, the first thing that comes to my mind when one mentions Cagayan aren’t really old churches, but noodles, their delectable pancit batil patong, to be precise. But as fate would have it, that same noodle dish is forever linked with an old church where it is most popular. The first time I asked locals in Tuguegarao where I could find a mean dish of pancit batil patong, they all referred me to one place, the street adjacent to the old church.

Before discovering pancit batil patong, the first thing that comes to our mind when one mentions Tuguegarao City is its cave—a huge one where light filters in from a natural crevice above, illuminating a row of pews facing a natural stone altar. A cave, whose chambers are large enough to hold weddings in. One unlike any other in the Philippines. Callao Cave.

INSIDE CALLAO CAVE IN PENABLANCA

But we were dead wrong on our assumptions.

During my first visit to Tuguegarao City, I was finally able to step inside this northern gem. It’s not located in Tuguegarao City, as I previously thought, but in the sleepy town of Peñablanca. Twenty four kilometers away from where I thought it was.

► CHECK OUT: TUGUEGARAO TRAVEL GUIDE

We braved the scorching afternoon heat to find souvenirs to bring back home from Tuguegarao City. We walked, scouring the local market and the main avenue of the city, finding nothing. Tuguegarao isn’t really that prominent on the tourism map and its lack of souvenir shops is quite understandable.

Tired, defeated, and dehydrated, we finally went back to our hotel, Holiday Plaza Tuguegarao, and asked where we can find some pasalubong.

INSIDE LIGHTHOUSE COOPERATIVE’S PASALUBONG STORE

Apparently, there’s only one place to buy souvenirs in Tuguegarao City. One of the friendly staff told us to head over to the lighthouse along the city center. We were taken aback, there’s a lighthouse in the city?!

Well, not a real lighthouse, but rather, a cooperative named Lighthouse along Luna Street.

► CHECK OUT: TUGUEGARAO TRAVEL GUIDE