PH & Beyond: Santa Ana, Cagayan - Palaui Island Part I Saturday, July 11, 2015

Unplugged from everything, a group of friends from work and I spent a couple of days in two of the islands of Palaui. This part is the Cape Engaño which named and a tribute to one of the four main battles called Battle of Cape Engaño in the World War II Second Battle of the Philippine Sea. Palaui Island lies off the northeastern most point of the island of Luzon in the Philippines and administratively part of the municipality of Santa Ana in Cagayan Province.

With the organization and centralization of community based Palaui Tour program, we arrived at the beach of Cape Engaño at noontime. We were welcomed by the friendly local community of the island, had halo-halo too and took a few minutes of rest after the 2-hour roadtrip from Tuguegarao City to Port Vicente and 45-minutes boat ride through the relatively strong waves to the cape while our kind-hearted boatmen grilled our fresh fishes that were bought from the port.

Crystal clear water meets the powdered sand beach with crushed corals on the shore

The raw beach of Siwangag Cove is one of the locations where international reality show twenty-seventh season, Survivor: Blood vs. Water was filmed. Also a protected marine-sanctuary where tourist can do snorkeling.

Roughly 30 minutes of resting, we decided to start the trail going up to the lighthouse, we were welcomed by this beautiful scenery of hills and mountains lying at the back of the beach. They said this is where the helicopter of the show, Survivor used to land before.

The first part of the trail is an easy and manageable climb going up because of concrete stairs built by the local tourism.

It was supposedly a 20-minute trail but because of scenic views along our way up, we made it to the top after 40 minutes. He is our friendly tour guide by the way. :)

Felt like we made it to the Marlboro hills of Batanes! Cape Engaño is indeed the highlight of our Palaui adventures. I love being reminded of how beautiful the Philippines can be by going to unlikely places like this.

The over 100-year old historical lighthouse of Cape Engaño also known as Faro de Cabo Engaño. It is one of lighthouses built during the Spanish Period that served as gateway for incoming ships. 

Cape Engaño is a charming place with raw aesthetics and peacefulness of rural settings. Sometimes the silence comforts better than words so I hope I was able to document this trip with my photos. I also wish I was able to give justice to the beauty of this place enough to take you there.