Impressions about Buguey

Posted on March 7th, 2007 by Temujin.
Categories: My Philippines, Cagayan.

Buguey is a town about thirty to forty minutes jeepney ride from Aparri. When we arrived we booked the only available inn. It was situated along Buguey beach.

Buguey beach was a typical beach. It had black sands and there was an ordinary view. But it has powerful waves and it was fun to play in the waves.

After leaving our stuffs inside the inn we went back to the town proper. The problem with Buguey was the availability of inn and places to eat. There were some local cafeterias but I didn’t think they were fit for tourism. I figured Buguey rarely have visitors because there wasn’t much place to see except for the beach.

But still Buguey has a different appeal. It is a peaceful and slow moving municipality - a perfect place to be if you want to be alone and away from the bustle of the city.

We ate a local cafeteria where an old lady took care of us. She was very concerned about us that she reminded me of my own mother.

We then bought some canned goods, hotdogs, and marshmallows that we could eat in the inn.

In the afternoon we bathed in the beach. Jen and Harry built sand castles. Then we played in the powerful waves.

In the evening we made a bonfire where we cooked the hotdogs.

It was very quiet in the beach and we were the only people there as the inn caretaker already went home early in the evening.

I looked at our inn. It stood all alone. Somehow it kind of reminded of a haunted house from a horror movie.

I wondered if there was any ghost around.

We had a fun time making bonfire and eating our dinner along the beach.

After some conversation, we decided to go back to our room and slept.

Fisher Folks of Buguey

In the morning, before we left, seaciel and I decided to explore the beach.  I noticed two people throwing a line into the water and then they would quickly pull the string right back.

Sometimes I could see a  fish  at the end of the string as they pulled it right back.

I was amazed. This was the first time I have seen anyone catch fish by just throwing a line in the beach.

seaciel and I got very curious. We approached them and we peered in their boat to look at their catch. We found shrimps and fishes of different sizes.

I asked permission from the fisherman and then I took a picture of seaciel holding a shrimp.

The other day I spent the afternoon chasing the tiny crabs crawling along the beach.

So I asked the fisherman. “Manong, Why haven’t you caught any crab?”

Manong said, “Oh. We don’t catch crabs here. The big crabs can be found in the river.”

He was referring to the river near the cafeteria where we ate.

“I see.”

We took some more pictures of the beach and ourselves.

At around 10am we left to go back to Tuguegarao city.


4 comments.

The Trip to Aparri

Posted on March 5th, 2007 by Temujin.
Categories: My Philippines, Cagayan.

Sometime at the end of October 2005, while the country prepared to celebrate All Saints Day, seaciel, Jen, Harry, and I prepared on a journey. We took a bus at Cubao which would take us to the northern most tip of Luzon - Aparri. We started at 10pm and the trip would take about 12 hours.

We slept mostly throughout the night or atleast we tried to amidst the bus jerking and twisting along the highway.

In the morning, Jen tapped me and urged me to look outside. I parted the curtains and I discovered an awesome view.

The bus was cruising along Roxas highway and we have entered a valley. On either side we could see the Sierra Madre and Cordillera mountain ranges.

We arrived at Aparri at two in the afternoon. We were supposed to go to Aparri beach but we were tired and hungry that we needed a place to stay. My friends and I decided to go to Buguey where a local told us there was an Inn.


0 comments.

Cagayan, a Spelunker’s Paradise

Posted on November 8th, 2005 by seaciel.
Categories: My Philippines, Cagayan.

Our next destination after Buguey was Penablanca, this town alone is packed with hundreds of caves of different classifications, some are partially explored, others still virgin. With the help of experienced tour guides, we went inside the 3 devirginized caves, Callao Cave, Roc Cave and San Carlos Cave
The most popular and the easiest to explore among the 4 is Callao Cave. It has seven chambers and vast limestone formations where the Pinacanauan River runs thoroughly. This big-dome cave with skylight and a chaper has a relaxing ambience and picturesque view that earned various appreciations from all over the globe and has become appealing to local as well as international tourists.
Roc Cave is not easy,  it requires some mountain climbing so prepare to transform into  spiderman because the natural walls have a lot of finger and toe holds. In entering the cave you need to bow down and crawl.

San Carlos Caves is considered as one of the toughest caves in Cagayan. Dubbed as The Ice Cream Parlor because it has a white stalagmite that resembles  scooped ice cream. Unfortunately, we had to go back for some ‘light’ reason.  :)
Hopefully we could go back to San Carlos cave to learn more about the art of crawling.


0 comments.

Buguey, Cagayan

Posted on November 7th, 2005 by seaciel.
Categories: My Philippines, Cagayan.

Last October 30, 2005, my friends and I decided to stay in Aparri on our first day in Cagayan. We wanted to see the northern most part of the Philippines so we thought of going there. But for some reason our feet brought us to this place which I thought is still part of Aparri. A remote place which is unknown to us, Buguey.
Buguey is situated at the northern most part of the province of Cagayan. It was bounded on the north by the Babuyan Channel, where the Pacific Ocean meets with the China Sea and where the Babuyan Islands are situated. I was thrilled to know that we’re almost at the tip of the Philippines. :)
With the help of some locals, we were brought to El Presidente beach resort, the only known resort in town. This laidback town is not touristy enough, no good restaurants, limited accomodations, no tourist information but the place has something different to offer. Solemnity, simplicity and a long stretch of fine black sand beach.
There we took a plunge and ride with the beach waves, ran along the seashore, pose with the shrimps, played with the sands, built a castle with crablets as king and queen.

In Buguey, we were kids again.


68 comments.

Buguey In VIEWFINDER

Posted on November 7th, 2005 by seaciel.
Categories: My Philippines, Cagayan.








3 comments.