Places to travel: February 2013

The Banaue Rice Terraces should be on every Filipino's must-visit list. The Ifugaos learned how to use the contours of the mountains to cultivate rice paddies, using the force of gravity for natural water irrigation. This knowledge was passed down from generation to generation for 2,000 years. It is highly recommended to experience this great example of harmony between man and nature.

Tapiya Falls in Batad

There are many rice terraces in Banaue, and you should see the three most-visited ones: (a) the Grand Rice Terraces in Banaue (b) the Rice Terraces in Batad, which are among the most visited because you can swim in the natural Tapia waterfalls; and (c) the Rice Terraces of Mayoyao are the most preserved because it is difficult to get there.

The Banaue Rice Terraces are also included in the book 1,000 Places To See Before You Die, which was written and popularized by Patricia Schultz.

Cagayan is home to picturesque beaches, volcanic islands and historically significant natural and man-made sites. It may be devoid of luxury trappings, true, but it is rich in natural, rugged beauty. The traveler who strikes out for it (he won’t have to go very far, really) takes its richest rewards.

Claveria

Callao Cave

Cagayan River

Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape

Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Tuguegarao City


Cagayan Provincial Museum and Historical Research Center

Is a general museum which houses an extensive collection of artifacts, antiques, ethnographies, tradewares, heirloom pieces and liturgical works in the province and fossils of animals that once roamed the valley

Basilica Minore of Our Lady of Piat

Offer a prayer at the Basilica Minore of Our Lady of Piat, a well-known pilgrimage site

Old Bell in the Far East of Camalaniugan

The Sancta Maria Bell was forged in 1595, the same year when Catholic friars converted the local chieftain, Datu Guiyab, and his people to Christianity. The year 1565 is also only three decades after the establishment of the Spanish colony in the Philippines by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. It is also not known how the bell was brought to the town.

A year after, the original parish church was built, the third one in Cagayan province. A church dedicated to the Polish saint San Jacinto de Polonia (Saint Jacek of Poland) was built in 1746 but was later destroyed by typhoon and earthquake. In later years, the church was moved to its present site, away from the seasonal overflow of the Cagayan river, which threatened the foundations of the original structure. Today, the Sancta Maria bell hangs together with the town's other historic bells in the belfry of the modern-style church.