π Allahiban Viewpoint, PeΓ±ablanca, Cagayan
Largely covered by the thickness of the grandiose Sierra Madre mountains, PeΓ±ablanca is often thought as Cagayan's wildest frontier.
It is home to the province's highest peak, Mount Cetaceo and boasts some of the country's most spectacular caves and landscapes and seascapes providing a haven for high-spirited nature adventurers.
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| Pinacanauan River horseshoe bend known as a "meander" |
PeΓ±ablanca is undoubtedly Cagayan's ecotourism capital and at the same time promoted as the caving capital of the entire Philippines owing to its more than 300 tantalizing and mighty caves that riddled its limestone mountains. Its relatively low population density, the second most sparsely-peopled municipality of Cagayan next only to the pristine island town of Calayan, and its reasonably effective conservation measures ensured the region's richness in unspoiled wild expanse. It's land area is larger than the total territories of the municipalities of Amulung, Iguig, Enrile, Tuao and Tuguegarao combined.
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| One of the numerous limestone karsts of PeΓ±ablanca |
And so in 2003, under the recommendation of the DENR through the National Integrated Protected Areas or NIPAS, parts of the region became a Protected Landscape And Seascape. In 2018 as conservation became more accentuated, the then President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law through the Expanded National Integrated Protected Area System or ENIPAS the designation of the PeΓ±ablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape (PPLS) as a national park.
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| Biodiversity of PeΓ±ablanca, a green racquet tail plume |
The park's landscape is dominated by dome-shaped and extremely porous karst limestone mountains dotted with intriguing caves, traversed by the snaking and clean Pinacanauan River and augmented by the sight of dense scrubby vegetation that grows undisturbed on the karsts and cliffsides of the river.
The most popular part of the PPLS however is the Callao Caves National Park, undoubtedly the Cagayan's face of tourism because of its archaeological importance; the cradle of the earliest known Filipino humans, the Homo luzonensis that far predates the Palawan's "Tabon Man".
About 20 kilometers from the city of Tuguegarao lies an underrated but a good starting point for adventures further into the almost impenetrable rainforest of PeΓ±ablanca, the largest protected forest under stringent conservation in Cagayan. Known as the Allahiban Viewpoint, it is actually a commanding vantage point on top of a limestone mountain that offers a panoramic view of the river's horseshoe bend technically termed as a "meander" that beautifully curves between massive calves of limestone cliffs almost as beautiful and raw as the prehistoric landscape before the geologic time record.
Located in Sitio Bagabba in Brgy. Aggugaddan, one of the 18 out of 24 barangays that constitute the protected landscape and seascape of PeΓ±ablanca, the viewpoint does not seem to instill comfort and easy trek for the novice especially when it is done during day time or when the sun is already fairly high. The arduous ascent is hot and sweaty - unless you decide to take the trek at dawn up the mountain to witness the morning clouds wafting over the horseshoe bend, and those, appear much lower than the top of the mist-drenched cliffs.
There is a disadvantage however if the hike is done not at daytime; you could not see the verdant surroundings and the immense ocean of greeneries that blankets the environs, the emblem of the great Sierra Madre.
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| The hot, almost tree-less terrain going to Allahiban Viewpoint |
But for the seasoned excursionists, the trail is generally not a difficult undertaking for an easy one hour stroll to a dusty track and to where you could only see rather short, shrubby vegetation that cannot offer cool shades at all. It is the heat that exhausts hikers up, and the razor-sharp saccharum grasses (talahib) and thorny vines that bring nuisance and discomfort to the thirsty climbers.
On the top however, the length of the bending meander drives the spectators crazy with the eye-pleasant, dazzling river-forest-landscape that defines the grandeur of PeΓ±ablanca apart from its enigmatic caves. From the viewpoint and across the river, a vertical limestone mountain stands mightily above all, resembing a plateau, evoking the majesty of the Table Mountain of South Africa, one of the Seven Wonders of Nature; a scene that truly remained unchanged for millennia.
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| One panoramic portion of the immaculate, clean river |
The Pinacanauan river is a clean body of water that sashed the white rocky landscape of PeΓ±ablanca, providing a water source downstream to Tuguegarao City. As the calcite (CaCO³) embedded on rocks dissolves in the river, the corrosive acidity of water is reduced, raising its pH and also purifying the water. To where the river emanates is the thick tangle of primeval tropical rainforest of PeΓ±ablanca, known home of Cagayan mega fauna such as the vulnerable Philippine deer (ugsa), Philippine crocodile (bukkarot), Sierra Madre shrew (sangyo) Malay civet (mutit, musang) green racquet tail, and the endangered Philippine eagle. The Isabela oriole (Oriolus isabellae), a vivid yellow bird (kilyawan) previously tagged as extinct for many years has perplexed ornithologists from Mabuwaya Foundation, a conservationist group working for endemic and endangered Philippine species when they recorded sightings of the bird thriving in Sierra Madre particularly in Baggao and PeΓ±ablanca. The discovery testifies the nurturing capacity of the northern Sierra Madre to take refuge flora and fauna species in severe distress.
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| Scrubs and bushes dominate the early parts of the trail going up to the Allahiban viewpoint |
From the giant karst across the horseshoe bend, is the visible entrance to the Bat Cave named so for the amazing spectacle of million bats in their daily, synchronized circadian flight that occurs at dusk in search of food while the nearby Callao Caves eco-tourism zone lies northwest of the bend and is very accessible from Brgy. Quibal with ease.
Up to Allahiban Viewpoint, grasses and shrubs dominate the jagged trails made up of limestones giving clear visibility of the open, vast 360 degrees panorama of the surroundings: the immense corn and rice fields of Lagum on the east, the village and the flatlands of Aggugadda on the west, and from north to south is the immensity of tropical greeneries that was cut in the middle by the Pinacanauan river.
Below is an extensive band of riverine bushes that lined the riverbanks and an impervious tangle of vines, stunted and gnarled trees and bushes, wild flowers and ferns obscure the precipitous section of the cliff face from top to bottom. This obscurity allows the viewer to stand fearlessly on a ledge near the cliff edge, generally fooling first-time visitors into believing that the point to where they stood is not high, rather than the less visible, hidden 200-meter deep chasm that awaits in disgrace the uncareful and negligent.
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| The upper right portion of the limestone mountain where Callao Caves are located |
At the basal rock located at the bottom of the cliff called a "pediment" are thick vegetations thriving on the wetness and relatively abundant water as it sits rightly at the edge of the river. On the cliff face however, virtually contains no soil at all and as stated, only long-lived plants and bushes eke out a living by attaching their roots to the holes and gashes found on the very steep cliff face.
The Allahiban vegetation is very sparse since the level and slightly rounded top of the cliff called a "bluff", is extremely dry and excessively drained as it cannot hold enough water. The soil there is very thin where only perennial plants grow adaptively. But the bluff overlooking the body of water on the outside of a stream meander makes up more than enough of the stunning sight below than its bleak, grassy summit devoid of broadleaf trees.
These descriptions woven together, make for a fascinating visit to PeΓ±ablanca, literally translated to "white rock". These massive glistening limestone rocks that embody the central pillar of the protected landscape and seascape could be the first icon the Spaniards saw upon forming their bastion on this now first-class municipality that was once a village of the old Tuguegarao.
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| The Lord God made them all |
And to sum it up, PeΓ±ablanca is not just about the Callao Caves. Focusing in just one part of a place that is well-known and what is being advertised is absolutely not extraordinary. You have to discover more, shoot the angles less photographed, trek the path less traveled and don't just follow trails. Make them. And along the bumpy, scraggy road you take, you'll find the beauty of the immaculate river, the primordial landscape, the azure sea, the formidable jungles and the bright sky; all are part of what makes PeΓ±ablanca and the rest of the planet an extraordinary and exciting place to explore.
Video:
https://fb.watch/jDIdxJmx8s/
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"God made all things beautiful in His time and he put the world in man's heart so that they cannot measure God's creation from beginning to the end.
I know there is no better in man than for them to be happy and do good while living, and also, that, every man should eat, drink and enjoy the fruits of his labour, which are the gifts coming from God".
Ecclesiastes 3:11-13
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