TAMING AN ELUSIVE BEAUTY
📌 Palawig River, Inner Sierra Madre, Santa Ana, Cagayan, Philippines
PROLOGUE:
"May you find value of nature and inspiration in life as you read this story of soon-to-be just faded memories".
FROM my first glimpse to final farewell, my enduring journey through Cagayan's Santa Ana town in the village of Santa Clara revealed a land of myriad unknowns that lurks in the green vastness of a tropical rainforest biome; the magnificent Sierra Madre continues to awe and to dominate; the uncloaked and still largely unpeopled extreme northeastern Cagayan is still a gloriously wild, windswept link between the province's enormous valley plains and the immense Pacific ocean.
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| Taming the Sierra Madre, the country's largest rainforest |
To me, the outskirts of Santa Ana covered by the extremes of the jungles evoke that of South America; the Sierra Madre resembles that of the Amazonian rainforest; the mysterious and little-known Palawig River that bisected the municipality into east and west sides, meandering through before joining the Babuyan Channel recalls parts of the formidable Amazon River; and its immaculate white sands familiarize into the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. In short, Santa Ana's manifold nature enchantments stand alongside the country's best. |
It was sun down after a strenuous two hours hike fighting-off muddy and grassy terrains when we reached our stop-over for the night tucked silently in the heart of the jungles.
We came to camp the first night here in Sitio Manit, Santa Clara with a song of the tropical forest primeval, deep into the jungles, disconnected from all known source of outside contacts. There was beauty and fear in the sounds of the night and they excited my imaginings as powerful as a dream that turned into a reality.
A man of the early Pleistocene would feel at home around this place in Sitio Manit, for the land looked much as it did millions of years ago when the forests and mountains were still in their mightiest form.
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| One of the countless waterfalls found in the extreme northern Sierra Madre Range, Santa Ana, Cagayan |
| We plotted our mission that night: to navigate the deeper unknowns of the Sierra Madre by tracing the source of the unsung Palawig River that slices portions of the obscure interior of the Sierras as it snakes through the mountain's dense remoteness. Spending just a night in the mountains has brought me a buoyant sensation of a natural freedom and a great humility caused by the vastness of the landscapes that shrouded us; the way you feel if you take account of all the stars at night, winking above the galactic and limitless space and comparing yourself as just a tiny speck of nothingness but a dust... |
Crossing the calm but unpredictably wild Palawig River
A supernatural spectacle greeted our morning before sunrise as darkness slowly waned; eternal mists clad the lordly bluish peaks of the Sierras and the golden hue of the peeking rays ornamented the immaculate morning clouds.
After sipping our roasted rice coffee (kinirog a bagas a kape) and a stew of "labig" palm shoots (ubog), we headed southwardly, keeping a trace to where the source of Palawig River emanates.
Trekking is a little like just traveling on a train. You rush past a thousand landscapes, your eyes panning like a movie camera; then you pause for a while, investigate a scene, get an angle, then click an impression that paints a thousand words - exactly what I am religiously doing for many years of my travels in the wild and into the great outdoors.
I was startled by the immensity of the greeneries surrounding us. The mountains swallowing us, the tangled vines wrapping us tight and the wild river wetting us all as we trek contradicting its flow.
The biodiversity is exceptional, at least in my own understanding as a self-taught enthusiast of nature.
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| Morning mist shrouded the canopies of the tropical rainforest of the Sierra Madre |
Mystical as a Chinese painting, the blue-green mountains of the Sierras wreathed in mists from afar commanded mightily over the wild Palawig River. A spectacular flock of herons added drama to the scene while a raptor up the canopies was seen scanning the escarpment and cliffs to complete the life-and-death situation in an ecological food chain.
As we crossed the starting-to-get-wild Palawig River, its treachery seemed to halt us when the monsoon poured on our way to the headwaters.
But undaunted as a lion of the African savannah, we continued our way upstream with caution, unwary of the wetness and chilling breeze.
The river is silent but wild. Some parts are neck-deep, currents are turbulent, rocks are slippery. But the waters in shallows are crystal clear however, rich in perch (ar-aro), carp (rasian), brook trout (bukto) and massive river prawns (udang). Here, the river provides people of priceless natural benison.
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| A wood nymph butterfly on a Leea plant, a symphony of nature's greatness and biodiversity |
Ferny landscapes dominate the trails under the blanket of impenetrable tangles of vines, epiphytes and thick mass of vegetation in plentitude of forms. On the forest floor, dead woods harbour extraordinary fungi morphology, decaying leaves and twigs attract detritus feeders that further fertilize the soil and enhances undergrowth and among the broadleaf foliages are innumerable classes of invertebrates inconspicuously concealed from the unfocused, not keen eyes only the real adventurers could clearly see.
An expansive arena of grasslands primed by cogons (pan-aw) covers a massive valley before reaching a kaleidoscopic meadow of scrubs and grasses jeweled with prismatic, colorful flowers that attract butterflies and moths of multi-hues known only in fairy tales.
The true beauty of Sierra Madre de Santa Ana is elusive. She is not revealing her charisma easily. It doesn't come without a price. We were bombarded by a sudden downpour in our initial ascent, and by the time we reached our destination, we were soaked to the bone in sweat and water. Our arduous undertaking of the trek constituted dangers; thorny, razor sharp foliages, 8-hour hike back and forth, the menace of deadly fangs and stings beneath the grassy trails and, but the swelling of the river is what we feared the most.
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| A pitcher plant in the wild, signifying the richness of the extensive flora of Sierra Madre |
I felt relief as we safely crossed the other side of the treacherous Palawig River at this point dominated by reeds and ferns before disappearing into the thick woods where I can only recognize narra, kamuyao and balete (Ficus) as the silent forest sentinels.
As we crawled deeper and deeper into the dense jungle, I occasionally encountered incredible plants and animals not commonly seen by many. Nevertheless and absolutely, we were not negotiating an ordinary mountain: We were taming the longest mountain range in the Philippines located on the eastern seaboard of the country from Quezon province in the south to Cagayan in the north.
A sudden downpour that made the trekking more difficult; it could swell the river, making it more perilous
We stopped at a mountain cliff beside the river that was starting to swell. The cliff was festooned with epiphytic vegetation, vines and taro-like plants called bilagot (aba ti bantay). From that roughly estimated 100-meter cliff, a waterfalls plummets down at a 90-degree angle horizontal plunge before joining a small tributary of the Palawig River.
The volume of water is determined by the torrent of rainy season but lucky enough that we have witnessed a world of wonder - though not in its most elegant, most voluminous form - the Salipawan Falls, as named by the very few locals who have reached this unknown point of vastness deep into the Sierra Madre.
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| A small portion of Salipawan Falls in its drier condition, among the tallest in Cagayan |
Salipawan Falls is technically uncharted. Remote and sheltered. Not known and unpromoted even to and by the tourism and travel agencies. That is because of its sheer distance from the national highway reference and the perils of its inaccessibility for the faint-hearted.
But I believe among the 75 waterfalls I conquered so far, this is probably the tallest known waterfalls in Cagayan, at least yet, as we still continue to prowl the bulk of the stupendous mountains of Sierra Madre in search for hidden allures such as this discovery.
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| The Palawig River transversing the length of the Sierra Madre evokes that of the Amazon in South America |
Our visit to Salipawan Falls may have been drier as it is now compared to its real form when waters are into its most hulking, substantial flow rate, but it remains as lovely and becomes an instant sensation as we firmly establish its fame as a realm of fabulous and fascinating.
The more accesible and LGU-promoted Buwacag Falls may have robbed Salipawan Falls of the fame and glory it deserve, but it does not indeed lessened its value as a gem and giant centerpiece of the Palawig River that beautifies and adds drama to the entirety of the Sierra Madre.
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| There are more plant species per square meter in a tropical rainforest than in any other biomes in the world |
Our discomfort of trekking the kilometric mountains for eight long hours - twelve if you include the initial hike to reach our first lay-over camp - was replaced by a peculiar sense of accomplishment. I felt it in my heart; the burning desire to write the journey-story of my life the way a photograph paints a thousand words that describe how we see life in the wild and into the great outdoors.
But I have to admit now, there's a part of me, in my heart that wants the rest of the entire Sierra Madre to remain unfound, forever, for all the humans to just pass by and all the planes and drones overhead never to land...
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| The Buwacag Falls, one of Santa Ana's tourist spot |
And under the fading lights of the day in a world that seemed just made, I felt as I had in all of Santa Ana's Sierra Madre wild space, a witness to the beauty of creation's inspiration.
May you find value of nature and inspiration in life as you read this story of soon-to-be just faded memories.
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