I've passed through Dagupan several times previously, typically for quick pit stops at random cafes. A weekend with friends last summer allowed me the opportunity to stay overnight and explore more about the city's nature spots, old churches, and, of course, its culinary delights.

Together with four other travel writers and our host Bong Esguerra we arrived at El Jardin by Ciudad Fernandino a couple of hours after lunch. The property is well-known among locals for its beautiful al fresco setting, where guests can enjoy a sumptuous meal under the vines and stars. It also accommodates events and has five rooms for visitors to spend the night.

After dropping my overnight stuff to my room, which comes modestly sized with a simple decor expressing provincial vibe with a window scenery of Tambac River, we met the matriarch of the family who owns El Jardin by Ciudad Fernandino.

Bong's mom Mrs. Cynthia Esguerra immediately welcomed us with a wide smile and a gregarious personality as if we're long lost relatives long due for a catch-up session.

After a brief exchange of introductions, mother and son Cynthia and Bong shared the story about the origin of their property. El Jardin was originally purchased by Bong's great-grandfather, Sotero Esguerra in 1926. Initially, the plan for the 7,500 square meter lot was to convert it to a trading post for farmers hauling their produce down the Tambac River and into the old Dagupan Railway station.

After Sotero's passing, half of the property went to Bong's grandfather Nicholas. The property was left neglected for decades following WWII until Cynthia's husband and Bong's father Fernando went back to Dagupan City in 1986.

Small improvements gradually turned the area from a chicken farm to a warehouse storing construction and utility materials into a modest farm where native tree species, vegetables, and ornamental plants thrived and blossomed, giving the place a green character.

Already a business owner for more than a decade having operated Ciudad Fernandino Hotel and Cafe Dos by Ciudad Fernandino in Urdaneta City, the family decided to create an outdoor events venue and bed and breakfast on their estate.

After a wonderful afternoon filled with fascinating talks and a brief tour of the surrounding nature spots, which included a picturesque cruise along the waters and mangrove forest of Tambac River, we returned to an awaiting gourmet dinner set-up in the garden of El Jardin by Ciudad Fernandino.

We were joined by Cynthia's daughter Carmina and her husband Mon Camacho, who are both chefs with extensive experience working in various restaurants before they decided to focus on the family's restaurant business.

Chef Mon in particular, specializes in Spanish cuisine which explains why the Paella dishes he served us that night; Paella Negra and Paella Laing Con Bagnet, tasted so much better than the Paellas I've had before.

Other delectable delicacies on our menu include Sopa de Mariscos, Bangus al Jorno, Gambas, slow-cooked beef belly, and the El Jardin Salad, Apple Crumble Cheesecake, Chocolate Mousse, and Panna Cotta.

Before we dug on the main course, we indulge in another lively socials with the Esguerra family over a free-flowing Sangria and an appetizing Charcuterie board of various cheese, cold cuts, fruits, and biscuits.

Under a clear night sky visible of stars and illuminated tree branches and vines, the ambiance exudes every bit of a charming setting. No wonder, the place is fast becoming a popular venue for bespoke private dining, intimate gatherings and a go-to romantic dinner date for couples.

I went to bed satiated gastronomically, filled to the brim, and with newfound knowledge of elevated Spanish-Filipino fusion cuisine.

The next morning, I awoke to the sounds of birds chirping and the delicious aroma of our breakfast composed of dried tuyo, sausages, tapa, sunny side up eggs, fried rice, and fresh salad. As I was sipping my freshly brewed coffee, I can't help but wonder about when I'll be able to visit El Jardin again. I bet for sure that would be another epicurean delight.

El Jardin by Ciudad Fernandino is located at 185 Tambac-Tebeng Road, Brgy. Tambac, Dagupan City, Philippines.

More than a decade has passed since I first journeyed to Palaui Island. Back in those days, I was still in my earliest phase of exploring the Philippines. Cagayan Province, being in the farthest northeastern part of Luzon, seemed like a foreign country to me then. Locating it at the map, I set out, myself and a couple of female friends, on a trip that would leave a beautiful set of remembrances in my memory vault. After a 15-hour bus ride to Sta. Ana, Cagayan followed by a 3-hour van ride, a half-hour boat ride and finally, a three-hour trek, we pitched our tent on a foot of a hill where the old Cape Engaño Lighthouse stands.

I consider my first travel to Palaui Island as among the ones that baptized me into a life of wandering. Since then, a 15-hour bus ride felt nothing but a welcome and integral part of journeying. Therefore, Palaui Island, aside from its exceptional beauty, remains a special place in my mind.

The second time I made it to the island was in 2017, as part of Lakbay Norte, a media familiarization tour organized by NLEX to promote destinations in Northern Luzon. Traveling by chartered bus from Manila, we visited several places in Cagayan Valley, capped off by a turbulent sea journey to Palaui and nearby Anguib Beach.

Summing it up, my Palaui trilogy provided me a different set of experiences each turn. And as I found out on this recent trip, Palaui Island remains a charm, even for the third time.

After a two-year ban on visitors due to the pandemic, Palaui Island Protected Landscape and Seascape finally reopened on March 9, 2022. This time, the Department of Tourism (DOT) and DOT Region II are currently promoting a nature and adventure tourism circuit in the region that included this island.

The newly-designed route aims to leverage the popularity of the island among adventure seekers and nature lovers to promote other interesting places in the province as part of an itinerary that can be completed in 3-5 days.

I was fortunate to be invited by the DOT to join their Site Validation and Technical Inspection of the said tourism route. In collaboration with a dozen tour operators from different parts of the country, we tested the circuit by visiting the places and experiencing various activities included in it to see if it would appeal to travelers and in turn, entice them to explore more of the province as opposed to just visiting one or two places.

Other than Palaui Island, we visited a community in Casagan where we went on a firefly watching tour in the evening and afterward, had dinner with the community participants of DOT's "Kulinarya" program — a culinary campaign that aims to promote local cuisine. On our third day, we experienced beltfishing with local fishermen where we witness their traditional method of catching the "espada" fish. Also, part of the tour is a morning hike the next day to Buwacag Falls before capping it off with a heritage tour of Tuguegarao on our way back to the airport.

Right now, the Nature and Adventure itinerary is open to revisions and may include additional destinations in the future such as Anguib beach and its surrounding mangrove forest.

As a protected area and national park managed by the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Palaui island imposes a strict 100-visitors per day policy. During my first visit to the island, we entered through the community side facing Sta. Ana, this time though, visitors are only allowed to dock at its northwestern side in Siwangag Cove close to the Cape Engaño lighthouse.

After a brief orientation with the community tour guides, I volunteered to be among the first group to climb the hill. Walking in a slow pace allowed me to take in the spectacular scenery en route to the hilltop.

Unlike the rugged terrain a decade ago, cemented stairs were built leading up to the lighthouse. While I’m not sold to the idea of putting up concrete structures in beaches and islands, I find the stairway almost blending well with the surrounding nature. After almost 300 hundred steps, I arrived at the lighthouse with our young guide, a lady Palaui resident who was among those trained to become island guides, almost out of breath but filled with awe and delight at the 360-degree picturesque view of the rolling hills and the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

“Like a fine wine, this backdrop just gets better”, I thought to myself. I found a spot to sit on the window sill of the Spanish colonial lighthouse built in 1892 and designed by Magin Pers, the same person who designed Cape Bojeador in Burgos, Ilocos Norte and the Capones Island lighthouse.

After a few minutes, I trekked to the view deck and laid on the grassy knoll. While staring intently at the mighty Pacific Ocean swells crashing on the walls of Dos Hermanos islets below, I gradually turn my head only to be met with a slideshow of postcard-like images of sloping hills, lush vegetations, deep crevices, blue skies, swaying grass, the rustic lighthouse, and so on.

It was at that moment when I felt the island of Palaui reacquaint itself with me once more. Acknowledging the universe and my good karma, I answered back to the hissing wind in a whisper, “I’m happy to be here again”.

• Register cleanly at the Municipal Tourism Office located inside the Sta. Ana port parameter fields.
• Attend the mandatory short briefing highlighting island do's and don't's alongside specific boat tracking assignments.
• Pay a baseline visitor fee of 100 pesos for travelers arriving from outside Sta. Ana boundaries. Native Sta. Ana residents qualify for a discounted 50 pesos access bracket.
• Auxiliary structural fees check-list: Environmental fee (20 php), Tour Guide (350 php for 1 guide per 4 guests), Garbage bag deposit (200 php).

Standard Boat Rental Rates Structure:

• Cape Engaño (Palaui Island Main Loop): 2,000 php
• Anguib Beach Corridor: 1,800 php
• Crocodile Island Transit: 800 php

Note: You can negotiate with your boatman if you want to visit a combination of the islands or all three of them.

Winning Tip: For a hassle-free trip, you can contact Cagayan Tourism to connect you to an accredited tour operator who will prepare everything in your trip.

Just as tiny rays of sunlight trail the sky and the fainter stars begin to fade in dawn light, we arrived at the coastal community of Brgy Diora-Zinungan in Sta. Ana, Cagayan. The method behind our madness of waking up early was to time our visit when beltfish, locally referred to as "espada" or "bulung unas", hunt for food in the deep waters of the Philippine Sea in schools.

As we met with the fishermen, we were invited to gather for a brief orientation about what we are about to experience that day. Since beltfishing is the main source of livelihood for the residents, the Department of Tourism Region 2 included it in their newly-laid out "Nature and Adventure" tourism circuit.

We learned from Kuya Wilfredo, the group's lead tour guide, that beltfishing began in Diora-Zinungan in the early 2000s when a fellow fisherman came home with 80 kilos of beltfish catch after venturing more than 20 nautical miles.

In the years since then, they came to understand the beltfish's nature and instincts well enough to realize that they feed during long periods between dusk and dawn. They also pinpointed that beltfishes usually swim at an average depth of 80 fathoms, which is approximately 140 meters.

Using the "Kariti" — a manual and cheaper version of the hydraulic pulleys used by the Taiwanese — the fishermen tie three thin cables with baits to each of the boat's three kariti and then set out on a 12-nautical mile area of fishing grounds. More fluent in Ilocano, Kuya Wilfredo manages to converse with us in Tagalog and narrated how they initially built a Kariti using the crank of a bicycle. "After numerous trials and re-designs, we finally came up with this Kariti design which we have been using for ten years now", he adds.

Setting out for the Catch

Split into threes, we boarded separate fishing boats, each manned by a pair of highly skilled fishermen, and set out for the ideal fishing grounds for "espada" fish, about 2-4 nautical miles off the coast of Diora-Zinungan. Fortunately for our group, one of our guides was Kuya Wilfredo who continued his lecture about the process of beltfishing as well as the personality traits of the “bulung unas”.

"The beltfish is different from other fish species because it will only pull the bait downward when hooked. This enables us to use three baits in one kariti because the cables won't get entangled if we simultaneously capture three of them" Kuya Wilfredo explained to us in Tagalog.

When we arrived on the area fishing ground, we started hearing cheers from the other boats as they started catching several beltfishes. One boat even caught a total of 12 beltfishes. Since our boat was the last to arrive after escorting another boat that experienced engine problems, we couldn’t catch a single one since the sun was already up.

A Community-run Experiential Nature Tour

Beltfishing has sustained the community of Diora-Zinungan for decades but concerns about its sustainability remains. "Before, any fishermen could easily catch 60-80 kilos a day", Kuya Wilfredo told us in Tagalog. "You'll be the one to give up and call it a day. Nowadays, it's a miracle to get 30 kilos every day", he continues.

In light of the fact that fresh catch is diminishing in coastal areas that depend on fishing, having another source of income provides an attractive alternative for local fishermen. In this case, a community-run tourism business provides a viable substitute.

By offering an experiential beltfishing tour, the fishermen won't have to catch 30 kilos of fish to earn a living. They can guide tourists to catch a few beltfishes and viola, they can earn easily match or even surpass their regular income.

A second advantage of this program is that it will give the beltfish population time to grow as fishing volume will be reduced by a significant amount. The Department of Tourism Region II plan to market this experiential tour combined with a beachfront lunch consisting of their beltfish catch.

For each tour's total catch, a third can be allocated to be prepared and cooked by the community mothers who are part of DOT's "Kulinarya" program, while the other two thirds can be bought from the fishermen and distributed among the community.

This set-up is a win-win scenario for everyone. First, beltfishes will be able to repopulate, second, tourists will get to experience something unique and lastly, the fishermen will earn from their tour-guiding job while the community also benefits from other tourism-related services.

As this program is still in its infancy stages, visitors wishing to experience beltfishing should contact the Department of Tourism Region II to be connected with a tour operator who will coordinate with the community.

As someone who grew up in the 1980’s, I’ve had my experiences of sleeping on a banig (a traditional handwoven mat in the Philippines) especially during naptime after school or when we would visit and spend a night at my grandmother’s old house in Bulacan. Dozing off on one isn’t the most comfortable but with a soft pillow and a burst of fresh air coming from the open windows, you’ll be eventually lulled into a relaxed sleep.

I can still vividly remember the design of our banig my mom used to keep rolled up behind the door of my parent’s room. It was white lined with several patterns of red forming a crown in the middle. I thought its design was intricate enough until I discovered more banig creations from other parts of the Philippines like in Basey, Samar.

The artistry involved in weaving banig mats is no different from the art of woven cloth when it comes to the complicated process and ingenuity involved in coming up with designs and patterns of each creation. Depending on the region where the banig is created, the main material varies. For example, in Basey, Samar, their woven banig are made from buri, a palm genus. In Kumalarang, their handwoven mats are made from pandan leaves.

During our trip to Zamboanga Peninsula, we visited a community of banig weavers in the town of Kumalarang, Zamboanga del Sur called the Kumala Weavers.

As part of Tourism Promotions Board of the Philippines' ‘Habi’ (weaving), ‘Hilom’ (wellness) and ‘Halal’ (cuisine) exploration of the ZamPen region, our pit stop at Kumalarang was meant for us to discover the community’s living tradition. The Kumala weavers carries a century-old practice of mat weaving even after the death of their Master Weaver Hadja Sittie Mariam in 2020.

Now headed by Mariam’s daughter Sarifa Dakula and with the help of a School of Living Tradition established in late 2000’s by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Kumala Weavers’ unique style of banig weaving lives on.

History and Culture on a Banig

What makes their 'banig' creations exceptional was the incorporation of their culture and history in the designs and patterns. For example, one of the mother weavers showed us a banig with a design called “Magiranon sa Sulu”.

She explained to us its significance. "Look at these five columns. Each one represents a part of our heritage. The upper column symbolizes the river, while the next ones are the three tribes of Maguindanaoans, Maranaos and the Tausugs. The last column depicts the mountain", she tells us in Tagalog.

She then pointed other sets of banig with various designs such as the “biniton”, the “andun”, which is a favorite design of members of the royal families before, “bagwa masa”, symbolizing the new generation and the “mantapunay”, or a bird.

In a sense, the traditional banig designs are illustration of their way of life, past and present rulers, surrounding environment to everyday objects.

A Conversation over a Feast of Dulang

After giving us a tour of their banig weaving center and the School of Living Tradition, the mother weavers invited us for a lunch of Dulang. The Dulang is a set of meal consisting of traditional dishes served during special occasions. “Since we treat your visit as a special occasion, we prepared some dulang food for all of you” one of them told us in Tagalog.

While enjoying the food they prepared for us, Nanay Sarifa shared to us that she often gets invited to trade exhibitions in Manila to demonstrate banig weaving. The last time she did was in 2019 just before the pandemic. “I miss it so much” she tells us.

Apart from having the opportunity to share their creative banig weaving tradition, Nanay Sarifa told us that her heart beams with pride whenever foreign participants of trade fairs would rave about their banig creations and purchase in bulk as presents to their families and friends in their respective countries.

While it is unfortunate that we never get to meet the late Master Weaver Hadja Sittie, it is wonderful to rest on the knowledge that her legacy lives on through her children and the other mat weavers of Kumalarang.

Sarifa told us that she made her first banig at age five under the guidance of her late mother. From those early memories of learning to weave and to harnessing her skills to be able to create complicated designs, the journey as she described it was "long and difficult". Despite of it all, the reward for continuing on her mother's legacy is a fulfilling one. "Now, are Kumala mats are internationally recognized", she tells us proudly.

I'm sure somewhere up there in the heavens, Master Weaver Hadja Sittie is feeling proud as well.

Photos # 2 and 3 by Kumala Weavers Facebook Page