More than a decade had 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 on the map, a couple of female friends and I set out on a trip that would leave a beautiful set of memories in my memory vault. After a fifteen-hour bus ride to Sta. Ana, Cagayan, followed by a three-hour van ride, a half-hour boat ride, and finally, a three-hour trek, we pitched our tent at the foot of a hill where the historic Cape Engaño Lighthouse stood.

Our long Bonifacio weekend trip to Palaui Island was far from easy. It took a severe toll on my buttocks, which became numb five hours into our bus ride from Cubao to Tuguegarao—and that was only the first half of the ten-hour journey. We left the Victory Liner terminal in Cubao around 10 p.m. and arrived in Tuguegarao around 9 a.m., with brief stops in Tumauini and San Pablo, Isabela to visit two historic Spanish colonial churches.