Santa Praxedes greenest destination in Northern Luzon

THE 15-METER Portabaga Falls, including the pools fed by its water, is set in a natural forest. It is the centerpiece of ecotourism in Santa Praxedes town in Cagayan province. PHOTOS BY RICHARD BALONGLONG/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

Santa Praxedes in Cagayan province strikes first-time visitors as one of those sleepy towns they only pass by as they travel through Northern Luzon.

But tucked in the town’s heavy vegetation is a 50-foot waterfall, a few minutes from the highway, that has attracted many to linger.

The Portabaga Falls is not the one-day escape that it used to be. The cascade now lures tourists, in some months exceeding the town’s more than 3,000 population, the smallest in Cagayan.

This natural wonder is touted as one of the greenest destinations in the north, perhaps the only one around these parts that gives visitors reason to be up and about before sunrise.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Herman Baligad Jr. recalls one visitor as telling him at

7 a.m. Around this time, Baligad would be taking fallen leaves from the four pools that are fed by the waterfall.

Communion with nature

THE ECOTOURISM trail in the Portabaga Falls offers visitors a view of the forest.

He says mornings are like a communion with nature. “Monkeys descend on the falls to drink and bathe,” he says. The cascade is enclosed by a barrier, like a shrine.

“Birds are out hunting for food, too,” he says.

The visitor is one of the few outsiders who know the wonders that occur before the government-managed resort opens for the day at 8 a.m.

Guests love the tree-hugging mornings, tourism council chair Mildred Aguinaldo says. And a new 1,000-step trail at the edge of a proposed protected area extends the period for people who want to see the thriving wildlife after the monkeys and birds have retreated.

Tourists may trek anytime before sundown. The early mornings are a good time for a walk, with birds still looking for food. Baligad, trained as a tour guide with a dozen other residents of Barangay (village) Portabaga, says sightings are rare in the afternoon.

It takes at least two hours to navigate the route.

Wild chickens and doves, and the endangered rufous hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax) roam the area. Baligad has no problem identifying a “kiyaw” (mynah or Gracula religiosa) by its song. Wild boars and deer navigate the area. The “narek,” an endangered tree species, also lives among orchids and centuries-old trees.

More animal and plant species may be identified soon as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources continues to probe the area, stretching from Taggat in Claveria town to the provincial boundary with Ilocos Norte province.

The management is certain this adventure would be a hit, especially among foreigners who account for 5 percent of tourist arrivals. “They like how the resort is built around nature,” Aguinaldo says.

Summer chill

Here trees allow just enough daylight and provide a Baguio City-like chill even at the peak of summer, unheard of in a province that frequently hogs the headlines for soaring summer temperatures.

“The water is naturally cold, as if someone melted ice in it,” says Red Cachapero, a village resident.

The resort was a resting place for farmers around 30 years ago. The seven-foot main pool is the original catch basin where people would swim in. The waterfall was strengthened by rerouting water into it, hence its reputation as a “man made” falls.

Last year, more than 17,000 tourists visited the resort. Management charges only a P10-

entrance fee and collects P200 for cottages. Balikbayan (Santa Praxedes natives based abroad), travelers and groups on a field trip often stay in the resort for P1,000 a night. Government agencies also come here for seminars and conferences.

Aguinaldo says tourists started coming in droves after the resort underwent major improvements in 2007. In the early 2000s, there weren’t facilities for stay-in guests, and visitors should have been out by 5 p.m. The service road wasn’t paved yet, too.

But the resort now contributes to the town’s annual income as visitor arrivals are expected to reach 3,000 in April and May.

“In May last year, we had a hard time managing the influx,” Aguinaldo says. Whenever they run out of rooms, they provide tents for tourists. They are determined to avoid this by increasing the 1,000-person capacity threefold.

Adventure trail

The adventure trail is one of many developments that the fifth-class town (annual average income of P15 million to P25 million) has sought assistance from different agencies. “We can’t afford to loan. We don’t have the resources to pay so we seek sponsors,” says Aguinaldo.

Village council official Roger Tagalicod says residents of Portabaga are guardians of the tourist spot, recalling the demonstration of bayanihan (community spirit) in clearing two separate landslides that buried the main pool recently.

“Here, we never say we can’t fix it. We clean the area because it is a source of income,” he says.

A connecting trail between the Portabaga Falls and another cascade 2 kilometers away will be built so backpackers may be accommodated there. They will also extend the resort downstream and expand the lodging facilities.

“We want to be an ecotourism capital. That’s our ultimate goal,” Aguinaldo says. “We are a small town but we have a lot to protect. And the areas we protect provide for our people.”