It took around 20 minutes from Baua Bridge to the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport welcome arch. Architecturally, there seems to be nothing unique with the arch, but seeing it still made us excited. The arch does not only mark the entry to a special economic zone, which is not really exciting in itself, but more especially marks our entry to Santa Ana, the northeasternmost town in mainland Luzon.

Contrary to what people may immediately presume, Santa Ana did not get its name from St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary. Ana is actually a backronym of Arranz, Navarro and Avena, provincial officials during the founding of the town which until 1949 was called Palawig. The word santa in the name of the town was added to keep with the Hispanic Catholic toponymic tradition.

It was mandatory. We have to get down of the car and take our photos.

We finally reached E.F. Costales Lodge around 05:00 PM. Ma’am Ela and Sir Dino advised us to take our things to the room first and then rest a bit, as Sir Dino will take us for a quick stroll along the beachline of Santa Ana to watch the sunset. Despite being the northeasternmost point in mainland Luzon, the thing with Santa Ana is that it resembles a peninsula, hence it has a view of both the sunrise and the sunset.

Ran and I then decided to seat by the beach and wait for the sun to set. When the skies started to change hue, then we knew that the sun was setting. We just sat in silence and marveled with the passing beauty in front of us.

For some reasons, we find sunsets fascinating. It is visually beautiful to look at, but why watch it? Isn’t it something that happens by certain routine anyway? Yes, but there is something existential in sunsets. If one is to be optimistic enough, it is such a beauty that preludes darkness, but even such darkness will be shattered by and equal beauty come morning.

After watching the sunset, Sir Dino took us back to the lodge where our dinner has already been prepared. In the lodge complex is Koosina.Ph, a pizza and pasta restaurant that also serves typical Filipino cuisine.

You may want to check the Facebook page of Koosina.Ph or check our Renegade Directory for more details.

After our dinner, we called it a day. Maaga ang gising namin kinabukasan. Susunduin kami ng bangkero na maghahatid sa amin sa talagang dahilan kung bakit kami nagpunta ng Cagayan.

Isang napakagandang dahilan.