Considered and officially declared as protected area, the entire island of Palaui and the islets and seas surrounding it are relatively undisturbed, allowing for natural flora and fauna to thrive in peaceful coexistence with the small population of inhabitants.

We started our tour of Palaui Island by registering in a hut conveniently placed at the start of the trail en route to the top of Cape Engaño. After paying the necessary fees, we were assigned a female guide. She gave us an orientation about Palaui Island, its features, and its status as a protected landscape and seascape. ‘Yun nga lang, naisin ko man na ipakilala sa inyo ‘yung naging guide namin sa Palaui Island, nakalimutan ko nang talaga.

The trail up to the cape was a fairly easy one. The first part was an ascent through a path marked by weathered beating, which leads to a grassland. The sun was already high, making the lush greeneries more vibrant.

When we were done appreciating the view on the grasslands, we continued with our ascent. The second part was a mix of a beaten track and of concrete stairs. A Philippine Coast Guard marker is located at the start of the second part of the ascent which reminds visitors of the jurisdiction of the coast guards over the lighthouse sitting atop the cape.

The higher we went, the better the view became. More beauty unfolded before our eyes as we started to see the island from a higher ground.

Our position was an absolute 360 degrees of natural beauty. From where we stood, we saw Engaño Cove southern down below and saw the other side of Cape Engaño on the northern side.

It is not hard to see why Palaui Island is considered as the island paradise of Cagayan. It’s beauty is so captivating.

It was just around 30 minutes since we reached Palaui Island and it was as if we have been there for a long time already. Para bang ang dami na naming nakita at naranasan. I think that’s one of the powers of the beauty of nature: the capacity to distort time, if not totally freeze it. Well, that was not the first time we got to experience that feeling of time distortion, and turned out that we would feel that again and again.

In the seeming stillness of time, photos!

We then continued our hike to the top of the cape for us to see more of Cape Engaño. We already knew what was awaiting us, but seeing renowned landmarks and natural features in person brings about a different kind of excitement that we were almost running with our pace. After all, Palaui has a lot more in store for us that made us excited.