Parola de Cape Enga

by Paul Villaflor
(Manila Philippines)

Twenty hours of travel, it took us to reach the first Spanish-built lighthouse in the Philippines. Miles and miles of good national highway to narrowing rural zigzagged road works leading up to lowland valley trails of dirt and rock not to mention the gut-wrenching two-hour doubtfully seaworthy boat ride on the capricious waves of the Philippine Sea to get to the island where the lighthouse is.

Battered about in the car, on foot and on the boat, I was being conditioned to be in awe of what I went to see. On a remote island off the northernmost tip of Luzon, 17,660 acres of land without a single human settler, atop its highest point to the north is the lighthouse of Cape Engańo. First lit on December 30, 1892 the Parola as the Spanish calls this beacon, has guided many ships and seafarers across the Cape throughout specially the duration of the Galleon Trade.

The island of Palaui on which the lighthouse stands is a wonder of nature so masterfully carved by the roaring seas of the north. It is a dense forest to the south end thinning into lazy sheets of rolling plains and grazing fields for the few master-less cows that feed there towards the north end. On the west side of the island is the Siwangag Cove. A good stretch of white sand beach essentially untouched. Home to 21 commercial species of fish is the 120 acres of undisturbed coral reef just a few feet below the tides hugging the coastline.

The clear blue-green waters allows for viewing the seafloor from around the lighthouse hundred feet uphill. A flourishing flora is also a sight to see with 105 species of rattan and good quality timber making for a sanctuary to 90 migratory birds. It is one of those trips that takes you farther from home but closer to Nature. Serene summarizes the whole experience.