A riverside home in Cagayan

MANILA, Philippines -- Imagine waking up to a view of a beautiful, pristine river with the sun slowly rising behind the picturesque hills of the Sierra Madre serving as the backdrop. And just across the river is one of the most wondrous tourist attractions in the country. The members of the Calimag family of Peñablanca, Cagayan Valley don’t have to imagine this. It's their everyday reality. Each morning, they wake up to this sublime sight. Their home is situated by the Pinacanauan River, which flows through much of the province, along the majestic Sierra Madre mountain range. This river flows by Peñablanca and merges with the awesome Cagayan River further up north.

It takes just a 20 minute drive from Tuguegarao City to Peñablanca. The Calimags live right at the center of the town’s tourist belt. Across the river are the cavernous Callao Caves of the Sierra Madres. So enormous are these caves, a chapel actually exists near the mouth of the first cave. The Calimag house is also right beside the town’s hostel, where tourists stay the night. The place also happens to be the drop-off point for kayakers, who get to experience the river’s thrilling grade one rapids and the beautiful vistas.

The Calimag clan consists of six siblings (one of their older sisters passed away several years ago). They all grew up in Peñablanca, a town whose economic survival is almost completely reliant on the river. Anton Carag, Jr, a prominent Tuguegarao resident, describes the river as an “economic highway.” People earn a living by fishing and much of the goods are transported in boats that ply this river. And of course, tourists who flock to the caves hire bancas to get across the river. They also sail further up to witness thousands of bats soar from their cave in jet stream-like fashion, just before sunset.

Eli Calimag, who grew up in the family ancestral house in one of the barrios of Peñablanca, recalls going to school in Tuguegarao, by banca. “It was a 45 minute boat ride from the barrio to the main town, where we’d catch a jeepney to the city,” she says. “Once, during a stormy day, the river was too dangerous for boats and we had to walk the trails of the Sierra Madres, a three-hour trek.”

The late Calimag patriarch was a farmer who planted tobacco, peanuts, and corn, among others. When it came to his children, education was a priority. Thus, even during the height of typhoons, the children had to go to school. They all did well in their academics, that’s for sure. They also became expert mountain trekkers. In fact, one of their daughters, Maria Calimag-Calagui is now a teacher at the Peñablanca East Central School. Husband Martin A. Calagui is the DepEd Public School District Supervisor for the Peñablanca East District. The couple built a house on a property owned by Maria’s father. This is the property that lies just by the river.

The house was built in the early 1980s and it has a sprawling garden that seems to merge with the vast grounds of the next door hostel. The garden is adorned with colorful plants and they make a beautiful contrast to the transcendent river’s calm blue green waters. The living room is decorated with colorful memorabilia, most of them collected from the trips the couple had made. Just recently, Martin Calagui had the house renovated and built a three storey annex that houses two guestrooms. “Most of our relatives are working in Manila now and so the rooms were built especially for them when they come to visit,” says he.

The annex itself is like a mini hostel. A spacious balcony was built on the third floor and it offers a glorious view of the mountains and the river. Many of Maria Calagui’s siblings now stay in this house whenever they drive over from Manila. Her sister Eli is an engineer who owns a company that manufactures rubber rollers used in printing presses. Her company, Melstar Metal and Rubber Fabrications, is based in Novaliches. Eli keeps busy at the factory during most of the week but she makes sure she gets to spend every weekend in Peñablanca.

And who wouldn’t want to spend a weekend in Peñablanca! Its natural beauty is irresistible. During one early morning, Eli and her brother-in-law Martin toured this writer around Callao Caves, which was just a three-minute boat ride from their house and a 10-minute trek up the woodsy hills. They’re very well known in this tourist destination. As a teacher, Martin seems to have mentored almost every young person we came across. They greet him with reverence, with a slight tinge of fear. He approached a group of teen-aged boys diving into the river and advised them to take extra precautions and not to be too rowdy. They nod their heads with subservience, with their heads bowed. “I was a terror teacher,” Martin exclaims while laughing as we continued the trek.

The Calimags still have the ancestral house in the barrio. Their mother, who now manages the farms, still lives there. But when it’s time to have fun, the entire clan converges at this lovely, tranquil house by the river.

[ Cagayan Wiki ]