Cagayan River — the longest and the largest in the Philippines — is the drainage of Luzon. It’s like a mighty rupture that splits Luzon in two. In 2002, I had the chance to cross this watercourse in what was to be my most gripping 30-minute boat ride ever. From the banca terminal they call Dap-pà to the winding estuaries of Aparri delta, we cruised in the dead of night. Even locals don’t embark in total blackness. The darkness made me see things on the nipa palms lining the riverbank. A hint of the Mekong Delta scenes in Apocalypse Now.

Today I walked this town again. Nothing has changed. Cagayan River still ends where Pacific Ocean meets South China Sea  — in the Babuyan Channel. I see they have come up with a fitting caption for Aparri now: “Where The River Meets The Sea.”

First in my order of…