Road by the Imugan River
Just the idea of staying in a forest town for four nights already excited me. It was one of the requirements for taking on this photo documentation project for an NGO on a small rural town known as Imugan in Santa Fe Nueva Vizcaya. It sits right smack in the middle of central Luzon in the midst of the Caraballo Mountain Range just between the Cordillera Central and Sierra Madre mountain ranges.
Imugan Town nestled by the forest
I met with my accompanying writer Nash at the Victory Terminal in Kamias Edsa as early as 4am in the morning. We had to catch the earliest departure since we need to be at Santa Fe Municipal before 11am. There are only two jeeps a day departing in front of the municipal building heading to the town of Imugan. Their times are world apart. At morning the jeep leaves at 11am and in the afternoon at 4:30am.
Imugan Capitol
It was a typical 6 hour bus ride bound for Tuguegarao but us alighting off at the main Maharlika Highway when we got to the Santa Fe Municipal Hall. We were able to catch the 11am jeep. And like any other provincial jeeps, they pack in a lot. It’s not only passengers but goods and supplies as well filling in the jeep and also the top. Imagine vegetables, cements, gas tanks and other supplies. I even had a few tied up live chickens underneath my seat.
Imugan School Grounds
My companion Nash was trying to get a grasp of their language. Nash is a Kankanay from Benguet, but he lived abroad for a few years now and was recently back here for an occasion and decided to take on this task of writing documentation. He said their dialect was a bit different theirs but could catch some words here and there. The ride was said to be 30 minutes which was a puzzle since we heard it’s only 7km from Santa Fe. But we found out that the 7km was going up the mountain slopes. The air was getting colder as we climbed up higher.
Fields and Rivers with locals passing by
We finally reached the small Imugan Capitol which doubles also as their market place. It’s a fairly simple town. We looked for the “Green House” which was supposed to be the place of our host Pastor Rice. We were able to walk a bit around the village. It was very charming. A river runs through the town’s verdant landscape. It’s everything I would expect of the countryside, air with the absence of pollution and free flowing cool waters from the mountains. My GPS reads that the town sits around 967meters above sea level which explains its cooler temperature. Mountains surround the area making any cellphone signal really spotty to nonexistent.
Misty fields and the green house residence
Pastor Rice wasn’t there so we looked for our other contact Mr Tamomo and was led to his house. We were welcomed there and talked abit our project there. Unfortunately Mr Tamomo has a group of guest that just arrived from Kasibu region to do a two day workshop on Forestry and Conservation. Nash would attend the workshop since he could understand Ilocano, while I was left by myself to explore the town.
A female farmer of Imugan
Well not exactly by myself because the local kids were there to accompany me. Even if they don’t fully understand me they accompanied me around the place while I walk. I would hear them say Amerikano which made me laugh a bit since I’m very Filipino in looks. Probably my camera gave them away and mistook me for an African-American. I also passed by a field being harvested and noticed that most of the farmers are women. I had to ask this and this nice lady told me because most of the men are working out of the town so most of the women here does the farming.
Imugan Kids at the Bridge
Imugan Town is very small and I can easily remember the main roads. They have a Kalahan Academy, a basketball court and a small food processing plant. The place has no distinct accommodations aside from a couple of dormitories. Imugan isn’t really a tourist spot since most of the people who visit here are NGOs, students, foresters and those who are there to study more about the conservation and use of our forest. The Kalahan Ancestral Domain has a large area scope that has a very dense forest growth and it is here where they first initiated the Carbon Trading in line with the Kyoto Protocol. And our task here is to document how they measure the carbon stock here for trading in the forest of the Kalahan Ancestral domain. It’s very technical discussion which I’ll brush on a little later.
Imugan River Dusk
For the meantime, while they were having their workshops, I decided to visit the nearby Imugan Falls which is abut 30 minutes away. I told a local to tell the kids not to come with me as I’m afraid of any accidents that may happen to them on the trail even if they do know where the falls is. So then I threaded the trail and went out to look for this falls.
Your photos of Imugan, the rustic setting, its not-so-remote yet not-a-tourist-stop location puts it up my list for a quiet solitary retreat. You mentioned of 2 dorms in the area, i would truly appreciate it if you could pass along the contact person/number for the dorm/s. maraming salamat for this site!
Wow!!! Wow!! fabulous & interesting perception in regards of your documenting reports about the small hometown of Imugan.My Mom is from that town,when I Browsed the posted photo and It so happened that my humble house was posted as well. good job & keep up the good work. To all of you guys who are interested to visit our place of Imugan, try yourself, it will take your breath away! 100% people are very humble and friendly. Don’t worry about signals fo your cellphone, all you have to do is going up to the mountain of Landing where you could view the scenries the whole town of Stafe? thats where u can get a good cellphone signals. SEE U GUYS OVERE THERE??? MERCI BUKO IN FRENCH, THANK YOU IN ENGLISH..
Can you please connect me to Alderic Sequin. He said that her mom is from that town. I was born in Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya but I have lots of relatives in Imugan. It would be nice if I can get in touch with Alderic’s Mom. Thanks.
hai. theres no place like home talga. proud to be from imugan. try to visit imugan. and youll know its magic.
hello! thank you for your lovely pictures! they brought back so many lovely memories of the 6 months i lived in imugan. i am now in the United States and it is hard to get news from my kalangoya friends, but it was so nice to see some of their faces in your photos! halamat mo!!!
mas maganda sa batanes .. but i never knew na mganda din pla ang NV
Beatriz Omas was my classmate in elementary. I’ve not seen her since 1972, after our graduation. It would be great if you can connect me to her, please. Thank you very much.
Hai!
How does one get to Imugan? Commute lang
send me PM.
Mucho thanks!
Hi! Kindly read the entry above, I think I narrated how I went there
We just passed through this town on our way to the strawberry fields in Malico. Imugan did strike me as one of those towns in Ragnarok…or was it some Chinese movie (“Fearless”)? Isolated, pristine, beautiful – cold, too. We didn’t have time to stop. My cousin (who was from Sta. Fe) was telling me along the way about a falls – I think you have an article about it as well – ice-cold even in high summer. For being simply just a cool place to chill, I definitely need to go up there again sometime this year. Perhaps around Christmastime.
Wow! They have strawberryfields in Malico now? That would aslo be interesting to see again