My North Luzon Misadventure (Part 2)

...I woke up really early to check out Taggat Norte Lagoon in, well--Taggat Norte, Claveria! It's about 10-15 minutes from Claveria's town proper. The lagoon is the second port in Claveria, as the main one's near the town market. Before going to Taggat Norte, I enjoyed an early morning stroll on the beach hoping to see the fishermen before they left for the morning catch. Unfortunately, they weren't able to leave the shore as the waves were a bit rough. I did watch them fix their boats and also observed the kids playing in the sand. Such a great way to start the day--so relaxed!

I really didn't know what I was going to see in Taggat Norte, to be honest. When I got there, I just asked some of the women in the entrance booth what I could do there and one of them, Manang Evelyn, told me she could bring me to the small waterfall at one end of the lagoon. By the way before I proceed, the manangs already knew me as I had gone there the previous night to inquire about the bangka trips to Fuga. I even met one of the kagawads, Kagawad Clara, who told me to come back the next day and check out the lagoon. They don't really have a lot of Manilena tourists visit and gladly invited me to come back.

Taggat Norte is such an enchanting place hidden in the barangay. The barangay's actually by the shore. It's not so much a beach, but really more of a hidden lagoon. I wish the current wasn't that strong that day so I could have gone on a bangka and passed by Lakay Lakay and Baket Baket, two huge rock formations said to be "husband" and "wife". When you pass by these two, it is said that you have to make an offering or else you're in deep sh*t (haha!).

Manang Evelyn brought me to the hidden waterfall, about a 5-7 min. walk from the entrance, and about a 5-min. climb. It doesn't really have a name, but according to her this is where the community gets its water. After checking out the waterfall, I bid Manang goodbye so she could go back to the entrance while I continued checking out the huge rocks on the shore and the awesome view of the sea. Again, a-maaaaaazing. I was also able to go to the other end of the lagoon where bangkas were docked.

After Taggat Norte, I just went back to the inn and rested. I wasn't able to take my afternoon stroll on the beach as it started raining. It didn't stop raining until mid-afternoon of the next day, actually.

So you may be wondering why my trip was such a misadventure. Well, my misadventure started the next day....(to be continued)