Quirino Maddela Rainforest Trek — Old-Growth Sierra Madre

Quirino Province is where the Cagayan Valley meets the eastern wall of the Sierra Madre — a landscape of dramatic river gorges, karst limestone, and the western edge of the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, the largest protected area in the Philippines and one of the most biologically significant forests in Asia. The Maddela trek takes you into this world with Agta indigenous guides whose forest knowledge is encyclopaedic and irreplaceable.

The old-growth forest here is the real thing: dipterocarp trees with buttress roots you could park a car inside, canopy 40-50 metres above, the forest floor covered in decomposing leaf litter and riddled with the burrow systems of monitor lizards and Philippine forest turtles. The guide identifies plants as he walks, pausing to show you wild ginger, pitcher plants (Nepenthes), and the parasitic Rafflesia relatives that bloom on the rainforest floor. The soundscape — hornbills, pittas, and the distant hammering of a woodpecker — is overwhelming for anyone who has only experienced secondary forest.

Quirino's forests are in the core territory of the Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi), the world's largest eagle and one of the rarest birds on earth, with fewer than 800 individuals surviving in the wild. Sightings are not guaranteed — this is a real wilderness, not a wildlife park — but the Agta guides know the hunting territories and best sighting vantage points. Whether you see the eagle or not, walking through a forest that still contains it is its own profound reward. Lunch is supplemented by foraged items the Agta prepare in the forest: palm hearts, wild mushrooms grilled on sticks, freshwater crabs from the stream.