Racuh a Payaman

Racuh a Payaman means communal pasture in Ivatan, and that is exactly what it is: a broad sweep of grazing land on the hills above Mahatao where the island's cattle and carabao are kept collectively, the grass cropped short and green, the ground rolling to a cliff edge that drops several hundred metres into the Pacific. Visitors know it as Marlboro Country, a nickname earned by the landscape's resemblance to cigarette advertising - hills, animals, big weather - and it has become the image of Batanes: the lighthouse of Tayid on its ridge, the sea stacked in ranks below, cloud shadows crossing the grass. It is also a working pasture rather than a park, with stone walls, water troughs and herders' shelters, and part of the Ivatan landscape system that manages wind, salt and typhoon on a treeless island. Come at either end of the day when the light is low and the wind, which never fully stops here, is at its calmest.

What you actually see

• The pasture hills - green rolling ground and grazing cattle.
• The cliff edge - the drop to the Pacific below.
• Tayid lighthouse - the ridge tower above the coast.
• The Ivatan land use - stone walls and communal grazing.

When to go

March to May for the calmest, driest weather; Batanes is fully exposed to the typhoon season from June to October, when flights cancel for days. Early morning and late afternoon give the best light.

Honest expectations

Wind is constant and can be strong enough to unbalance you near the cliff - keep back from the edge. There is no shade and no facilities. Batanes flights are weather-dependent and expensive; build slack into any itinerary.

Nearby

Vayang Rolling Hills, Valugan Boulder Beach and the Mahatao church are all on the same North Batan loop.