Meet the man who visited the Philippines’ 1,642 cities, municipalities

On social media, it has become a badge of honor to flex visiting all 82 provinces of the Philippines. But Arvid Marius “Marco” Puzon has taken this personal travel goal to the extreme by swinging by every city and municipality in the country.

When a plebiscite in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on April 13, 2024 created eight new municipalities in North Cotabato, bringing the national total to 1,642, Puzon packed his bag and went back on the road.

Beyond bragging rights and bucket lists, he wants to give attention to places most travelers just pass by and towns that barely register on the map.

Early case of itchy feet

Travel, for Puzon, was not a late-life ambition but something that began in childhood. Summers were spent in his parents’ hometowns in Northern Luzon, or sometimes in Baguio, or in beach resorts in La Union.

“In my adult years, my different, former professions required tons of travel and field work,” he said. “I worked as a DOT(Department of Tourism)-accredited, German- and French-speaking guide in the mid-1990s to show them the chaos of Metro Manila and accompany them on package tours.” 

By his mid-20s, he had visited 19 provinces, including what was then Kalinga-Apayao. He calls this his “Early Travels Era.” 

“From September 1997 to June 1998, I went on a series of solo backpacking trips across the country,” he said. “I traveled to festivals, to remote towns, and re-explored provinces I had already visited — it was my ‘Tour Guide/Backpacking Years.’”

His wanderlust was already growing. But the shift from provinces to municipalities came later, sparked by a desire to explore and learn each province more.

Passion project

In 2010, Puzon found himself in Barobo, Surigao del Sur for work. He just stayed in the seaside resort where the activity was held, and didn’t even get to see the capital, Tandag. So he felt like on paper, he had visited the province, but in spirit, he had not. That unease planted the seed.

“Would I be able to say that I had been to Surigao del Sur when I was not even able to visit the capital city or other places apart from the venue?” he recalled.

By 2012, during what Puzon refers to as “my NGO Years and in my early 40s,” he had visited all but six provinces, even the short-lived province of Shariff Kabunsuwan. 

After being laid off in 2013, amid what he describes as an existential crisis, he began the project: to visit, at that time, all 1,634 municipalities and cities in the Philippines. 

At first, he aimed only for Luzon’s 771 towns and cities. He began in San Ildefonso, Bulacan. Within a year, he had covered 569 towns and cities in Luzon and Cebu City. 

A career shift to microfinance expanded his reach to the Visayas and Mindanao. By the end of 2018, he had visited 1,579 towns and completed all 81 provinces. The 82nd province, Maguindanao del Norte, was formed in 2022.

From an outsider’s point of view, his travels may seem something straight out of an epic travelogue written by a Paul Theroux or a Pico Iyer. But what others don’t know, there’s grind that comes with it. He once visited 15 towns in a single day, tracing a route from Sta. Catalina in Ilocos Sur to Bangar in La Union. At other times, reaching a single municipality required two days of travel. 

“Sometimes it took me two days to reach towns like Calanasan (Apayao), Tinoc (Ifugao), or even longer for Pangutaran (Sulu),” Puzon said. 

“My longest travel waits were a week to Cagayancillo in Palawan, and Mapun in Tawi-Tawi. Thankfully, friends who shared my goals got me a ride to Taganak, Turtle Islands, aboard the BRP Ivatan in July 2017.”

Road obstacles

Not all obstacles were logistical. In July 2016, the bus he was riding from Bicol to Manila was involved in a fatal accident in Quezon Province. A young passenger died. Puzon survived, but the experience forced him into a four-month pause from travel. 

The incident also reinforced his belief in safer travel and exposed systemic weaknesses in road safety enforcement.

“Although I did somehow think whether my 1,634 Philippine goal was worth it, the event ruined my zero accident goal,” he said.

Then came March 2020. He was six towns away from completing the list when the pandemic halted the world. Stranded in Lapu-Lapu City for three months, he considered stopping at 1,628. 

“After all,” he said, “I don’t think anyone has ever made it as far as I have.” 

But curiosity proved stronger than fatigue. When travel resumed, so did he. He speaks of places as surprisingly beautiful, not for their landscapes alone but for their people.

 “There are so many unexpectedly beautiful places in the Philippines and what makes these beautiful beyond scenery are its people,” he said. 

A father caring tenderly for his daughter at a waiting shed in Nagtipunan; an elderly balikbayan revisiting her island hometown of Araceli in Palawan, perhaps for the last time; electric cooperative workers who let him hitch a ride between Agutaya and Cuyo; local officials in La Paz, Abra who offered lunch upon learning of his quest.

“I didn’t have any moments in my travels that made me wonder whether obsession had overtaken joy,” he said. “But there were periods that I would describe as very difficult.”

He felt unwelcome, too, in some places, dismissed by local tourism officials. He remembers a few telling him this waterfall or that island were “very far” when they were not, blamed for not coordinating earlier despite finding no contact information online. 

Oftentimes, he found habal-habal (motorcycle taxi) drivers or police officers who proved more willing and helpful guides.

“I observed that there’s a large push towards annual festivals and celebratory events, complete with pageants and booths showcasing what the town or city offers,” he said. “But I am thrown off by the difficulty of finding accommodations and frustrating commutes.”

He observes that many local governments lean heavily on festivals and borrowed monikers — “the Switzerland of this” or “the Boracay of that” — catchy ones, but lacking narrative.

The strength of a tourism office, he also notes, depends largely on the support of its local government.

First on record

When Puzon arrives in a town, he makes one thing nonnegotiable: a visit to the municipal or city hall. For him, it is the center of every town, the plaza, the old and new buildings, the monuments, the markers, all combine to tell a hint of the town’s history.

“I would never consider myself having been to the town or city if I have not been to the municipal or city hall,” he said.

Puzon admits that completion has been a powerful motivator. After he returned to the road to visit the eight new municipalities, he became the first on record to visit all 1,642 cities and municipalities by February 14, 2026, spending Valentine’s Day in Pahamuddin — a newly formed municipality in the Special Geographic Area in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao — doing what he love the most.

But he insists that curiosity matters just as much. “There is always something new to visit and learn,” he said. 

But another list awaits: the country’s 150 largest islands. Puzon has visited 113 so far, with 37 to go. He has not traveled abroad since his NGO years, when he was sent to countries like Thailand and Colombia. 

Despite arguments that international trips can be cheaper, he still prefers the Philippines.

In an age when travel is often filtered into highlights and hashtags, Puzon’s project feels almost old school. An ordinary day on the road, he said, begins and ends with prayer. 

It is not about the spectacular, nor even the scenic, Puzon said, but more about showing up at the far edge of an island, a random location, and just refusing to let a place remain a blank space on the map. – Rappler.com