My Dad and I went to Ilocos last Thurday for the Visita Iglesia of the San Francisco Parish. We left San Pablo at nine o'clock that night and had to endure twelve long hours of bus ride. Good thing we brought our jackets along because we weren't supposed to touch the controls of the aircon because all the cool air will go to the driver if we do that. Nice eh? We had a restroom stop at Rick's Cafe in Pangasinan and I was really tired to even get up and out of the bus.


There was a contest among all the passengers wherein each of us had to guess what time we will be arriving at the boundary of Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte. My Dad won and David, our tour guide, gave him two hundred pesos as his prize.

Before entering Vigan, we passed through a town with this long bridge over a grand river. I forgot the name but it's something like Rio Grande de Whatever. The bus stopped at a parking space and the passengers, including me, went out to have some picture-taking. It was really cold and nice, just like being in Tagaytay or in Baguio.


Most of what we saw along the way were fields of either corn, tomatoes, or of course, tobacco. We even saw grape orchards in a town in Ilocos Norte. There were baskets of tomatoes at roadsides and even trucks of them ready to be brought to factories to be made into tomato paste.


We happened to pass by a calesa on the streets of Laoag City and I just had to take its picture. I love horses because I was born on a year of the horse. But I love cats, too. Anyways, I saw more of calesas like this in Vigan.


Lunch!!! Imagine doing it an hour later than my usual lunchtime. Anyways, it didn't matter that much because I'm on a diet. The meal we had was provided by the travel agency and we had veggies, pork, and tetra-packed juice. Oh, and a banana. We did it at the park in front of the Sta. Monica Church in Sarrat and had a nice view of a desert while eating. Our guide said the desert was used in filming Panday with FPJ and now in shooting Spirits.


After the sumptuous meal, the tour guide took us to see the Sarrat Ruins, just beside the Sta. Monica Church. It was a convent built during the Spanish times that was used as a garrison during the revolt against the Spanish and World War II. There were different rooms that were used as a tribunal hall, a justice hall, a torture room, and the garrote room. This building was destroyed by an intensity 8 earthquake many years ago.


The last town we went to was Vigan. We had dinner there at a nice place called the Aniceto Mansions and we had delicious pinakbet and fish fillet that was so hard most of the people, oldies that they are, weren't able to finish their dinner. For dessert was melted chocolate ice cream. Before heading to the bus and home, we bought some local delicacies like empanada, kalamay, okoy, and my favorite Royal Bibinka.


It was a very tiring trip, I admit, but the 1500 we paid for it was well worth it. I've been to Ilocos before, about eight years back, but I was eagerly excited to go back there. Along the way, I reminisced about the good times I had there with my friends Kei, Len, and Marlon. I was glad to see once again the places I've visited there. One more thing, this with all honesty, I enjoyed the company of the people on the trip, even if they are oldies already. I hope next year, there will be another one like this.

If you want to see more pictures from this trip, click here

¶ 2:56 PM

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