My family officially started the summer last April 6, with a family and group tour to Vigan, Ilocos Sur and Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.
Almost a month before this, I started contacting resorts and hotels in Pagudpud to ensure our accommodation. I was surprised that almost all of them were already fully booked long before the holidays came. So I searched and searched online for affordable types of living quarters and discovered what they call "homestays" in Pagudpud. These are bungalow-types of houses which the local residents of the province places for rent on a per day or per head basis.
I contacted almost all of the homestays I found listed online. Good thing 3 were available on the date we had planned on going to Pagudpud. I chose the one in Blue Lagoon, Pagudpud which offered 3 rooms because we were going there with 2 other families, who were close friends of my husband. And they will be bringing their children along so I want to make sure the children were comfortable. Plus Blue Lagoon is considered to be a virgin beach in Pagudpud compared to its other beach which is Saud.
We were all 13 persons (including children) in the van we rented and we left at around 1 AM of April 6.
Oh did I forget to mention that we started the tour in Baguio City?! We all live in The Summer Capital of the Philippines so our travel time to Vigan was only about 5 hours. But if you'll be starting from Manila, expect to add about 6 more hours to that.
Upon arriving in Vigan at 6 AM we looked for "turo-turo" or street side restaurants to eat our breakfast. The men wanted to experience eating the local foods immediately like the Vigan longganisa so they suggested it instead of eating in fastfood restos. The children were not so thrilled though :)
We found the street side restos within the central plaza near the city hall. This was very near another tourist spot of Vigan called the "Calle Crisologo" but we opted to go back to it the next day on our way home to maximize our travel time.
After eating, the men went to the local market nearby and spent about an hour buying food for our dinner and breakfast for the next day. While we, the women and children did some sight-seeing around the plaza where we saw lots of "kalesa" or horse-drawn carriages, a traditional vehicle in the Philippines. The children were awed at the horses and pleaded to have a ride on one already. But we promised, it'd be on the next day's agenda.
The designs of the buildings and houses still preserved that of the Old Spanish Era. It was really better seeing it for yourself than just seeing it on television. The children were already excited to see the rest of the city but we had to start travelling again.
On the way to Pagudpud, we passed by Burgos, Ilocos Norte where Cape Bojeador was and Bangui, where the famous Bangui Windmills were.
Cape Bojeador is an old lighthouse in the area and looks really historic - well "old" as the children described it... while the Bangui Windmills are wind turbines put up there to help supply electricity in the region of Ilocos Norte. It's considered the biggest set of wind turbines in Southeast Asia and it truly was a sight! It was on a beach with white sands so if only we were allowed to swim there, I would have loved to spend time swimming and being beneath the windmills at the same time!
But we had to continue travelling...
We arrived at the barangay outpost at the entrance of the Blue Lagoon beach at around 12 noon. They asked for a $0.50 per person entrance fee which is good for 24 hours. This was the only fee we paid to access the whole area. Then we headed to Surf's Homestay and the house owner, Mang Wally, welcomed us with all smiles. The house was not too much but it had the stuff we needed to be able to cook and to sleep comfortably through the night.
We cooked and had our lunch - Sugpo sauteed in garlic, rice and then bananas for dessert - and started on our way again to see the other views before we headed for the beach.
Sorry, we forgot to take pics here...we just wanted to fill our starving tummies :)
Our next stop was at the Patapat Viaduct. This is a long, winding bridge, the 4th longest in the Philippines which connects the rest of the Northern Luzon provinces to Ilocos Norte. It's sandwiched between the mountains and the sea. According to Wiki, it's 31 meters above sea level. So that explains why I get dizzy when I look at the rocks below the bridge!
We also passed by Bantay Abot Cave. What's considered a cave is actually the MASSIVE hole on this sea mountain. This hole was the making of a 1980's earthquake which rocked the mountain. The whole mountain sits just beside the sea where we saw small eels and hermit crabs by its rocky-side.
Then we were off to the Blue Lagoon beach!
After looking at some tourists, we noticed that many of them did not rent cottages from the surrounding resorts anymore. And it turns out there was a free toilet and bath at the right side of the beach!
So.... since we were still full from our heavy lunch, we just changed to our swim wears and went towards the clear, blue waters. And enjoyed the sun and the sand!
The waves were splashing the shore all afternoon, but it was okay. We jumped as the big waves came and laughter was just all around. The kids enjoyed the sand so much too that we almost did not mind the sea weeds constantly floating around. But, I still hope someone regularly cleans it up.
We headed back for the homestay at 6 PM because a "No Swimming" Rule is implemented on the Pagudpud beaches after 7 PM. We cooked our dinner again then prepared for bed. It was really dark at night in Pagudpud. There were no street lights at all. But it did not feel creepy or anything.
The wind was causing the waves to splash, it was so strong that we thought it was raining!
In the morning when we woke up, we still heard the same sound. Before heading there, we thought that it would be soooo hot but it was actually cold just like in Baguio City because of how strong the wind was.
But you know what's funny...the wind in Pagudpud, no matter how strong it was, did not get our hair all tangled up! That was amazing :D
*All photo credits go to my hubby - egay who is a budding photographer, thanks luv!
Jovell
.jpg)
.jpg)
