It was a looong 10 – hour bus ride! I literally felt the pain in my butt and back, no joke. But the moment that I stepped out of the bus I felt nothing but excitement because I was  really there, in Ilocos! I have been wanting to go there since last year and I always bother my parents about it but they just ignore me every time I bring it up to them. That is why I’m grateful that my aunt thought of bringing me with them even though it was their family outing.

            We first stopped in Vigan to fill ourselves up for breakfast. We didn’t stay there longer than a couple of hours because it was not yet our time for Vigan. We got into our first itinerary which is Batac, Ilocos Norte where the former president Ferdinand Marcos’ remains was. I got to see his body but I haven’t had the chance to take a picture because it was prohibited. His body looked like a wax statue or it was just what I thought, maybe because of what they put in there to prevent it from decomposing. Anyway, we grabbed our lunch and found some little time to visit the Marcos’ Museum before leaving the place where there are a lot of pictures of him and about his presidency.

We were already in Paoay, Ilocos Norte after thirty minutes. We didn’t go to Sand Dunes because our time is limited but we stopped in front of the Paoay Church. It was said that it was built for more than 300 years and at the time of Marcos’ presidency, Imelda Marcos ordered to renovate the church but didn’t do anything with the design in order to preserve what was built hundreds of years ago.

It took us three hours before we got to Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte where the hotel we were going to stay in is located. We slept the moment we settled in because of exhaustion.

Diving into the sea is what we did the first thing in the morning. The sea was so blue reflecting the sky with a tinge of green, various rock formations were scattered in the shore but what captured my heart was the sight of the windmills surrounding us, there were twenty of them or much more. I got my picture on the top but the windmills didn’t happen to appear because they were too far for the camera to capture.

We left at 9 o’clock am to go to Kapurpurawan Rock Formation in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, our second to the last itinerary. As we are nearing the spot, the windmills are getting bigger and closer to the sideways of the road. The name Kapurpurawan was derived from the Ilocano word “Puraw” meaning white. The white rock formation’s shape is said to be formed by the stroke of the shore and there are a lot of interpretation of its shape. Others say that it  looks like a boat, a cloud and etc., but for me it looks more like a boat. We had our lunch there, even though the sun was striking the open area, we didn’t feel it because the windmills are just steps away from us, circulating the air of the place.

It was getting late when we got back to Vigan, our last itinerary. They decided to go there at night because Calle Crisologo looks better at night when the lights are on. It felt like walking back to history because of the houses, stores and restaurants which were built in the same old-style structure. We walked and bought various Ilocos’ products for our pasalubong, we ate street foods and waited until 7 pm for the dancing fountain. The dancing fountain was just fantastic. It was referred to as dancing because of the motion of the water that follows the beat of every played song while the colors of the light from the bottom change that made the water looks like glowing. The show lasted for almost two hours. At 9 pm, we settled on our seats in the bus for another 10 hour ride and with that we bid our goodbyes to Ilocos. It was a great trip indeed! 😄💯