up North circa 2004

april 2004 - i called myself a first timer to Ilocos when by chance Gem & I was invited by our associate lawyer Atty. Malou Cortez to join her group in a convoy up north. the invitation was actually made at Prof. Calica's ancentral house in La Union...we were supposed to spend the weekend at the bayside but happily we ended with a very exciting tour and the most part was everything was paid by Atty. Malou's mother :)

let me go a bit detailed about my initial trip; i have no idea of our travel time and destination so i was very focused on the road, trying to remember all the landmarks and markings. our first stop was at Narvacan where we had lunch --you see this is the common stop over of those who are travelling with private cars, across the line up of eatery was the perfect view of the coral reefs.

right after lunch we went straight to Vigan (it's roughly 3 hours drive), our booking was at Gordion Inn Bed and Breakfast and all of us (6 people) shared the biggest room that was available. after an hour, we started touring the city via calesa (P150/hr) and the package includes:

Villa Angelina - this is also a hotel inn, old and creepy but well-maintained

Crisologo Musuem - houses the memorabilia of the Crisologos and original furnishings of a typical Vigan ancestral house

Burnai Pottery Making - manual pottery making and Atty. Cortez tried making one while singing oh, my love my darling :)

Syquia Mansion - partly closed for renovation that time

then off to Calle Crisologo and Plaza Burgos where we had late snacks, my first empanda encounter! so so love how this foodie was made by locals, we had inasal at Cafe Leona also and ended our day at Plaza Maestro where we had few bottles of alcohol and some wild singing over a videoke machine :)


slightly posing at Gordion Inn and at Calle Crisologo...

the following day, we enjoyed breakfast back at the hotel --Vigan longanisa of course! and went back to Rowilda's in Calle Crisologo to buy pasalubongs. we were scheduled to leave Vigan that same day and Gem and I asked Babu (our driver and good friend also) to drop us at La Union so we can take the bus ride to Baguio City while Atty. Cortez and group will be going straight to Fontana Resort in Pampanga...

so we did! hit Baguio City before 7pm and met our colleague Mike Perez to help us find a decent transient house. fortunately we got a room at Quezon Hill (thru Noel, also a friend from Baguio) and charge was P500.00/night. we spend the whole night at Chill (dunno if i got the name right), Mike and Noel joined us initially and later on was very surprised to receive Jojo's call about their sudden change of plan...Atty. Cortez's group moved to Baguio as well. so in no time, Babu and Jojo were already at Chill and we had alcohol the whole night :)

the last day of our tour, we had plenty of time now to wander along the city proper --went up to Lourdes Grotto, tried an hour boating at Burnham's Park, side visit Mine's View, Botanical Gardens, City Market and the newly built SM Baguio...all in 6 hours! before 5pm we were already at Victory Liner and bid our good byes to Mike (thanks for the wonderful time bro and see you in Manila!).

at Burnham Park with Mike (my first boat ride in Baguio) and Lourdes Grotto with Gem.

we made home safely except that Gem was very sick when we arrived Manila...nonetheless, i enjoyed the splendid weekend i had with friends, my best buddies to say...for sometime, i forgot about Manila, about what freshly happened, about my solo status, about my anguish --God was so good to bless me with wonderful people during those gloomy days :)

if you think this is the last, had two more trips back to Ilocos (hopefully will come up with a more detailed entry)...