Ilocos: Vigan (04.06.13 - 04.07.13)

Plan was to drive up north, equipped with a map and waze (thank you technology) we were able to reach our first destination, Vigan City. After 12 hours of driving, countless times of restroom breaks, passed by Isdaan to experience tacsiyapo and also prayed to Our Lady of Manaoag in Pangasinan, we finally reached the beautiful lighted street of Calle Crisologo.

We stayed at Cordillera Inn, which was located inside the heritage village. We left Manila around 530 AM, the original time of departure was at 3AM, everybody fell asleep and our alarm clocks didn't work (Blackberry users can relate to this; setting should be all days, not only weekdays) and arrived at Vigan City around 8PM.

We were so hungry after settling in our hotel room, we went straight to Cafe Uno for dinner, ordered bagnet, bagnet sisig, poki-poki, Vigan longganisa.

Finished dinner late and looked for the must-try-when-in-Vigan-dish, the empanada :) located in Plaza Burgos.

Since we arrived late in Vigan plus we were tired and hungry, I wasn't able to take photos of the beautiful houses and details found in Calle Crisologo, i'm sure you'll be able to find more blog appropriate photos in the web or google hahaha.

The morning after we woke up early and went to church to hear mass at the Bantay Parish, St. Augustine Parish.

We dropped by the St. Paul Cathedral, wasn't able to see the facade of the church, we were rushing to check out in the hotel and move to Laoag but before we left we tried Irene's Empanada, which was so delicious and hang out at the coffeebreak shop, to break the heat with a iced coffee.

Our last stop was Baluarte, my brother wanted to see the tigers and I was curious about Baluarte. It was a 7 minute drive from Heritage village to Baluarte.

Nothing much to do in Baluerte, so we decided to hit the road again to Laoag.

Calle Crisologo is a UNESCO World Heritage, despite the long trip/drive, it was worth it, specially at night. It took us 12 hours to get to Vigan with a side trip to Manaoag, which added 2 hours driving time. We weren't able to see other tourist attractions because of our limited time and we still have to cover Laoag and Pagudpud for the next 2 days.