The Road to Vigan
Sagada was our last major stop in the mountains but on our way to the northwestern coast we stopped at the Battle of Bessang Pass Memorial, which commemorates a late World War II battle between a Filipino force led by American officers against the Japanese.
While on our drive we also saw a rare Filipino mountain guerilla! He was standing beside the road smoking a cigarette and wearing homemade-looking black fatigues, though our driver swore he was just part of a local government-backed militia.
Leaving the mountains for the province of Ilocos Sur was like entering another country as the landscape flattened out, the rugged mountains replaced with diminutive hills and miles of crops, their gently greens and browns standing in stark contrast to the vivid blue water of the South China Sea as we headed up the coast.
Not only the landscape changed but also its content as we began seeing smatterings of Spanish Colonial style buildings that would have been more at home in Latin America than in modern Philippines.
We finally left the Philippines and entered Old Mexico upon passing under the white arch reading “VIGAN.”
Viga Vigan!
This whole trip grew out of a desire to see Vigan, the last Spanish Colonial town in Asia. Founded in the late 16th century, it was laid out in the typical style of a Spanish city in Mexico, with the church and town hall facing each other across a central plaza, and the stucco-clad buildings are built in the style of the Mexican towns as well. Many of the original buildings have been preserved and new ones are built in the old style to maintain that special ambience.
The best way to tour Vigan is on a kalesa, or horse-drawn carriage. They’re a common sight in the historic Mestizo District and our kalesa driver gave us the grand tour. Vigan is a historic place composed of historic places. Filipino heroes and martyrs were born in town and many of those homes have been preserved and are open to the public.
One of my favorite was the Burgos Museum, originally the home of a Spanish soldier built in 1788, it was the birthplace of Father Jose Apolonio Burgos, a Filipino priest wrongfully accused of treason and one of three executed by the Spanish in 1872. This execution was one of the events that led to the revolution.
Its later history includes the use of its first floor as a post office, which is now a museum of local history, and the upper floors are maintained as though the Burgos family still inhabited it. Vigan seems to have cornered the market on antique furniture because every one of these old homes is resplendent with it.
We also played a game of “spot the bedpan” here as there was one under the bed. After seeing one in a display of National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal’s furniture back in Manila I had to explain what it was to my sister. From then on, whenever we visited an old house she began looking for bedpans as those are the only true mark of authenticity.
One of the more peculiar birthplaces is that of President Elpidio Quirino, who was not born in a wealthy mansion but in the Ilocos Sur Provincial Jail. Opened in 1657, while most buildings of its vintage are now fancy hotels or museums it’s been so good at being a jail that when we visited it was still being used for its original function. (Earlier this year it was converted into a museum) An employee gave us a tour, pointing out that the wooden stairwell is centuries old and showing us where the future president would be born- in the warden’s office because his father was the warden. Thought this was going a different direction, didn’t you?
A unique local souvenir are little kalesa made of lacquered paper. You can buy one in a Mestizo District shop, or buy source direct at the jail from the prisoner craftsman who create them.
Quirino may have become president but he didn’t leave his hometown behind and his home, the Syquia Mansion in the Mestizo District, gives a glimpse at the life of a wealthy Mestizo, Chinese-Filipino, family in the last century. Well-appointed as the other homes, it also had hidden walkways so servants could work without sullying the halls and a man-powered fan that was swayed over the dinner table to keep flies away.
The preserved homes are almost common but religious architecture is also plentiful in both Vigan and in the surrounding province. Of particular interest is a style of Baroque church, the “earthquake” Baroque, which is unique to the Philippines and Latin America. The “earthquake” Baroques stand apart from others due to their massive buttresses, thick walls and physically separate bell towers. Built like miniature fortresses, they could withstand earthquakes and civil unrest with equal ease. During the Philippine Revolution churches would often serve that purpose for the revolutionaries who would also use their bell towers as look out points.
San Augustin de Paoay “earthquake” Baroque church
On our way up to Vigan we stopped in the town of Santa Maria to visit its earthquake Baroque, one of four in the country that constitute a UNESCO world heritage site, and during our time in Vigan we took a day trip up north to see another in Paoay, the Church of St. Augustine. They may not have the endless fine details of Europe’s Baroque churches but they have a physicality to them that impresses and they still dominate the landscape as they have for centuries.
Just outside of Vigan is Bantay and though it’s church isn’t registered with UNESCO or as big as those ones, it’s still a fine piece of architecture and the view from up in the bell tower made it easy to see why Filipino revolutionaries a hundred years ago used these as look out points. We could see for miles in every direction, our view ending at the distant mountains and at the horizon over the South China Sea.
History aside there is an extreme oddity in Vigan that needs t be seen and that is Baluarte. Baluarte is the truest expression of the phrase “dito lang sa Pilipinas,” or “only here in the Philippines.” It’s the former governor’s personal petting zoo, theme park and grab bag of whatever he owns and feels like displaying. There are life-sized dinosaurs, live ostriches that enjoy mingling with visitors, caged tigers, his personal yellow submarine and a giant golden tower all in the midst of an otherwise rural area of small farms and tiny homes on the outskirts of town. Plus it’s free.
Because seeing life-sized dinosaurs at sunset are a sign that your night can’t stop now, after seeing Baluarte we returned to Plaza Salcedo, the town’s central plaza, for the dancing fountain show. The plaza is composed mostly of a giant fountain, which like a Filipino Bellagio has nightly performances. Water jets shoot up and spray in rhythm with an eclectic mix of traditional Filipino songs and today’s hottest club hits. To take this all a step further, laser figures are drawn against the central obelisk in the fountain. The show begins when a laser figure of the governor welcomes you to Vigan with a big thumbs up. Before the night was over I watched Laser Psy horse-dance to “Gangnam Style.”
While in Vigan we stayed at Villa Angela, a 19th century Spanish mansion turned bed-and-breakfast complete with antique narra wood furnishings and beds. It’s traditional, but they also have ice cold air-conditioning and wifi. So perfect my family questioned whether or not we needed to really leave and see anything else outside of it. Villa Angela’s brush with fame came when Tom Cruise stayed in the master bedroom while making Born on the Fourth of July. We had originally booked that room but changed when my sister decided to come along on the trip.
Once in Vigan we had intended to stay there for a few days but Villa Angela offered day tours with staff members for a fun Ilocos experience. Ours took us to the northernmost tip of the country, not just any country, but Marcos Country!
Ferdinand Marcos was the president and/or dictator of the Philippines for 20 years before the People Power Revolution ousted him from power in 1986. Despite that, his family is still popular in Ilocos Norte, just to the north of Vigan. His wife Imelda, she of the shoes fame, is a representative, his son Bongbong is a senator and daughter Imee is the governor.
That was my first Marcos surprise, the next was getting to see the man himself. Laying in state like Lenin in Russia, Ferdinand Marcos’ embalmed body lays in full uniform on a mattress under glass in a shrine room. It felt strange to see him, a controversial leader who died so long ago there were still U.S. military bases in the Philippines, hated so much he was driven from the capital and nation but so loved locally he’s reverently displayed so visitors can pay their respects. I’d seen a lot of new things in this country, but Marcos’ waxy figure on that bed was the most out there. The feeling I got seeing him was a mix of curiosity, oddity and just strangeness.
Malacanang of the North
After seeing the man, we then visited his house, which is now a museum courtesy of Governor Marcos. Marcos’ “Malacang of the North” (Malacanang is the presidential palace in Manila) was built in the Spanish style on the shore of Lake Paoay. Opulent yet still tastefully done, it’s quite the classy affair and like President Aguinaldo’s museum tells a very Marcos-centric narrative some may have trouble stomaching.
As a foreigner, I’m fascinated by such places both for their roles in history but by the stories told which are aimed at the internal Filipino audience and not at me. I was engaged by what I learned but also taking it in as a neutral third party.
The rest of our day was less politically-sensitive and more pure fun. Our drive kept us northbound and we stopped a few more times for cultural sites like the Cape Bojeador lighthouse, which looks like a real life Scooby Doo set, the Spanish mansion Philippine artist Juan Luna was born in and the alien landscape of Palpalookada Nature Park.
Palpalookada Nature Park
Palpalookada’s coastline is known for it’s white, almost organic outcroppings of sharp, sandy stone along the water, the Kapurpurawan rock formations, which contrast with the craggy cliffs and beachfront around it. The only way to reach this area is via miniature horses, as far as my little sister was concerned, anyway.
Our day ended not too much further up the road at Aparri, standing amidst the beachfront solar farm, towering white windmills planted right on the sand, and watching the sunset into the sea from the Philippine’s northernmost point. It was a burning red that faded orange were it met the purple sky as it burned its way down from the sky and was extinguished in the water. Sunsets in this ocean and at this latitude are always the most spectacular, each like a one-time work of art, one I was glad could be appreciated with my family.
Our driver took us back to Vigan right after and we stopped one last time for something he swore up and down would make the whole trip worth it, but we could only see this at night.
A beautiful way to end the day, our driver still had to show us just one more thing to make the trip complete. Seeing World Heritage sites, visiting an embalmed world leader, riding miniature horses and sharing a Hallmark moment weren’t enough for one day, we still needed to see the Sinking Tower of Laoag.
The sinking tower is an old church belltower that was built on soft ground and true to its name, has sunk several feet. It sounds like a gimmick, but that’s not the tower’s real attraction. Its real attraction is that if you see it after dark and you look at a certain spot from the right angle you will see the face of the Virgin Mary. Now the day was truly complete.
That’s the short version of our trip to paradise, it had everything we could have wanted to do and more, except take a break. The trip was physically exhausting and in the end it was almost an overload of new experiences and excitement. It was one of the best weeks of my life.
Originally published in Stripes, and Stripes: Destination Paradise.