This is a continuation of my last post, on day 1, we traveled 466 km by land to Ilocos Sur, Philippines. This time, we traveled some 165 km from Ilocos Sur to Ilocos Norte. On Day 2, we dropped by so many destinations, that I think one of them deserves a post of its own. You can consider this post a Part 1 of 2. š
Some notes before I start my oversharing: We took so many photos of ourselves, that it's pretty impossible not to share them. However, I am uncomfortable showing our faces, so I had to blur them. Please bear with it!
how it started
We had a wonderful stay in our B&B for Day 1 in Ilocos Sur. It just happened that... we realized that only one of us (out of 20) actually brought a toothpaste. To be fair, I seriously thought that Aunt T would haul in the tons of toothpastes she actually brought home from Dubai. It turned out that we collectively thought the same, but it didn't seem to be the case. š We ended up having to queue for the sole toothpaste we had as early as 3:00, because we were leaving for our destinations at 5:30.
š Paoay, Ilocos Norte
san agustin church in paoay, ilocos norte
Compared to La Union and Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte was decidedly much colder. As soon as we alighted our cars in the San Agustin Church, it was pretty obvious I would be needing a jacket. I was wearing shorts and a school t-shirt only, with only slippers on my feet, too! You bet I was shaking.
Because of my outfit, I felt uncomfortable entering the church. I didn't really know that our first stop was a church, though, so I cut myself some slack. š I ended up spending some time outside, just enjoying the view of the old church's face and the rows upon rows of white bougainvillea ledges at the front.
then some adventure.
Soon enough, we left Paoay to find some place to have breakfast. We didn't really like the options we found, so we ended up going to our next destination instead:
š Bacsil Onse Reef Sand Dunes, Paoay, Ilocos Norte
The thing is, this was another one of those suprise destinations. I didn't really know what to expect, but when I heard sand dunes, I thought we were going to ride an ATV!
Oh, boy, I was reminded of that one time I rode an ATV in Albay in the Bicol Region, crossing rocky terrain and even creeks! I was hoping that it was the same case here, except it will be on sand dunes.
I was kind of disappointed that it was going to be on a 4x4 off-road car driven by a professional. Who would have thought I'm someone who would look for risks. š
But! I actually had so much fun! When we started riding, I realized that the reason why it wasn't ATV was because it was going to be pretty dangerous. Some of the dunes were pretty steep... but that definitely didn't stop our (decidedly) playful guides to drive us through them. I seriously thought I would lose voice simply from shouting.
Many times, it felt like the car was about to flip over to the point that we would tumble to our deaths. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. There was a pair of guide for each 4x4. One of them drove, the other took videos. I would have shared the videos here, but there were parts that showed our funny faces that got blown by strong winds, that I thought, "Nope. Won't show it to the world!"
The guides led us to the seasides, and it was beautiful! There, the wind literally shook and blew me away. But it was worth it! The view was worth the jumpy 4x4 ride. Naturally, we took the opportunity to also just take so many pictures.
Kudos to our Kuya Guide for handling my beloved phone so carefully despite the intensity of the ride, and taking rather good pictures, too!
on our way back, we indulged our inner child
When we were kids, my cousins and I would walk our way to this coconut plantation just at the back of our homes. There were many slopes of earth on there, were we would slide in using fallen and dried coconut leaf stalks.
It was such a precious childhood memory that I didn't think this was a... tourist thing.
Here's me indulging on my inner child. It was pretty steep, but nothing I couldn't handle. š Kidding. My cousins (who I used to play this with!) were surprisingly scared of it. It took us a lot of convincing before they actually decided to go with it. (And together on one board, too! Now that's up to you to imagine. š )
I honestly would have gone another round, except for the fact that it was very challenging to go back up. It was starting to get really hot and the tires they placed to serve as makeshift stairs didn't really help all that much. Despite that, I had really fun here!
so we need to move on.
"We need to leave soon," said one of my cousins. I got pretty sad, because I wanted to stay longer and maybe ride again, but it was what it was. We had many other destinations to go to, and he promised it was going to be better.
Needless to say, I held onto that promise. And that's going to be a post for another time.