Ilocos Norte: Sand Dunes, Paoay Church

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

My co-workers and I had been planning this little vacation off from work and gladly, our leave forms were approved at the last minute. And so from Baguio, we took a 6-hour ride that led us to this beautiful place. Its a 3-day adventure, two days in Ilocos Norte and a day in Ilocos Sur then back to Baguio. There was some storm that time but we managed to get around the places we wanted to see.

Day 1: We stayed at one of the local hotels called Farmside Hotel in Laoag. Early that morning, we already had plans of roaming the town and so we started at the Ilocos Norte Plaza where some TV5 crew wants to take videos of us for their show (but we never saw that clip on TV or elsewhere, we didn't ask which show that's why). The plaza was fine with me since its colored green and its refreshing.

After that, we went to the Late President Ferdinand E. Marcos' Museum and Mausoleum where cameras are not allowed inside the Mausoleum so I didn't have a picture of his body. I don't know if its real but rumors say its just a copy but well, still gotta respect the dead. It was freezing cold inside (of course!), a lot of white flowers and the smell inside is kind of creepy for me. Roamed around the museum, saw some Mrs. Marcos' gowns which pricked my fingers when I touched it and some other old stuff. ^_^

Next stop, Church of San Agusin in Paoay - one of the Baroque Churches of the Philippines inscribed on the World Heritage list and thus this heritage site must be preserved and protected.

Last and unexpected stop: Sand Dunes of Paoay, a National Geological Monument site. It wasn't one of our original plans as we didn't know this exist. I so happen to ask a tricycle driver if there's a nearby place we can visit and he suggested this newest attraction and so we hired him to bring us to this place. You can do sand boarding, dune bashing, body surfing, kite surfing, wind surfing, watch the sunset or star gaze at night. Trivia: Panday movies were shoot here. Dune bashing costs about 1500 php for 30 minutes and 2500 for 1 hour plus sand boarding. Luckily for us, we got a free dune bashing from Kuya Rocky who is also from Baguio and owned one of those 4x4. He was fascinated to have met us so he gave us about a few minutes ride for free. You can contact him at 09157720212. Link to our dune bashing video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7P0yiooaBc