The Great Escape
By: Abraham Olandres
Date: April 29,2002

I didn’t really have concrete plans of going anywhere for the Holiday weekend. I was thinking of going home to Guimaras but the 4 day-long weekend wasn’t enough and worth it. Plane tickets are skyrocketing and the timing is just not good; besides, I couldn’t get any plane reservations.

And there was I, hoping to get a good rest and stay home to catch up with cleaning my pad and do some reading or maybe play Battle Realms up to sawa. Then, my office phone rang then an old friend asked me if I wanted to go to Vigan for the Holy Week. Vigan, I ask? Well, yeah, I nodded with gleaming eyes.

Next thing I knew, I was travelling with my friend and her high school barkada to Vigan City, Ilocos Sur. There were just the six of us so we brought a car for the trip. Well, I must admit, it is the longest trip I ever had – 13 hours on the road stretching over 390 kilometers of asphalt and cement-covered roads. Manila – Bulacan – Pampanga – Tarlac – Panggasinan – La Union – Vigan, Ilocos Sur: we left at 7 in the morning and arrived at the heart of the city just a few minutes past 8 in the evening.

The town was full of people, most of them were tourists roaming at the plazas, bazaars, and cafes and stalls beside the road. Dozens of horse-drawn calesas pass to and fro. What is this place, I asked myself. It really looks like colonial Spanish – everything from the brick roads and the adobe stones and capiz shells of the centuries old villas. I remarked – cool!

We scouted around for possible vacancies in nearby inns. Nothing, zilch, nada – not a single room available to comfort our aching body and tired eyes. The place was just full of visitors and foreigners from everywhere. We resorted to looking for some other place in the outskirts of the town proper but to no avail. Just our luck, an old relative of one of our companions was just in the nearby barrio but we still had to ask around to look for it.

It was around 10 in the evening when we had a good rest sharing a papag provided for us by a long lost relative of a friend. Alas, a good night sleep after the grueling hours of traveling over five provinces.

We woke up early the next day to get a good bath – well, a decent bath in the open deep-well was all I had but it was cool and refreshing. The rest of the day we spent roaming around the antiquated yet beautiful city of Vigan. Such marvel of Spanish colonial houses, villas, churches and the assortments – I just couldn’t believe my eyes! Pictures taken here and there, eating empanadas and chichacorn and buying all sorts of antique goods took most of our day but most of all I enjoyed the calesa ride!

We visited some of the notable spots around town – the Crisologo Museum, the old church and bell tower (shown in the movie, Ang Panday), the pot factory, Plaza Burgos, the Heritage Village (a seen in the movie Jose Rizal) and many more.

We’re supposed to proceed to Pagudpod the next day. It’s a 110-km or so ride from Vigan but we incidentally bumped into somebody we knew who just came from the place. They told us that Pagudpod was too crowded and they had to knock in the baranggay captain’s house to spend the night. Worried and disappointed that we’ll end up like them, we decided to stay in town and look for another beach nearby.

The beaches at San Esteban, an hour’s ride from Vigan, was the closest and nicest we could find. Nice white sand beach, scorching sun and salty wind greeted us in the early morning breeze. The place was full too; just our luck we arrived earlier that day. I also had the chance to get a crack on the portable videoke system installed right there on the sand! And the halo-halo was just as great for just 10 bucks a serving!

On our way back to town, we passed by a grotto placed on the beach front facing China Sea. It was windy and the trek to the statue was hard and slippery considering the strong gusts of wind and the moss-laden rocks that we had to traverse. Right on top of it, I marveled at the golden sunset as I watch it being swallowed by the sea.

The four days seemed to pass by so fast. We left Vigan city at mid noon of Sunday and arrived back to Manila past 2:30 in the early morning of Monday. It was a sweet and exciting escape!