The original plan was to go home to Ilagan, Isabela on Sunday (March 11). I left Claveria around 9 a.m as I was hoping to be home by 2 or 3 p.m. However, imagine my surprise when I reached the Loboc Bridge (which is in Abulog, Cagayan--about 60 km. from Claveria). It.Was.CLOSED. They closed off the bridge!!! I asked quite a lot of people already, and there was no rerouting done. The only way for me to go back to Isabela was to go back and drive around the other side of North Luzon. Meaning I was forced to drive all the way around the Ilocos area! My friend advised me to take the Baguio-Aritao route to save me time instead of going all the way down to Pangasinan, then to Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, then back to Isabela. So March 11 was the day my misadventure began, haha! Okay, I then drove back from the end of Loboc Bridge (Abulog), passed by the towns of Pamplona, Sanchez Mira, and Claveria (again), then drove all the way to Sta. Praxedes (the border town of Cagayan and Ilocos), then drove all the way to Vigan, Ilocos Sur! I drove for 10 hours that day. 10 effin' hours.
Upside, I was able to take pictures in a few tourist spots in Ilocos like the Bangui Windmills, the wonderful coastline of Ilocos Norte, the Paoay Church, and I got to go around Vigan's Heritage Village at night! Thankfully my brother called up a hotel in Vigan so when I got there I already had a room reserved for me. Thank you Grandpa's Inn for accepting a last-minute reservation! The receptionist felt sorry for me, I think, because I looked so tired so he gave me a free bottle of water hahaha!
Passed by the Pamplona Church, so nice!
Right before reaching the Cagayan-Ilocos boundary
The Patapat Viaduct!
Bangui Windmills, woohoo!
Met these two little girls, Hannah and Jovy--both 11, who spend the weekends selling souvenirs at Bangui
LOVE LOVE LOVE this view
Passed by this really nice view of the shore while driving
Welcome to Laoag City! :)
The Paoay Church
Finally at Grandpa's Inn
Funny thing was, I had been thinking about going on an Ilocos road trip but never really seriously planned it as I wasn't willing to drive that far and long. I wasn't even considering commuting from Isabela because I knew that was going to be such a long and tiring trip. Well, my Ilocos road trip happened unexpectedly! I do regret not enjoying the latter half of the trip. I should've made more stops and should've taken more pictures but I was too worried about driving alone and I really did want to get home to Ilagan as soon as possible.
The drive back to Isabela on Monday (March 12) was quite...ummm...stressful. Why? Because.... (to be continued)
1 comment:
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Hope to c u too on my blog.
gabrielletaduran.blogspot.com
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