My Dizzy Thoughts: The Amazing Tour of Ilocos

We woke up early morning on Sunday so we could start our trip to Pagudpud. We caught the 630am trip of GMW Bus Line, and even if it wasn't an air-conditioned bus, the early morning breeze was enough to leave us freezing.

At around 8:30am, the bus driver dropped us off at the town of Baduang, Pagudpud and we already found several 'tourcycle' drivers gathered in the area. Apparently their group's organized in such a way that tourists can choose which tour they want to take and a tricycle driver will show them around. The Pagudpud North tour will go to the following destinations:

Kabigan Falls
Patapat Viaduct
Paraiso ni Anton
Agua Grande
Bantay Abot Cave
Timmangtang Rock
Blue Lagoon Beach

While the South Pagudpud tour will cover the following:

Burgos Lighthouse
Kapurpurawan Rock Formation
Bangui Windmills
Saud Beach

Since we traveled a long way, we decided to do both tours. Each tour costs Php600 (good for up to 3 people), so that's Php1200 for the whole thing but we were able to negotiate the price down to Php1000 (but we still paid Php1200 in the end).

Our first destination was the Patapat Viaduct. I don't really know what a viaduct is, but the place is basically a winding road which is overlooking the South China Sea. Correction, it's called West Philippine Sea, pala. So we just stopped in the middle of the road, and took pictures.

Next was a quick trip to Agua Grande River Park. I'm not really sure why it's called grande, when it doesn't look that great to me. It has a river that leads to the sea, I guess that's it.

After a couple of pictures at Agua Grande, we headed next to Blue Lagoon. I was a bit underwhelmed when I saw the beach. I was expecting, well, the Blue Lagoon that I saw in the movie. It wasn't ugly or anything, I was just expecting more based on the blogs I read. Although I saw that it's a more popular spot for the surfers.

Then, we left Blue Lagoon and headed back to where we came from. Actually, the small road leading to Blue Lagoon passes by Bantay Abot Cave and Timmangtang Rock so we were surprised when we already reached the main road and our driver didn't stop at the places. So we told him to go back because we want to see both and they were part of the tour.

We stopped first to Bantay Abot cave, and we discovered that it really didn't look like a cave but more of a donut because of the whole in the middle. It was very relaxing staying there and just looking out into the sea. It was also a great location for taking pictures.

Afterwards, we headed to Timmangtang Rock and the driver almost missed it again. At that point we were already a bit irritated with him because he doesn't seem to know where to go. Anyway, the Timmangtang Rock isn't much of an eye-catcher because it's just that, a big rock. From here, though, you could also see the Bantay Abot cave.

We headed next to Saud Beach. This one I really liked! The beach had white sands, the weather was perfect and the water was really inviting. It's just too bad we didn't bring our bathing suits with us or else we would've taken a swim.

We decided right there and then that we wanted to go back to Pagudpud, if only for Saud beach. But I heard that the waves could get really crazy there and that the sea floor is really uneven, that sometimes one step can immediately bring you to the deep end.

Before heading to our next destination, we stopped for lunch at Mika's carenderia through the recommendation of our driver, where we had inexpensive but very delicious meal of bulalo and nilagang baka. That's where our driver told us that we're his buena mano and it's first tour ever since he just got his registration recently. So that's when we jokingly advised him to memorize his tour destinations for his succeeding batch of tourists.

After lunch, we made a quick detour to the giant kabibe or shell. I think this is the monument which lets you know that you've entered the town of Pagudpud.

Then we were off to Kabigan Falls. I must say that I am really not fond of this body of water so I wasn't that excited to see it. It was quite a long trek from the main road to the falls, around 30 minutes, but you get a scenic view of trees, a brook, and fields.

So far, the waterfall is the highest I've seen ever. Not that I've seen a lot, in fact this is only the 3rd I've ever visited in my life hehe. Although it's the highest, it has the smallest base that I've seen, so there's just a small area where visitors can swim.

Our next destination was the Bangui Windmills. As we get nearer the area, we couldn't help but get excited as we see the structures get bigger and bigger. This is really one of our must-sees for this trip and it's exhilarating to see the windmills up close.

We spent quite some time here because the afternoon breeze was very relaxing and it was just lovely looking out at sea and watching the windmills turn.

Our next destination was the Kapurpurawan Rock Formation. At first our driver was hesitant in going there because it was a bit far and his tricycle might have a hard time going there, because of the dirt road, blah, blah, blah. But of course we protested and 'requested' him to drive us there anyway and we'll just see
when we get there. Hello! It was part of the tour we paid for, diba? The place really was a bit far but the road wasn't as bad as he thought it to be. Feeling ko he hasn't really been there and just didn't want to make that effort.

When we got to Kapurpurawan, I didn't expect that we would have to make a bit of trekking over boulders and a rocky shore to get to the famous white rock. But it was all worth it!

Funny story. For the entire trip, we kept whining and bitching about the crowds and the fact that we can't take decent pictures without people in them. So it's the same thing when we got to Kapurpurawan. But after a few minutes of reaching the rock, the last group (aside from us) started leaving which made us the only two people there. Being the only people there was pretty scary even if it was for just 20 minutes, as in the 127 Hours calibre, seriously! It was approaching sunset and the tide was also rising, which would make our way back more wet and slippery, so we had to rush taking pictures and head back. But we were already laughing at ourselves when we found out that there were more people on their way to the rock.

Our last stop was the Cape Boreador lighthouse. The structure was interesting, too bad they've already restricted the entrance to the lighthouse. The view up there would have been breathtaking.

We really intended to reach the lighthouse by sunset for the view. And we were not disappointed.

Our driver asked us to hurry up so we can catch a bus back to Laoag. Apparently, the highway gets really dark (no street lights) and not too many buses pass by that way until much later. Anyway, Shalu and I just relaxed and took more photos in the dark, and after about an hour we finally found our ride.

When we got to Laoag, after a quick dinner of empanada and coffee, we thought it was still too early to sleep so we went to the plaza and take more pictures given that it's our last night there.