Day 2. Laoag to Vigan Tour

Just right after we visited Marcos Mausoleum and Juan Luna's place, we headed straight to Vigan which was about one to two hours of drive. I fell asleep almost the entire travel time to Vigan due to a sleepless night on the bus the other night. 

We dropped by to so many ancient houses and other places to visit here in Vigan. I'll make it short for you. 

Lunch at Grandpa's Inn - We suppose to be staying here instead on Balay da Blas in Laoag but during those time, grandpa's Inn was fully booked so since we got option either to stay overnight to Vigan or Laoag, we opted to stay in Laoag. So then just to experience the homey feeling of grandpa's inn, we had our first lunch in Vigan.

my sister and her kids

*pictures taken by my brother-in-law

Syquia Mansion - after lunch, we decided to continue our journey and stopped here. It was said to be where one of a renowned person of our history grew up (forgot who he was. Lol). The place was so huge. Of course some of the furniture were old enough to prove that it has witnessed a lot over centuries. There was this one tour guide/care taker of the house who told us a story about a vase and a huge mirror which was a karat gold. The vase was said to be given by a prince or a king of China. 

Crisologo Museum - here's another museum we dropped by. Nothing much I have seen except on a kalesa that you get into for picture taking (though it's about to break. Lol!), then the old concept of restroom where there were only holes then what you can see under was a pig pen. So basically, this is where your poops go, Lol!

Hidden Garden - This Hidden Garden was close to a pottery where we didn't bother going as we didn't think it was different with other pottery around. I have not been to any but I know how it looks like, I guess. Lol. Basically, Hidden Garden offers a place where it has a lot of plants being carved. My mom, as always was amazed on how they grew plants. It's definitely all over the place. It took us 15 to 30 minutes to roam around then off we go to our next stop.

Baluarte ni Chavit - We got here almost around 3 or 4 pm the same day. It was mainly a zoo where animals of different kind were free on a ranch-sort-of-place. We attended a free animal show. I guess kids enjoyed it a lot. There were some part though that was smelly but it was fine. There's also a butterfly sanctuary which I liked as I have not seen so many butterflies closer enough (acting as a kid here. Lol!).

Heritage Village - Since this place is much more appealing on sunset to night atmosphere, this was the last placed we dropped by. We took some photos and bought shirts and souvenirs as there were so many shops around. I almost feel like wearing a "saya" since the ambiance is so much like Spanish colony. Lol!

Unfortunately, we skipped Bantay Bell Tower as it was the first stop we had when we arrived in Vigan. It was scorching hot so we headed to granpa's inn right away (for lunch) hoping to get back just before the sunset but we failed. The tower can't be seen as there was no lights on top. 

It was another 2 hours to go back to our hotel. We had our dinner at Robinson's Mall. It was indeed a very tiring day but was all worth it.

I have so many stories that piled up as I have not been blogging anything for the last 3 months. Yay! Too long! :)

Xoxo,

Jen