Day 1, Part 1: #TeCasIlocosTour2015

(Our tour of the beautiful province of Ilocos will be documented in a long series of blog entries, totalling of 8 posts. I'm so sorry. Ang ganda talaga, I want to relive it as much as I can.)

I've always wanted to visit Ilocos since I've read about it back in college. To be quite honest, though, I was surprised when this tour was brought up. My dad told us about the trip just a week before we had to leave. It felt like someone threw hot water at me - I am not used to not planning what I should be packing weeks before the trip - but at the same time, I was just sooooo excited.

While the whole Philippines flocked to Manila for Pope Francis' arrival, we went on an 8-hour roadtrip to the northern part of Luzon to visit the wonderful province of Ilocos.

We traveled with my dad's officemate and his family who happened to be close family friends of ours. Our shuttle service from N.E.C. Tours was waiting for us at Meralco in Ortigas on the night of January 14th. The agency suggested for us to leave the night before the first day of the tour so we could maximize our 3 days, 2 nights tour of Ilocos.

We were expected to sleep in the van (a brand new Toyota Grandia van) but I didn't sleep a wink because I kept on panicking when the driver accelerates the speed of the van. We also ran over a dog in La Union which, up until now, I can still feel under my feet. I'm not a dog person pero sobrang kawawa yung aso.

Anyway, our first stop was at the Sikat Tuna Inihaw Restaurant in Batac, Ilocos Norte for breakfast.

We got there at around 6am and when we all got off the van, we didn't expect the very, very cold air that hit us. Why? Because according to Accuweather.com, the time we were to visit Ilocos, the temperature was at 30 degress. We were all wearing shorts and tank tops/shirts. We brought sweaters, yes, but they were not enough to combat the cold up north that time. That is the first and last time we are consulting Accuweather for the weather because they are not "accu" at all!

We had tapa and longganisang Iloko for breakfast which we waited for 10-15 minutes. We finished them in 2 minutes, 3 minutes tops and these are our post-breakfast faces (minus my brother):

The tapa and the longganisa were good but I expected the eggs to be more...malasado? than what they served. Silog meals are supposed to have malasado eggs, in my opinion.

After breakfast, we went straight to Paoay Church which was such a beauty even from afar:

Every part of the church was breath-taking, there were a lot of photo-taking that happened between the 9 of us:

Would you look at that! So pretty!

The inside of the church looked as regal as it did the outside. Quick fact: The Paoay Church, or the Parroquia de San Agustin, has the longest aisle in all of the Philippine churches. If you were to marry here, you'd have a lot of time to think while you meet your soon-to-be spouse at the end of the aisle. JK! :p

We saw these swirly things on the church grounds and I thought it would look good in photo. What do you think?

Photo c/o my dad's Huli Cam. Brianna and I enjoying the picturesque Paoay Church grounds.

Mommy-daughter photo with the beautiful church.

Ito mas "ako". Selfie with the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site in Ilocos Norte.

The proof.

Scary window, isn't it? Legend has it, blahblahblah.

And of course, the obligatory group photo in front of the church entrance.

(Okay, that doesn't seem much but I won't want this to look like some sort of photo diary so I'm keeping the photos to a minimum, whatever minimum is.)

Anyway, there was a tranquility park of sorts on the side on the church, which I don't have any photos of. This is where you can go to muni-muni on your life and decisions and stuff. Maybe you could also do your penance there after confession.

There was also a gift shop which sells all kinds of church souvenirs but what caught my eyes were the black-and-white and sepia framed photos of the church that were for sale. Of course, being me, I didn't get to take photos of them because I was too busy admiring them.

After re-energizing ourselves with cold water, we went straight to the Paoay Sand Dunes for some 4x4 action...