Villa del Mar Ivory Beach Resort | Badudets Everything Nice!

Going North – Laoag, Ilocos Norte (Part 2)

After basking in the fine sand of Pagudpud and slept in Villa del Mar Ivory Beach Resort, we woke up at 3:00 am the next day to prepare for our early morning trek to Kaibigan Falls. But to our dismay, it was raining hard, the weather is bad for trekking. We initially planned to catch the sunrise at Kaibigan Falls but decided not to push through with it. We left the resort at a later time and went to Bangui Windmills, coined by the locals as “giant electric fans”. The weather was gloomy and the skies were covered with clouds, not a good background for picture perfect windmills, but what the heck…. the windmills are breathtakingly beautiful, I feel like I wasn’t even in the Philippines.

Bangui Windmills

Next stop is the Cape Bojeador Lighthouse also known as Burgos Lighthouse in Burgos, Ilocos Norte. This is one of the must-see landmarks aside from the windmills in Ilocos Norte. It’s proudly set on a hill overlooking the South China Sea making it the highest lighthouse in the Philippines. From 1892, it still serves its purpose, flashing its light every minute.

Cape Bojeador Lighthouse

Another landmark worth seeing is St. Augustine Church popularly known as Paoay Church. The church is known for it “earthquake baroque” style and is included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Coral stones and bricks made up the structure. Looking closely at the church’s structure, it reminds me of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat.

Paoay Church

In front of Paoay church is where you can find Herencia Cafe, home of the famous “pinakbet pizza”. But we were too full of our lunch that we decided skip to eat pizza. We spent the rest of the afternoon touring Malacanang of the North and Fort Ilocandia.

Fort Ilocandia

Going North – Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte (Part 1)

After 9-hour bus ride via Farinas Transit to Laoag and another 2-hour jeepney ride, we’ve finally reached our destination. We’re dead tired and sleepy from a long journey and uncomfortable bus ride but still looking forward and excited to the start of our 3-day escape.

Before settling at Saud Beach, we first had our breakfast at BingBong’s Restaurant. Then, we went further north to see the spectacular view of South China Sea at the Patapat Viaduct. At the end of Patapat Viaduct, we visited Agua Grande Picnic Park for another round of camwhoring.

Patapat Viaduct

Agua Grande Picnic Park

A few minutes drive from Agua Grande led us to the Maira-ira, Blue Lagoon. We didn’t bother to change to our swimming gears though the waves looks inviting. We just exchanged our “oooohs-and-aaahs” for the splendid view in front of us and headed for Bantay Abot Cave. Bantay Abot Cave means “a mountain with a hole”.

Bantay Abot Cave (a mountain with a hole)

Blue Lagoon

From the Blue Lagoon, we can see from afar the famous Bangui Windmills, coined by the locals as “giant electric fans”. But the windmills deserve another post, besides we”ll visit it on the 2nd day of our itinerary. Meanwhile, we decided to leave Blue Lagoon, and head to Villa del Mar Ivory Beach Resort. It’s past lunchtime when we arrived at the resort and left our things in our room, we immediately went to their restaurant and ordered Pinakbet and Bagnet. We spent the rest of the afternoon frolicking on the resort’s white sand and blue and calm waters. It was drizzling by night time though we still had a glimpse of the sunset.