Travel: Out and about in Ilocos

Paoay Church on a rainy afternoon, May 2013. Photo by DSanti

Initially, I had second thoughts about this trip because of the very looong drive. I was counting eight hours from Manila which does not include  the pit stops we were going to make. But the husband insisted. After all, it was many summers  ago when the family first went to Ilocos: the children were still  in primary school and  they hardly remember anything about that long trip to the north.

We hit the road very early  to avoid traffic stress. At 3AM, we were at South Luzon Expressway ( SLEX ) and well on our way to the land of bagnet, empananda, and yes, Vigan longganisa,! My daughter and I joined my  bosom buddies in one car and my two boys rode with their dad. I didn't sleep a wink the night prior to the trip. I had to make some errands and had last minute packing to do. To top it all off, there was  a deadline to meet. I dozed off fast  and woke up at past six or was it seven already? The stress from lack, err, absence of sleep dissipated after that much-needed rest. Now, my body was ready for the long day ahead of us.

The nice thing about traveling when your children are already in their teens ( I have two and one is in her twenties) is that you don't stress yourself too much anymore by looking after their needs. They pretty well fend  for themselves:  they eat when they're famished and make themselves comfortable and  know just what to do when boredom strikes during the trip. ( And always, they sleep, listen to music and eat and eat and sleep again! ) But this isn't to say I don't miss those days traveling with a child  on my lap at the same time looking after the needs of the other two . Uh, now I am starting to digress. Before that happens, let 'me now take you to  Ilocos. 

Thank God for paved highways!  They make travel easier and more comfortable. 

Enjoy the beautiful sceneries along the way: the vast open skies, calm seas that allow you to breathe clean, fresh air. 

Welcome change. Do you feel the way  I do when you see a town's/province's welcome arc? 

Here we are, at last!  Notice the nipa huts ( native houses made of bamboo )  with thatched roof made of anahaw leaves ( rounded leaves of a landscaping plant grown in tropical countries.

Visiting  the two-storey Malacañang ti Amianan ( Malacañang of the North ) is a must when you're in Paoay, Ilocos Norte. 

The mansion turned museum houses some memorabilia of the late president Ferdinand Marcos. It is within a five-hectare property overlooking Paoay Lake.

These  caught my attention:

                                                    Large windows and hallways

 

Wide planks 

Capiz to accent the chandeliers.

Love at first sight:  Vintage lamps in blue! 

Childhood memory: We had blankets like these ( Ilocos weave blue and white ).

Views of the tranquil Paoay Lake

 

And this is just Day 1. More to come ...

Sifting Ilocos images

I' can't  wait to write about my recent trip to Ilocos with the family ( along with two of my close college friends ) but I have yet to sift the hundreds of photos from my files. Meantime, here's a teaser.

Until then. A blessed weekend to all!

Sister love

Counting my blessings ...

Lifted from ilkietoquote.com

  And certainly ....

Author unknown

 

All abloom!

I  went back for a visit to Dangwa Flower Market one weekend admiring once more the sea of colors in this place that throbs with life  24/7. This time, I was able to talk to more vendors and luckily met one of the pioneers, Aling Agapita Pamulaklakin.  Kind and very accommodating, Aling Agapita took me back to the '80s when there were only a handful  of them selling fresh-cut flowers in a bus station that came to be known as Bulaklakan ng Maynila.  

Sunshin-y day!

Everyday, the flower vendors, including Aling Agapita, waited for the fresh produce that would come from the Mountain Trail delivered via bus to Dangwa Bus Station along Dos Castillas Street in Samplaoc, Manila. Back then, there were only a few selections the most common of which were roses, of course.

Velvety roses in a row.

Blooms on display.

Red ginger torch flowers lovely to put together into an arrangement. 

" Paper roses. Oh, how real those roses seem to be!"
... and they are!

Fresh eucalyptus

Simply stunning!

A climb in  demand for fresh-cut flowers opened another window of opportunity for the flower vendors. Some varieties are now sourced from Bangkok and Ecuador.

Fresh orchids imported from Bangkok.

Long-stemmed Ecuador roses.

Aling Agapaita tells me more about her life selling fresh flowers and how a bus station evolved into a flower market . Her story is featured  in the online magazine, Positively Filipino ( based in San Francisco, USA), May 29, 2013  issue. 
Read more...

Summer's end

Ooops, I did it again! Been ‘out’ for quite sometime but no excuses ... just doing a li’l bit of this and a li’l bit of that, been here and there. I feel bad though, I neglected my nook.

Summer's over and I’m trying to ignore (at least for now) the fact that soon, I’ll brave the city’s early morning traffic again when classes resume.

And, I'm thinking, what better way to savor the last days of this much-needed rest than by enjoying the widely-popular Pinoy desserts: halo-halo and guinumis.  Summer, definitely, is never  complete without them!

Halo-halo ( literally meaning  mix-mix and culled from  the Tagalog word halo) comes in different versions. The most popular of these versions is a  refreshing mix of  nata de coco ( coconut gelatin), boiled kidney beans, caramekized banana saba ( plantains)  kaong (sugar palm fruit),  rice krispies or toasted pinipig  ( pounded glutinous rice), tapioca, evaporated milk and shaved ice topped with leche flan, ube 
( purple yam ) and a scoop of ice cream.

Dig in!  This type comes in  simpler form with only a few ingredients: a strip or two of  sweetened langka or jackfruit, a teaspoon of sweet kidney beans, nata de coco, tapioca and pre-mixed with evaporated milk and sugar syrup then topped with ube and toasted pinipig. 

XO 46 halo-halo. Just mix a little bit and enjoy!

Guinumis, almost like a halo-halo is prepared with tapioca,  gelatin, toasted pinipig,  
sweetened with pandan syrup and topped with shaved ice and  flavored with thick coconut milk. Perfect combination!