Road Trip: Ilocos Norte (The tour guide needed a lot of guidance :D)

My sister and her friends started a travel and tours business a few months back, unfortunately they abandoned the project due to lack of customers...hmmm...or  maybe lack of resources. It was a very good business idea as there is no business of this sort in our place except those offered by hotels but as we know they are quite expensive. The business idea was to cater for the small time tourists who have a meager sum to exploit. Anyway business is not what I plan to write about but the road trip experience my "tour guide" sister gave me.
I have always known for a fact that there are good places to visit further north of our province but I haven't been to much of those places. So one time when I went back homeI took the pleasure of going for a ride and have a look at the places the defunct business used to have in their itinerary.
The road trip started from my mother's rented house inside the compound of the university where she works. We took my mom's black mitsubishi delica van and moved over to grandma's house to fetch the rest of the gang (my sisters, nieces and a nephew and grandma included!!) . Of course there was the usual complaint on the way I drive as I am not a steady driver - whew! Why don't they take the wheel themselves?
As usual I took the longer way  going through the road at the coasts of Currimao, Ilocos Norte.  Man! Do I love the  smell of the ocean!!! We passed by the infamous Paoay church, one of the places worth visiting.  I have been in this church alot and up and down the bell tower  during my highschool days  (Thanks to my friend Dhanie Tolentino - Remember how we tried to calculate the trajectory of our spit? Gross really!). Further down is my hometown (by choice), Batac, Ilocos Norte which is famous for the Marcoses, Impanada (a type of puff with munggo and egg as the basic fillings) and Miki (a noodle soup - Yummy!). If you are going for a tour in Batac, drop by the Marcos Mausoleum then go to riverside food plaza (just 3 minutes away)  to have a taste of the food. If your budget allows, have a good meal at  Herencia's Cafe. Don't forget to try the "Pinakbet Pizza"!
We headed straight North and since our destination is a bit  far, we did not stop by several towns though they have some tourist spots to take pride of  (maybe I will post something about them next time). Along the way, the call for food coming from the small people at the backseat started and reached its peak as the smell of grilled food sipped through the windows of the van coming from the street vendors. We decided to stop and get somethine to munch - grilled squid and pork barbeque, my saliva is gushing out right now... I looked at the time in my handphone (I hate wearing watch) and it occurred to me that we have been travelling for quite some time but the destination isn't clear yet so I asked my tour-guide-sister  if the 1st destination is still far...To my surprise she asked one of the vendors how to go to the place (by the way the place is called "Kapurpurawan" - it has something to do with the color white in english). Our tour guide does not know where to go!!!! To think that she was operating a travel and tours business which offers site-seeing in this very same place. You can just imagine how much mocking my sister got even 2 days after the trip!!! Since we bought quite much of what the vendor was selling she was more than willing to give us the details on how to reach the place and told us we could just pack the food and have our lunch there as there are cottages where we could sit comfortably. 
Following the good Auntie's instruction, we came through a rough path going deep into a dense forest and we all started to get uncomfortable. The road is rough, narrow and muddy and it seems to lead us nowhere so we pestered my sister with the "are you sure you know this place?" question. After a 15-minute drive, we finally saw the cottages and further down was the beach and the kapurpurawan rock formation! We took our lunch comfortably in one of those cottages then climbed up those white rocks! Whoooo....it was just amazing up there! The panoramic view, the splash of the waves and the relaxing ocean breeze. Of course the little ones had to be satisfied catching hermit crabs and picking up seashells down the rocky beach. After this experience I felt bad having ridiculed my sister. Good one sis!
 After having enough dose of the "kapurpurawan"  experience we cleaned up our lunch mess and started to move (I hope the rest who visit the place will be responsible enough to clean up their mess as  well.). We went back to the highway and proceeded to our next destination - The windmills!!!! 
The windmills are located along the shore of Bangui Ilocos norte. We took a left turn from the highway into another rough road down hill. The view is just amazing as well. As amazing as the view is the uncertainty of our tour guide. After 10 minutes of driving down the rough road downhill and into a sandy road along the beach, we still cannot reach the windmills. So my sister was bombarded with questions again...then finally we found a narrow pathway that leads to the ocean where we can get under those 15 enormous windmills! It was awesome! While enjoying the view and taking photos it trickled suddenly and I thought that was the end of my windmill experience. However, the experience became even more awesome! The blades of the wind mills cut through the rain drops and created powerful whooshing sound I just love! Then the lightnings started to flash and I must say the combination of the enormous windmill, powerful whoosh  of the blades, and the lightnings in the background was really breath taking!!!!!! I enjoyed it there!
After a rainy while, we started to move again further north to the white beach in Pagudpud. I must say the beach did not meet my expectations. White sand was there but the beach was too narrow.Not much place to run around and have fun but we made the most out of it. My nieces burried me in the sand and there was this little creature pinching my backside. I jerked my body here and there and sadly for that little crab it got smashed. The beach was not the best the province has to offer but in this place you could get a very good view of the Bangui windmills just in the adjacent town under the setting sun. Equally entertaining as well were the kids who are with us playing roughly in the shore. 
There were several places we were not able to visit during this trip because it was already turning dark and my mom was already calling us to buy dinner for her. We packed up and made our way back ditching the angry protests of the little ones whose beach enjoyment was cut short.  Along the way we could see the nighttime view of the windmills while trecking through the pitch black road - scary when there are no other cars around! This was an enjoyable road trip though it was too brief. Anyway, next time I will go on a well planned one with the best Tour guide available!!!! Huh!!!
A tip to those who plan to go for a tour in Ilocos Norte, start early, choose your route well and bring a Tour Guide who knows the place well - this is very important! Most importantly, bring a reliable vehicle with enough gas with you...you wouldn't want your ride to bog down in the middle of a dark road and please be reminded no 24-hr towing service here! Happy touring!!!