road trip/food trip

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Road Trip/Food Trip: From Isabela to Pagudpud via Aparri (22-23 April 2011)

beng d . sta. clara

With the long holidays brought by Philippine-style celebration of Holy Week, it was anopportune time for a road trip up north. It was the first time for me to be in Isabela as well aswith my eldest sister (Ate Wendy) and our Papa. Christy has been working in Isabela since

the start of the year for relief and rehabilitation for victims of typhoon Juan.

Isabela is full of (yellow) corn fields but no beaches. Christy made reservations in Pagudpudfor our weekend trip. To reach Pagudpud we had to travel about 5-6 hours passing throughAparri and Cagayan Valley.

Our first stop in Isabela was at theTumauini church. This was built backin 1780s and was declared a nationalheritage site in 1989. It still has theoriginal brick walls and wooden chairs.

We were warned that gas stationsmay be closed during Good Friday.What proved to be more problematicwas the availability of unleaded gas inCagayan. Aside from the higher costof gas here (it was Php63/liter!), we ended up loading on premium gas with assurances fromthe gas stations that it was a suitable replacement for unleaded gas.

We made our second stop in Alcala's St. Philomene church (beside the Alcala museum). Thiswas established circa 1910. The roofings were changed but the brick walls remained intact.Amazingly, there were many noisy bats inside the church. We only managed to capture theminto two pictures. The other shots we tried got dark and blurred.

After many roads layered with corn or ricebeing dried, we passed through the MagapitBridge. The north's version of San JuanicoBridge alongside Cagayan River. Thetricycles here are bigger compared to MetroManila's trikes. Some of the barangaynames that caught our attention are –Bangag, Ngarag :D



We heaved a sigh of relief when wefinally saw the Ilocos Norte marker withthe noontime sun shining brightly. Fewmore turns over the mountain ranges andwe can see Pagudpud.

We had lunch at Pannzian Mountain Resort,Pagudpud. We had fresh buko juice, lato(seaweed salad), pakbet with bagnet,tinolang manok and plenty of rice. Theycounted 6 for our table. We were only 5 withthe driver in tow but they gave as an extraplate. Haay!

We stayed at cottage B, overlooking the beach and garden. We strolled and selected spotsfor our FB photos. The sun was still hot but the place was breezy with the open sea location.We had coconut trees, driftwoods, fine sand and fun company the whole afternoon.

We swam or more like lazed on the sea and the river (intersecting through beach) after 4pm.The water temperature of the river was colder than the sea. We walked for about a kilometer of the beach before we said it's time to eat again.



Dinner was dinengdeng, pancit sisig (pusong saging), fried fish (tangigue anddinorado) , and rice of course. Again, wehad 6 plates. Who's with us?

It was a starry night. And we sat near the bonfire at the beach to burn off dinner :D

After a goodnight sleep, a stretch of walk, a few steps in the garden. Breakfast was kapengbarako, beef tapa and longganisa, scrambled eggs and fried rice. We had to ready ourselvesfor the motorbike ride to Adams' rainforest and trekking to hanging bridges for the rest of the

morning. Papa went for a therapeutic massage that morning. The adventure at Adams isanother story altogether.

After lunch (we had it separately), we took the same road onward to Isabela via CagayanValley. Same story about the lack of unleaded gas in Cagayan. Alongside the search for unleaded gas was the search for clean toilets every 2 hours or so. The cleanest toilet we used

was at Petron of Amulong, Cagayan. It had lights, locks, water, soap and toilet paper!

There were slight rains in some Cagayan towns, so the rice were put in sacks but still on theroadside. Early dinner in Tuguegarao was all about carabaos – kinilaw and igyat (beans andgreens with carabao meat). Only the Bulalo had real beef.

Home in Ilagan, Isabela by 8pm. What a trip!

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