Ironwulf En Route
The good thing about taking time on a destination is that you have the leeway to go back to certain places again within the trip. While we enjoyed the afternoon catching the Parambolan and the boatmen settling down at Taggat Lagoon, we were wondering what it is like in the morning when the fishing boats are sent out to sea and brought back to shore with their fresh catches. Nope we didn’t wake up before the sunrise to shoot landscapes but to see the people go around doing their daily chores.
It seemed out-worldly this piece of landscape. It rises like a giant sphinx cutting through the deep blue sky with all its whiteness. Truly an extraordinary site first time to see up close at the rugged coast of Burgos, Ilocos Norte. They call it Kapurpurawan, which also means “Kaputian” or whiteness in the local Ilocano dialect. It’s fast becoming a favorite spot in Ilocos Norte in addition to its grand churches, delectable cuisines, and wonderful beaches. It was our next stop from Pasuquin during our Lakbay Norte 2 tour.
We reached Laoag in the evening, that’s a couple of hours drive with a few stops coming from Adams. For dinner in Laoag, we were honored to join Mayor Farinas at the Laoag City Hall. It was my first time to enter that nice looking terracotta building which I used to admire outside. Presentation while dinner over tasty langonisa, chicken and bagnet was about the Tourism in Laoag and a short presentation from Cebu Pacific which is one of the sponsors of the Lakbay Norte 2 tour. We took an empanada each on our way to our hotel after dinner.
I never thought I would be excited to look for some cat poop in the middle of a forest. Here I am on a narrow trail in a dense forest of Mt Malarayat, Batangas, carefully watching each step mindful if there are any animal droppings in path. Not to avoid them this time but to take a closer look. Yes it’s poop! But it’s not an ordinary poop since each set of these cat droppings is worth some serious money. I found a small pile still stuck together. The stuck up beans isn’t as offensive as I thought it would look nor does it smell like ordinary cat droppings. So this is how a Civet Cat poop is like. So this is where the world’s most expensive coffee came from.
It’s downtime after a few hours of extreme activities from PUGO Adventure in La Union. Indeed everyone seemed to have fun on that stop as our bus was a lot quieter this time with people snatching some sleep as we head to Pangasinan. Our next stop was the Patupat factory in Pozorrubio. Patupat is a native sticky rice Pangasinan Ilocano delicacy. It’s much like the other glutinous rice made as snacks or desserts like suman and tupig but on a different form and preparation.
