June 9, 2023

I am not sure how many cruise ships come to this port, but they certainly put on a nice show when we arrived. This fireboat sprayed water – and it was on our side of the ship so we got to watch for about 10 minutes.

There was a large group of dancers on the other side of the ship, but by the time we got off they were resting. Another group gave us these necklaces as we disembarked.

Our tour today was the Ilocos Norte Culinary and Heritage Tour.Our guide was Albert. He gave us a lot of information about the area which is in the northwest of the country. They rely mostly on agriculture here including products such as tobacco, garlic and both yellow and white corn. In his sense of Filipino humor he said that they have yellow corn and white corn but no unicorn. Groan. He also said that a lot of people (including his mother) think that garlic will keep evil spirits away. He also mentioned that is is the National Flag day and Philippine Independence day is next week so that explains the large number of flags we see everywhere. The drive through the countryside was quite beautiful, with the mountains in the background and lots of fields with goats, buffalo and cattle grazing in them.

Our first stop was the Basilica of Juan Bautista which is a Catholic church built in the 1700’s. It is constructed in bricks with no metal and with very thick walls. This, according to Albert, makes the building earthquake proof since the bricks can move with the movement of an earthquake. He said that there are always steps outside which allowed people to climb up to the roof.

We visited the home and museum of the artist Luna. Many of his works were on display there, but the real reason for the visit was the first of two food tastings. We had two types of sticky rice wrapped and cooked in banana leaves, a crunchy corn, a coconut drink with fresh coconut shredded into the drink, another large rice cake, a roasted banana with syrup on the outside and skewers of a sweet sticky dough. I liked everything!

Next we visited the Ferdinand Marcos Museum and had a chance to learn more about his early days and his political career. There was an area that highlighted his 11 day courtship of Imelda and their marriage. No mention of later shoe escapades.

Our last stop was at a food court where we ate the empanadas that are famous here. Usually they are made with vegetables, egg and meat but mine was just the vegetables. They were very big, and delicious.

Empanadas are popular, but just down the street was a McDonald’s!

Our bus was parked right next to this sign!

We had about a 45 minute ride back to the ship and it did feel good to be in air conditioning. Tomorrow we arrive for the first of three days in Taiwan.