Date of visit: May 6-9, 2010

After our nature trip at Baluarte, we headed to my lola's house for dinner.

Date of visit: May 8, 2010

After our farm lunch, we headed to Baluarte for some close encounter with nature. :)

Right at the entrance is the petting zoo. This is where you can freely interact and take photos with different animals like camels, ostriches, deer, parrots, orangutans, and a lot more.

It is not just a zoo, it's an interactive wildlife sanctuary and facility.

Aside from plainly interacting with the animals, visitors also have the chance to feed them.

They also offer free mini horse rides called "tiburin". The mini horse pulls a small carriage that can accommodate up to 4 persons including the "caballero". Taking photos and riding the mini horse is absolutely free of charge.

Another attraction here is the close encounter with the tigers. You can have your photos taken with the tigers for Php25 per person.

Baluarte sure is one of the must-visit places in Vigan. With just a few minute drive from the heart of Vigan, you can already have an extraordinary adventure and experience the wonders of nature with your family. What's more amazing is that the admission to Baluarte is FREE. :)

BALUARTE
Vigan, Ilocos Sur

After our late night dinner at Merge Point, we were up early the next morning for another adventure, well another food trip adventure I should say. *drools*

We first had our breakfast (Vigan Longganisa, eggs, and fried rice) at the hotel...

Mark's competition started past 8pm and ended around 11pm, and we were so hungry! And so after Mark's victory, we finally had our dinner! Yipee! Haha!

It was already late and all the restaurants in the city were already closed. Good thing the tricycle drivers were nice enough to drive for us to a nearby town. We had our dinner at Merge Point in Bantay, Ilocos Sur, which is roughly a minute drive from Vigan City.

We were just supposed to have a trip to Baguio from May 8-10. The Vigan trip (May 6-8) has not been finalized yet because we were still not sure if my dad will be permitted to leave from work for a long period. But I guess Mark was lucky enough, the Vigan trip came to happen, we arrived hours earlier for the competition proper, and Mark was able to join the competition.

After our merienda at Plaza Burgos, we went back to Vigan gym for Mark's competition, which is the very reason why we went to Vigan haha!

My family was in full support for Mark. :) And as always, I was Mark's personal assistant, I was the one who made gave him his tan.

After the motorcade and a few hours of waiting, the competition finally began.

We went back to the hotel to freshen up and have some siesta after our scrumptious lunch.

At around 4pm, we were all ready for another adventure. :) Gia, Jeff, and I accompanied Mark to the Vigan gym for a bodybuilding competition.

We arrived at Vigan past 11am. We dropped by my dad's friend who accompanied us to El Juliana Hotel.

El Juliana is a spacious old building which has retained much of its features back from the Spanish times.

The building is almost hidden from outside by high brick walls. With its enormous wooden gate, with a smaller door cut out of it, you will really feel like you're in a European medieval palace or in a Spanish parador.

It has flagged stones on the ground floor...

a wide imposing staircase going to the second floor...

and huge polished hardwood floorboards all over the second floor up to the bedrooms.

El Juliana's bedrooms are spacious. Our room already has 3 beds so we just requested for 3 extra mattresses for the boys.

Each room also has an added feature of an array of the modern-day equipment you have in your own home like cable TV, private safe, air conditioning, and hot and cold shower.

There are some rooms overlooking to the pool while others have a veranda.

They also have another distinct attraction in the hotel--the spacious lobby with a lot of paintings and wooden furniture...

a restaurant/cafe...

and the free wifi! :D Wifi signal in rooms are weak though. :(

Situated at the heart of the city and just a few walks away from the Heritage Village and Plaza Burgos, El Juliana Hotel sure is a great place to stay in Vigan.

EL JULIANA HOTEL

5 Liberation Blvd. cor. Quirino Blvd.
Contact Numbers: +63(77) 722.29.94

Vigan City, Philippines

We were all up and about as early as 2am last Thursday, May 6, 2010 for our Northern trip.

Well except of course for Jaoey, who had a very sound sleep all throughout the trip.

After around 9 long hours of drive, with some picture taking while on our way...

and a few stop overs in between...

we finally arrived at Vigan!!!