Foot and Fire

St Augustine Parish Church... From Vigan City comes the next place to see, the Bantay, Ilocos Sur's St Augustine's Church and it's surprisingly quite distant Bell Tower as compared to the usual tandem which they dubbed as the Sinking Bell Tower. *** The Church's entrance. *** *** The shrine of our lady of charity. *** Our lady of charity. *** *** Looks like a castle in the air but this is a bell tower... *** Getting on top of the tower is rewarding as the Ilocos breeze is refreshingly felt in contrast to the heat outside. This must be dubbed as sinking considering the structure is inside is just supported by planks and and the way up is by the installed wooden stairs... I can see the prominent cracks. In years time, the visitors may not be allowed to go up given this condition of the tower. *** There are many steps to take before going inside the bell tower.  *** Well, missing the Ilocos breeze s...

 You were not in Vigan City if you have not entered the Crisologo Museum which is in fact the old house of the Crisologo's turned into a museum. Since, it is an old house, it is a tatse of an old Spanish house indeed. Here are my favorite and memorable shots during the visit... At the sala, on the second floor of the wooden ancestral house. My favorite shot of me. This is at the kitchen of the Crisologos... Also on the second floor, this room is one of the  bedrooms of the Crisologos. I love this portrait capture of my family. The late Cong. Floro Crisologo. He is the fathe rof the SSS and Virginia Tobacco Laws... One of the nooks in the groundfloor which interests me... A very old American reports... Some titles that interest me... Though not surprisingly, Mr. Crisologo must be fluent in Spanish too. Caretaker's child interrupting albeit pleasantly, my focus on the old typewriter.  The good ol' bags of the lawyer... ...

Snaps of the wildlife in Baluarte brought an immense joy to this computer-all-day and always-in-four-wall creature! Here are the happy moments with the wildlife, especially the moments with real Ostriches, not-smelly-luckily reindeers which are with and without horns, and "dwarf" horses that sure look like donkeys but surely look like no donkeys at all. Hahaha, a zoo-ignoramus I am indeed. Parrot moments... Parrot-lings trio! Here's the snap of what i meant with:  "dwarf" horses that sure look like donkeys but surely look like no donkeys at all.   Tamed and photograph ready tiger??? I'm not sure. And they call it Pony Horse... My family posing in front of Baluarte Signage. The Dinosaurs are not real, of course. My first sighting of Ostrich!!! Rusa Deer... the hornless type... Guess what, these are geese... snake... Ostriches, great o great! colorful birds and there are a lot of them in there... ...

Posing before the Arzobispado Nueva Segovia Immediate to our memory is the Spanish period in our history given the more than 300 years of occupation of the Spaniards. I believe Filipinos should pay a visit to this place to at least get the feel of the oldness of the houses, the villages, the streets in order to aid oure remembrance of our history, good or bad it may be. Upon visit, Vigan, Ilocos Norte actually nests an admirable series of houses built during the Spanish era. Hence, it was named as UNESCO World Heritage site.   Vigan was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List of Sites and Monuments last December 2, 1999 which now includes 630 cultural and natural properties of exceptional universal value in entire the world and one of the only five heritage sites found in the Philippines. With its inclusion in said prestigious list of world heritage sites, Vigan has become a source of pride, and a national symbol of the Filipinos," as proudly declared in  Vigan web...