Bali Hai Beach Resort, Bauang, La Union, Philippines
Tropical Relaxation by the Sea |
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We decided to have lunch at the Cordillera Inn. We walked down Mena Crisologo Street, a narrow cobbled street: old buildings with large wooden doors, shutters hanging on broken hinges, bricks and masonry showing through chipped and stained stucco, a funeraria with a horse drawn hearse outside. The Cordillera Inn blended into the houses on either side, and the only reminders that this was the 20th century were the air-conditioners on the first floor. A January 1993 edition of the Manila Times had reported the Cordillera Inn as, "The setting that seems locked in time. The service is prompt and friendly; the staff, warm." The only staff we could find was a waitress asleep over a table in the dining room. She woke with a start and rushed off to get the manager. Yes, he explained, the dining room was open, but the kitchen was closed - the cook hadn't shown up. He offered to get us a meal from the Magnolia Ice Cream Parlor. We declined and asked who served the coldest beer in town. The Magnolia Ice Cream Parlor, he said. But of course! We walked west down Burgos Street, past the Vigan Cathedral, to the Ayala Museum, a wooden two-story house in old Spanish tradition. Like most old houses in Vigan it needed renovation: the wooden walls were dry, the yellow paint chipped and peeling, the galvanized roof brown with rust. Opened as a museum in 1975, the house was the birthplace of the priest-patriot Father Jose Burgos. Father Burgos was falsely implicated in the January 1872 Cavite uprising, which was little more than a public expression of dissatisfaction over Spanish rule. The Spanish, however, saw this as an opportunity to intimidate the Filipino clergy. After a mock trial Father Burgos and two other priests were publicly garroted on the 17th of February 1872. Today the museum serves as both a memorial to Father Burgos and a repository of Ilocano memorabilia.
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