Tuguegarao, Ilocos Norte {Deetour}

On November 2, Gelle and I rode a plane to Tuguegarao, where we were met at the airport by Kes and her friend JL. They drove us to Keso’s house, and on our way there, we discovered that the L in JL’s name stands for Lesli and so Gelle decided that we would call him that from now on.

When Kes drove into their driveway, their dogs were scattered on the driveway and she accidentally run over one of them (but didn’t kill or even maim her, thank God). We heard a sickening thud and the car lurched forward, smashing into the aquarium near their wall. Wow. What a grand entrance.

Keso’s mom was quick to reprimand her, but she welcomed Gelle and me with smiles and kisses, telling us, “Nevermind the accident!”

After depositing our things in Keso’s suite-sized bedroom, we went back downstairs and had lunch. Keso’s mom insisted we eat veggies, since she knew how unhealthy city food can be. We also met Keso’s dad, who is an Austrian, and her cousin Gina who lived with them. I was amazed because Keso’s parents were exactly like mine in their ways.

After freshening up, Kes drove us around their small town (still using her Nissan Patrol with the slightly damaged front). I told Kes about a funny blooper committed by Gelle, and from then on, we have decided to call her “Ems.”

After getting directions from some very helpful locals, we arrived at Tuguegarao’s main tourist spot, the Callao cave.

We were supposed to climb some couple thousand steps to reach it, but after climbing the first set of hundred or so steps, we realized that it was really dark and really scary already, so we decided not to risk life and limb for something we probably won’t even get to see in the dark and climbed back down.

We took a moment to look at the river below, though, and were able to have a few poses before the sun completely disappeared.

We headed back to Keso’s abode where dinner was set out for us.

I really liked the native chicken tinola, which Keso does not eat. Keso’s parents joined us and we had a long conversation about their love story and our love stories and whatnot.

Keso’s dad insisted on cracking open a couple bottles of German white wine and we each had a couple of glasses to sip before retiring to Keso’s bedroom. We packed our stuff while watching PBB before diving under the covers to sleep, because we were supposed to have an early start the next day.

We were awake at 3am the next morning, and Ems was amazed at how hyper Kes and I already were at such an ungodly hour.

Keso’s mom was up already and had breakfast prepared for us. Ems and I really loved the wienelly, a German sausage. I did not like the accompanying mustard though.

We then lugged our stuff downstairs and into Keso’s car with some help from their driver, who was driving us to Laoag, five hours away. We picked up Les and were soon off to Vigan at 5am, an hour later than planned.