SHOOTING CHURCHES, EATING NOODLES (2025 Semana Santa Edition)

The fishes wear colorful earings in Paoay while in Sta. Maria, the Virgin Mary keeps appearing in a guava tree on a hilltop.

That is why two massive earthquake baroque churches were built in both places so St. Augustine can preach to the sinner fishes of San Juan de Sahagun (1694-1710), and for the Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion to be able to keep guard of the guava tree in what was once known as Purok (1765-1810).     

And yes, we have the bragging rights of having visited the two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ilocos Norte and Sur, and the other two in Miag-ao and Intratmuros too!

On the first three days of a Holy Week, the demolition men descended upon Bakal 2 to pull out rusty nails from an old wooden roof truss where the minutes of the meetings with Islamabad and Jakarta along with the survey responses to Melbourne were crucified as captions to a couple of quickie rides and a birthday invitation in Bakal 2.

On Maundy Thursday, we crossed the Dalton and Diadi moutain passes to shoot St. Vincent Ferrer's church in Dupax del Sur and the church of St. Matthias in Tumauini, and eat Cabagan's famous pansit and an accidental pansit batil patong in Tuguegarao that would have been perfect pairings with Aritao's sauteed red ant eggs. 

In between betrayal and crucificion, bikers converge in Dupax del Sur while most of the resturants in Tuguegararo closed to attend an Ilocano mass at St. Peter's Cathderal.  

On Good Friday, we detoured to the Basilica of Our Lady of Piat for a forbidden breakfast of pork igado with more bikers before launching a raid to St. Raymond of Penafort's church in Malaueg (aka Rizal).

We crossed the mountains of Apayao from Conner as death blanketed Golgotha, parked at the Patapat Viaduct in Pagudpud, and dueled with the windmills of Bangui before a pit stop in Paoay for a linner of insarabasab, pinakbet, and sinigang na bagnet to finally usher us to a welcome bowl of reheated miki Iloco in Vigan.

On Black Saturday, we fell in line for a breakfast of sinanglao before exploring Vigan and Calle Crosologo by foot and calesa on the way to St. Catherine of Alexandria's church in Luna.

That's how we avoided the mourning traffic at Sta. Maria and had a late lunch of inihaw na tuna, sinigang na seafood, adobong pusit, sinuglaw, and dinengdeng by the seaside in San Fernando. 

On Easter Sunday, I took a center seat for an early morning ride to PR 736 and an omelet dinner in Bangkok as memories of the extremely helpful diversion roads in Isabela and Ilocos Norte, the literal street dogs of Cagayan, the lonely winding highway of Apayao, a sexy tattoed lady walking her dog in Ilocos Sur, Bulan's pout for not being able to drive in La Union, and the choir singing during the renovation of Vigan's St. Paul Cathedral slowly faded into a resurrection of empanada, royal bibingka, bagnet, and longganisa...