Road Trippin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

The travels for this episode were a result of our staff retreat at Aparri Bible Seminary. I saw a lot of new places on this trip. We went west from Cagayan (the province where Aparri is located) along the northern coast, through Claveria which I mentioned in a previous post. We continued west to another province known as Ilocos Norte. We passed through the capital city of Ilocos Norte, Laoag. We continued our travels by heading south into the province of Ilocos Sur. The capital of Ilocos Sur is Vigan, which is the site of an early Spanish settlement, and is also the site of Philippine Bible Seminary. Brother Danny Roca and the rest of the staff at PBS acted as our hosts. We used PBS as a home base for our continued travels.

On Tuesday we traveled to Baguilo from PBS. Baguilo is a mountain city established by Americans in 1900. The elevation is approximately 1500 meters or 5000 feet, and the drive up to the city is absolutely spectacular, because it starts near the shore and covers nearly all of that vertical distance. I'm unable to convey in words how stunning this city was, just an absolutely beautiful city (with an equally beautiful climate). Some of the views were literally breathtaking, like the one from Mines View park. We also visited the Philippine Military Academy which is in Baguilo. This provided one more chance for me to pose for ridiculous pictures.

We returned to Vigan late Tuesday and then spent Wednesday exploring Vigan. We went to a zoo known as Baluarte in Vigan and there are now pictures of me holding various birds, snakes, bearded dragons, and iguanas in various combinations. There also exists a picture of me and my buddy Jay within a meter of an actual Bengal tiger which, by the way, was huge. Its paw would cover my entire face easily. We then went to a place known as the "Hidden Garden." It was a really neat place where they sell various kinds of native and non-native (like lemon trees) plants. The place also contained the largest bamboo plants I've ever seen.

Our trip through Vigan continued to a public park where we went for a swim, which was very refreshing. As I've said in previous posts I have to be very careful about swimming in fresh water, but this place was using chlorinated water from the town reservoir, so it was cool. I've felt like swimming just about every day that I've been here, but that was the first chance I had to actually swim, so it was nice.

Wednesday afternoon was spent exploring the old Spanish part of the city proper of Vigan. They actually filmed portions of the movie "Born on the 4th of July" in the area that we explored. There is a neat touristy type market in the Spanish part of a town, and also there is a street that is closed to all traffic except the horse-drawn carriages that the town is famous for, that I think are called calesas, although I could be mistaken.

That was the trip. The best part, by far, was the chance to spend some time with the people I will be working with and their families. Everyone went out of their way to make sure I got to see all the sights etc. The family of one of my fellow faculty members here, the Agresor family, was particularly kind to me, and it was much appreciated.

It was also very exciting to meet even more Christian brothers and sisters here in the Philippines. Perhaps it is cheesy, but it is such a blessing to know that even if you travel half-way around the world, there are still people you have things in common with; that share your concerns. Filipinos love corny jokes, so someone like Mark Hamilton would fit in perfectly. And that is part of the encouragement, that no matter where I go, there is a fellow Christian that I can make stupid jokes with. It made me think of this. It seems like it always comes back to Rich for me. No matter where I am in my life, Rich wrote a song about it.

This first month has been amazing. What else is in store for me? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out. Classes start next week. I know many of you are praying for me, let me assure you that I appreciate it; please continue doing so.

Nick

P.S. I'm still raising funds, if you haven't donated please consider making a donation. Thank you.