Baguio, San Fernado, Laoag and Pagudpud

From Banaue I wanted to go to a beach on the northwest top of North Luzon. I could not figure a way to go north from Banaue so took a long bus ride back to Baguio. Just before reaching Baguio the sky opened up and the floods came. The short walk from the bus station to the hotel was through streets with up to a foot of water. When I reached my hotel I was soaked to the bone and the rain had also made some of the stuff in my backpack wet but it dried over night. From Banaue I went back to San Fernado since I had liked the place I had stayed before I decided to spend a couple of night there to get laundry done. The past days of a lot of walking and long hot bus rides seemed to make every thing I had in my backpack stink so laundry was very much needed. I really enjoyed a day of being lazy, swimming in the pool and waiting for my laundry to get done so I decided to do it again minus the laundry.

The following day I caught a Jeepney to San Fernado proper and then a tricycle to the bus stop for a bus headed north. I made a mistake in getting a local bus rather than an express so ended up spending the complete day on a couple of busses. I bought a ticket to Laoag but they did not tell me the bus was only going as far as Vigan. In Vigan the ticket guy put me on another bus to Laoag and I was sure I was going to have to pay again but they never ask me for money. Even though most of the signs are in English and English is the countries second language communication on busses seemed to be a problem for me. Since the bus was always stopping to drop people off or pick people up it seemed to almost double the time it was suppose to take and I arrived in Laoag just as the sun was setting. I was hoping to make it to Pagudpud all in one day but decided to spend the night in Laoag.

The following morning I managed to catch a bus to Pagudpud and then a tricycle to the hotel that I had picked on the beach. The beach was really nice here with waves crashing a little ways off the beach.

I enjoyed watching some fishermen pulling on this huge net.

The day I arrived the weather was nice and the beach had a lot of people on it since it was the weekend. On the next day most of the people seemed to leave and the weather turned worse but the weather just increased the size of the waves. It was really fun playing in the waves even if it was a lot of work getting thrown around by the water.

I also took a long walk following the beach all way to the end of the point you can see in this picture.

The beach was a lot rocker at the point but in some ways I thought it was prettier.

I walked back to my hotel via a road I had found on the other side of the point and it was a lot longer walk than I thought it would be and at times I was wondering if I had gone the wrong way. I did enjoy the walk and found my way back without a problem. I got a lot of strange looks on the walk. I don’t know if that is because not many foreigners come here or it was my bright red swimming trunks. I did not see any other westerner in my time at this beach.