Churches

Mustaches in front of the Paoay church

Tuesday was a touring day.  Our first stop was at the Marcos summer home situated on a lake near Laoag. I will write more about this in a separate blog entry.  Our next stop was at the Paoay church.  Built between 1694 and 1710, it is famous for its enormous buttresses apparently designed to withstand earthquakes.  It's interesting that they thought about such things in the 17th century.  We tend to consider designing buildings for earthquake survival a modern concept.The style is listed on Wikipedia as "earthquake baroque".

In the photo we all have mustaches.  This was a salute to a famous Philippine Spanish-era artist from the local area - Juan Luna.  We hope to see some of his paintings when we visit Manila.

Some SSU students in front of Grandpa's

We had lunch in the town of Vigan about 1 1/2 hours south of Paoay. We ate in Grandpa's Restaurant and of course I felt right at home. The meal was yummy as usual.

After lunch we had free time to explore the town. We walked along Calle Crisologo, a street in Vigan that has some of the best preserved Spanish colonial architecture in the Philippines, complete with cobblestone paving.

The Cathedral of Vigan was a cool stop on our walk.

Vigan Cathedral

In both this church and the one in Paoay I had to stop and remind myself that I was in the Philippines and not Mexico.  The architecture and furnishings are very much like what one would see in Mexico.  That, of course is not too surprising, since the Philippines were colonized by the Spanish via Mexico.

After Vigan it was a 2 hour bus ride (only 80 km on the main highway here) back to Laoag and dinner at Jerry's Grill (chicken kebabs) and a sundae at the Jolibee (Philippines fast food place). Kathleen is enjoying not having to cook.