Vigan City: Where The Streets Have Spanish Names

In such an exotic country like Philippines, the last thing you would like to see is thousands of people rushing from one place to another in heavily jammed traffic between high rise buildings, especially if you are a permanent resident in Istanbul, one of the most crowded and cosmopolitan cities in the world. After a one hour flight from Manila to Laoag, we were completely away from rugged urbanization. I am calling it "rugged" and I will explain why when I write about Manila. Despite it was a short trip to the small town of Laoag, the landscape which was visible through the window already gave enough clue about the treasures to be found.

Once you leave the Laoag terminal, you can immediately feel like something different is waiting for you out there and you cannot define it at first sight. It feels like being teleported to another time and place where everything is as authentic as it could be. The simple life you immediately notice hits you right in the face and makes you figure out in a sudden how indifferent you could be to the frustrations and fears of the modern world in such a place where time seems to have stopped.

The road between Laoag and Vigan is about two hours drive along with beautiful places to stop for taking photos of nature and local environment. What's more, you can visit the Malacanang Palace which was once the summer residence of Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the country as a dictator for a long time. The palace that is now a museum, belongs to the government and open to tourists from Monday to Sunday.

After leaving Malacanang, it took another twenty minutes by bus to reach the Paoay Church which is a significant building of the colonial Spanish baroque  architecture and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. Despite the church went through restorations due to damages which had been inflicted by earthquakes, its originality is well preserved since it was built in 1710 .

In spite of the historical and architectural importance of Paoay Church, the area is not visited by many tourists as it should be because most visitors prefer traveling to the southern Philippines. The reasons behind that are exotic beaches, crystal clear waters and access to better touristic services in the southern islands. I have not visited the south yet although I want to, but this is presumably correct information because it is not too difficult to spot the lack of publicity and touristic services for the unique places and structures in the northern edge of Philippines. Eventually, it is not surprising that most of these areas are still unknown to many travelers who even spent much time in Philippines. If you are a backpacker and a photographer, you will love it more than anyone else because there is so much for you here in this region as long as you find yourself reliable ways of transportation which is a little bit problematic across IIocos Norte.

It is a one and a half hour ride from Paoay to Vigan City although it can be challenging. It is almost impossible to estimate how much a road trip will take in Philippines regardless of your location. In the countryside, there is usually only one route you can choose and depending on road conditions such as weather, traffic, or accidents, traveling time can be doubled easily. However, no matter how long it takes, it is always worth the pain in the end.

Vigan City is definitely one of the most interesting places I have ever visited for a number of reasons. First of all it is one of the rare cities with Hispanic architecture left in Philippines, more it is so well preserved that it was listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Site. As a tourist, it is easy to see the remains of the Spanish colonial period of three centuries. To give an example about its authenticity, some scenes of the movie with two Oscars "Born On The Fourth of July" taking place in Mexico were actually filmed in Vigan City thanks to the town's historic architecture and atmosphere.

Nearly every single street in Vigan has a Spanish name and along with many people in Philippines. Naturally, anyone with little or no knowledge of Philippines history and politics might expect to hear the Spanish language in Vigan at some point, but it is definitely not the case. There are many Spanish loan words in the local languages but nobody speaks Spanish. There might still be some people, particularly among the older who speak the language but it's undoubtedly a rarity. Since I am not an expert on Philippines history and culture, I rely on what I read before and learned from locals. English is one of the official languages of Philippines since 1935 when Spanish was still a state language.

Following US occupation and cultural impact, English began to be taught widely and Spanish was fully out of the game after the Second World War. Since 1970s, Philippines have two official languages which are English and Filipino and both of them are taught in schools. However, I have not seen any official sign or warning in Filipino language anywhere, in contrast all public buildings, offices, signs or official announcements are in English which is not spoken by everyone at least according to what I saw in four cities including Manila.

Finally, I would recommend anyone visiting Philippines to take some time to visit IIocos Norte region, particularly Vigan City if you are looking for an old and historic atmosphere which is still undiscovered for many tourists. It is more than interesting to see the echoes of the Spanish culture in Asian towns thousands of miles away from "El Rey".

This is the way I summarize it:

Vigan is a city in the north of Philippines with Spanish street names and architecture where nobody speaks Spanish. Vigan es una ciudad en el norte de la Pilipinas con nombres de calles en español y arquitectura español donde nadie habla español.