Experience a living museum in Vigan on a weekend

VIGAN, Ilocos Sur - Come here on a weekend and you walk into a

living museum!

Thanks to Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson who invited us, we revisited

Vigan and traveled onced again into a past that is still present! We arrived

here early Saturday from a trip that started at 10:00 in the evening in Manila!

Of course, the first in our itinerary was to see the Vigan Heritage Village,

where you find wellpreserved ancestral homes lining up both sides of the

street. The houses, now popularly known as Vigan houses, were of Spanish

designs, more than 300 years old or more. Remember that the Spanish

colonizers arrived in Vigan sometime in 1572 and made it their "regional seat

of political and religious administration." They also linked Vigan to Acapulco

through which trade from the Philippines to Europe had to pass. And Vigan

then became the most prosperous city north of Manila for 300 years.

Gov. Singson told us that plans are underway to restore the place to its

original atmosphere: residents who own and work in the stores on the ground

floors of the ancestral houses - all painted white - will be wearing the old

costumes which the Spanish colonizers found out when they arrived in Vigan.

The Ilocanos were at that time wearing colorful native clothes which they wove

in their own native wooden looms. Today, Ilocos Sur, particularly Vigan, is

well-known for its "abeliluko" blankets.

Motorized vehicles are no longer allowed to ply along the main street of the

Vigan Heritage Village. Only calesas, the twowheeled cart pulled by a horse,

can pass through the street. Local and foreign tourists hire them for their visit

to this historic place.

Another must-see here is the "pagburnayan," or the ancient pottery-making

cottage industry. The process of making earthen jars has not changed since it

began long before the Spaniards arrived here. A ball of clay is wet and placed

on top of a rotating "flywheel" installed flat a little bit above the ground. The

potmaker kicks the "flywheel" with his right foot to rotate it. His hands hold the

clay and shape it as it rotates. In less than a minute, the potmaker has

already shaped the ball of clay to his desired design of a jar.

The potmaker told us he can make 90 jars in one day. The jars are dried for a

week, and then baked inside a kiln.

It is fascinating to watch pottery-making, an experience which brings you to

centuries back!

The elongated jars are believed to attract prosperity. Put one at a corner near

the main door of your house!

There are other fascinating places you can visit here, the museums and the

religious buildings, like the cathedral.