Scud's Travels: Bantay-Abot Cave/Bangui Windmills - Ilocos Norte

Halfway between Blue Lagoon and the highway is a hill made out of rock. There is nothing out-of-the-ordinary about the place aside from a spectacular view of the mountains and a white beach until one make his way down a flight of stairs to the rocky terrain below.






















One instantly discovers when he reaches the shore an opening on the bottom of the hill. It looked like the hill got bombed during the war, producing a rather big hole which is popularly known as Bantay-Abot Cave.





























Standing on the mouth of the cave gives another view of Blue Lagoon. A few more steps and one stands precariously on the edge of a cliff, tens of feet above the rocky shore.

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Bangui Windmills was the next stop. These identical towering white structures, visible from the highway, stand along the shores of Ilocos Norte facing the South China Sea. They number to around 15 and reportedly provide a significant percentage of the province’s electrical power.






















Same as Bantay-Abot, the windmills does not bring about a jaw-dropping, wow-inducing reaction compared to when one first sees the crater lake of Mt. Pinatubo or the pristine beach of Boracay. These stops offer scenic views but do not induce an endless clicking sound of the camera the way Kapurpurawan Rock Formation does.

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The post on that final stop, which defined the Ilocos Norte trip, is still cooking on Scud's drafts and will be served up soon.