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| Church of St. Vincent Ferrer |
Once through with the blessing, Mayor Caballero allowed me the use of the municipality’s Toyota Revo plus the services of driver Rolando Fidel, to tour the island’s many sights. Before leaving, I dropped by the St. Vincent Ferrer Church, a relic of the island’s tumultuous Spanish past. Started in 1844, this church was built in the espadana style (having two round arches at the roof level for the bells).
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| The Savigug idjang |
Along the road to Savidug, Mr. Fidel pointed out, from a distance, a picturesque idjang, a pre-Hispanic mountain fortress where the natives sought refuge during tribal conflicts. This idjang is distinctly different from all the others in the province because its sides were carved to make entry more difficult.
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| Chavayan village |
Upon reaching the showcase barangay of Savidug, our Revo had to negotiate a narrow road between rows of traditional lime and stone cogon thatched houses. Alighting here, I explored the village on foot, espying one of the barangay’s two (there are only three left throughout Batanes) animal-driven sugar mills that churn out a native wine called palek.
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| A carabao-driven sugar squeezer |
A scenic, winding road next leads us to the equally rustic village of Chavayan and its landmark Chapel of Sta. Rosa de Lima, the only house of worship on the islands that is still in its traditional form. The southernmost community in the province, Chavayan faces the northern tip of Luzon Island. Here, I observed, on another walking tour, the traditional detached Ivatan kitchen as well as glimpses of the Ivatan way of life including the making of the vakul or canayi.
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| An Ivatan woman wearing a vakul |
Serving as protection from the scorching heat of the sun or the wind and rain, these are woven by the womenfolk from carefully stripped and dried banana or voyavoy leaves. I also observed, up close, 99-year old Ireneo Hornedo weave an alogong, a men’s headgear that normally goes along with the canayi. Before leaving, we were requested to looking up into the cliff and make out Mother Nature’s most perfect sculpture; the phallic-looking Monument of Satisfaction.
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| Irineo Hornedo (left) |