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| El Puerto Marina Beach Resort & Spa |
Come Holy Week, I got an invitation from El Puerto Marina Beach Resort and Spa owners Roland and Flordeliza Versoza to stay at their resort in Lingayen and, not having any other activity planned for the holidays, decided to accept their offer.
A group of flagellants
A penitent carrying a wooden cross
It was also to be my first visit to Pangasinan’s capital. For company, I brought along my children Jandy and Cheska and we all left on Wednesday afternoon, the eve of the Holy Week rush. As such, my 227-km. trip, normally a 4.5-hour drive, took all of 6 hrs., it being a holiday. We arrived at the resort by 8 PM.
Check out “Resort Review: El Puerto Marina Resort and Spa“
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| Our room for the night |
We were welcome by Flor who billeted us at one of the resort’s rustic airconditioned native-style bungalows with bath and cable TV. Resting on stilts, these bungalows are cantilevered over a fishpond and reached via an S-shaped wooden footbridge. Quite famished, we dined at its equally rustic pavilion before calling it a night.
Cheska at the Hundred Islands
The next day, we joined a group which included Fil-American Katrina Nogoy and Malaysian-American Janet Jun Siew Loh, both teachers in Japan, for a tour of the Hundred Islands (Cheska was a first-timer to these islands) in Alaminos City. On our way back to the resort, we dropped by the Cathedral of the Epiphany of our Lord in Lingayen.
Check out “Return to the Hundred Islands” and the “Cathedral of the Epiphany of Our Lord”
Picnic sheds along Lingayen Beach. We pitched our tent at the second hut from the right
On our second night at the resort, I brought out my 5-pax Coleman tent and went camping along this adjoining, gently-sloping, cool, quiet gray sand beach. A bonfire was set up that night by the resort.
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| One of the resort’s resident arapaimas |
The next day, we watched 2 big South American arapaimas being fed at the resort’s koi pond. Later, Katrina and Janet joined us as we toured Lingayen, visiting the Pangasinan Provincial Capitol, the Sison Cultural and Heritage Center and the War Memorial Museum.
Check out “Pangasinan Provincial Capitol,” “Sison Cultural and Heritage Center” and “War Memorial Museum“
Cathedral of the Epiphany of Our Lord
Provincial Capitol
The author (left) with Cheska and Jandy at War Memorial Museum
Sison Cultural and Heritage Center
El Puerto Marina Beach Resort and Spa: Don Martin Domingo St., Pangapisan North, Lingayen, Pangasinan. Tel: (075) 542-5328. Fax: (075) 542-2285. Mobile: (0917) 867-3908 and 3906. Manila tel: (632) 852-3404, 986-3404 and 775-6789. Fax: (632) 824-7384. E-mail: inquiries@elpuertomarina.com. Website: www.elpuertomarina-pangasinan.com.