Posing beside the House of Dakay

During my 1.5-hr. tour of Batan Island with my 2 guides Ms. Joy Gabaldon and Mr. Jose “Boging” Astudillo and Toyota Revo driver Mr. Luciano “Anong” de Guzman, we passed by many of the Ivatan’s small, quaint, squat and low but ingeniously designed and typhoon-resistant houses, liken to those in the Scottish Highlands or France’s Provencal region. Locally called sinandumparan, these squat, low, solid stone and lime cottages are found all over the province and nowhere else in the country, as the lowland bahay kubo simply could not survive the harsh Batanes environment.

Ivana

First built around 1795 by imported stonecutters, masons and carpenters from Cagayan, they have meter-thick lime and stone walls (sometimes with wood reinforcement for earthquake resistance), are built directly to the ground and are laid out on narrow, cobbled streets that follow the contour of the land.  They are cool during the warm season and warm in the cold months.  The gabled roofs have foot-thick cogon (which keeps the house cool in the hottest weather) tightly bound and woven together to make it water proof and fastened with reeds to sturdy wooden rafters.  The roof is held down by a panpet (a thick rope roof net) fastened to strong pegs on large, half-buried stones. The small, narrow door faces the east or northeast, away from the worst typhoon winds.  The tiny, square windows are located on three walls only.  The wall that doesn’t have it faces the direction of the strongest winds during typhoons.

Sinandumparan ceiling

We made one long stopover at one such house, the Vahay ni Dakay (House of Dakay).  The oldest sinandumparan in Batanes, it is included on the UNESCO Heritage Building list and expected for grading.  Now resided in by octogenarian Florestida Estrella, it was built in 1887 by Elena Estrella, cobbled together with corals washed from the shore and stones that are abundant in the coastal town of Ivana.  Elena later bequeathed it to her nephew Jose Dacay (Florestida’s grandfather).  This traditional house withstood the September 13, 1918 (one of only 5 houses that survived in Ivana) and the July 16, 2000 (magnitude 7) earthquakes.

Lola Ida

The friendly Florestida, fondly called Lola Ida, has an easy smile and weather-beaten face.  She was formerly only used to a quiet village existence. During the early years, her family moved the Visayas, returning to the area when she was 12.  She had stayed ever since, never marrying and many of her childhood friends have since died. Now, her tiny world has been opened to many foreign (including Australians and Canadians) and local tourists who give her donations and take her picture (she is the most photographed Ivatan in Batanes), making her the subject of many articles, postcards and promotional calendars. These same tourists also urge authorities to help preserve her house. Lola Ida keeps a blue logbook containing the names of visitors (mine now included) over the past years.  Like Lola Ida, the Ivatan’s tiny world may soon be open to tourism.  Let’s just hope it doesn’t destroy the very character that made it known in the first place.