Bali Hai Beach Resort, Bauang, La Union, Philippines
Tropical Relaxation by the Sea |
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Beyond San Juan the towns spread out and gave way to small villages. A typical village had a dozen grass roofed huts surrounded by a sea of tobacco plants. The tobacco plants, with leaves like broad spinach, were growing up to five feet tall watched over by square sectioned silos with open A-frame roofs. Along the coastal plain the hills melted away and tobacco fields gave way to rice paddies. By the roadside a water buffalo dragged a wooden sled - an irrigation pump moving to a new paddy field. But farther north, in Ilocos Sur province, the tobacco fields and silos returned. Tobacco in this region has a history going back to 1782 when the Spanish established the Tobacco Monopoly of the Philippines. Under that monopoly each farmer was given 40,000 plants to raise - quota shortages were penalized; surpluses were burnt. This monopoly lasted 100 years until abolished in 1882, but tobacco remains an important crop. We sped past the towns of Bangar, Santa Cruz, and Candon - all carbon copies: the same schools built parallel to the road with white painted statues in the playground, the bamboo tree-houses in the town square, tricycle bedlam in the town markets, and of course the churches - the gleaming Iglesia ni Christo churches all built to the same design, and the older traditional churches with domed roofs and crumbling, vine covered masonry.
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