La Dolce Vita at Santiago cove
Travel, food, and lifestyle bloggers recently made the seven-hour journey to cover the opening of the new annex and experienced the Santorini-like lifestyle at Santiago Cove Hotel & restaurant in Northern Ilocos Sur.
From our assembly areas in SM MOA and Welcome Rotonda in Manila, we breezed through a night-long trip, to the resort. Upon arrival, we were mesmerized by its almost kilometer-long namesake, dubbed, by many, as the “Boracay of Ilocos Sur.”
We arrived just in time for a breakfast of silog dishes (corned beef, Vigan longanisa, Hungarian sausage, beef tapa, spam, daing na bangus/espada/danggit, etc.) and coffee at its indoor Tiny Wave Restaurant. They also offer champorado, French Toast, pancakes, waffles, and sandwiches plus an egg station. After breakfast, we checked in at some of their 50 Minimalist-style, blue-and-white accented rooms (25-sq-m De Luxe, 28-sq-m Premium De Luxe, 30sq-m Junior Suite and 36-sq-m Family Suite), each equipped with air conditioning, a flat-screen cable TV, work desk/ dresser and ensuite bathroom. Free Wi-fi is offered in all areas. From the corridor, we have a bird’s eye view of its free-form, 5-ft. deep outdoor swimming pool.
Later, a lunch of grilled chicken, pork and seafood was also served. Part of our visit involved experiencing the educational tours around Santiago and nearby towns the hotel offers. After lunch, we visited some of the town’s must-see tourist attractions such as observing the weaving of colorful abel, the traditional woven product of the Ilocos Region, from handlooms at the nearby factory of Corazon Agosto.
We next had a merienda of halo-halo and Ilocano empanada, with Mark Christian “MC” Urbano and Lorraine “Lauren” Garingo of Kuys Acoustic performing live, at the hotel-affiliated Rodrigo’s Restaurant before proceeding to watch the offloading of a 40-kilo tuna catch along the beach. Our last destination was Mapisi (from the Ilocano word meaning “to cut”) Rock, a naturally-cut rock formation. Then we went back to the hotel to attend the ribbon-cutting of the hotel’s new annex followed by the 66th birthday celebration of town Vice Mayor Josefino “Boy” Miranda.
The next day, after a buffet breakfast at Tiny Wave Restaurant, our educational tour took us to the nearby town of San Esteban to visit the ruins of Bateria (Spanish for “battery”), a turreted and circular Spanish-era watchtower renovated in 2016 by the National Historical Commission. From here, a short 7 km. (10 minutes) drive brought us to the next town of Santa Maria. Climbing an 85-step, a four-flight grand stairway led us to the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, a National Landmark and chosen as a United Nations World Heritage Site in 1994.
From the church, we again boarded our coaster for the short, 45-min. (38 km.) drive to Vigan City, the provincial capital, where we got to buy bagnet (deep-fried, crispy pork belly, P550/kilo), longanisa (pork sausage, P130/pack), bibingka (rice cake from Tongson Royal Bibingka) and garlic. Walking around the city, damage from the July 27, 2022, magnitude 7.3 earthquake can still be seen at the Salcedo Park and Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Peter & St. Paul (currently closed). On the return trip to Santiago, we made a short stopover at the church of St. Stephen Protomartyr at San Esteban.
Upon arrival at Santiago, we had lunch at Royal Blood Lechon & Eatery. Here, we dined on roasted pork lechon stuffed, Ilocano-style, with cactus-like, oblongshaped karimbuaya leaves (scientific name: Euphorbia neriifolia linn) which gave the needed acidity to the dish that removed the foul smell pigs normally have. It was served with pork blood sauce. For an appetizer, we had dinakdakan, an Ilocano dish made with boiled and grilled pig parts. After lunch, we proceeded to Brgy. Caburao and observed a blacksmith working on knives, cleavers, and garden tools. Prior to returning to the hotel, we visited the nearby Trade Center to check out their abel products. Upon our return, we barely caught our breath as we proceeded to the beachfront bar where another treat awaited us offshore—a relaxing sunset cruise.
This wasn’t just the highlight of our day as come evening, we were invited to have dinner at Rubra Bar located at the roof deck of the just inaugurated hotel annex. Here, we got to sample a special fish-themed dinner set prepared for us by the young and dynamic Chef Chester Delos Reyes Velas: Boat Snacks (smoked Poblacion escargot, Ambucao sea urchin cream, Bantay ipon tartare), Float (Nabang River balingasang, scallops, bamboo shoot, bacon), Bai (San Jose river shrimps, Sinker (Ambucao tanigue and tanigue, cassava okra seeds, dragon fruit), Catch & Release (Gabao dorado, kardis, broad beans, katuday), Hook (Ambucao tuna bladder, 8-hr. roast beef, truffle polenta) and Sweet Cruise (cornick panna cotta, seaweed brownies, smoked buko) for dessert. The food, drinks, laughter, and entertainment continued all through the night and into the early morning.
On our third and last day, some of us crossed over to nearby Sabangan Beach where, after donning life vests, we got to try out a bevy of marine sports offered by the hotel—kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, banana boating, and jet skiing.
Prior to our afternoon departure to Manila, Chef Chester again regaled us with a cornucopia of great dishes for our lunch at Tiny Wave Outdoor Pool Restaurant: Asian port spring roll, Gojuchang chicken wings, salt and pepper pork riblets, crispy calamari, Nori cheese sticks and pork sisig for appetizers; and Korean fried chicken, chili shrimp, Asian salmon fillet, grilled lemongrass pork chop and braised beef shank for our main course; complemented by dragon fruit shake and a dessert of ube cheesecake. Now that’s three days of la dolce vita!