The night was not so young, but it was our last hour in Ilocos. Everyone decided it was best if we revisit the often visited Calle Crisologo in Vigan City before we board our van and let the darkness of the road swallow us back to Manila.

The weather was erratic the whole day, we constantly tried to outrun the rain, zipping between Vigan, Batac and Currimao, but somehow it always managed to locate and catch us.
There was still a light drizzle as our steps echoed through the deserted streets of the old city, our reflections flitting across the wet pavement. We turned a corner and there was Vigan City’s grand Calle Crisologo.

It was the same as I remembered from my first solo journey some years past.

The faded white walls of the stone houses still reflect the bright and warm lights of the lamps, the cobbled street still has that after-rain shine, the wooden doors still peeling, the signboards, the people and even the small graffiti painted on a niche under a bench that I first noticed the first time I visited Vigan was still there.

Everything remained as it was.

And this is really what Calle Crisologo is all about. It is a time machine. Here, minutes don’t count and clocks do not tick.

Everything’s moving; the horse carriage transporting tourists, the vendor hawking souvenirs, passersby briskly walking along, but time is forever on standstill.

The houses appear as they probably had for millenniums, way before trucks rumbled through streets and jetliners soared across the skies. Its interiors may have changed from grand old houses where Spanish mestizos lounge on balconies smoking cigars to less than glamorous souvenir stores selling printed t-shirts and keychains, but one can still see the history etched on the details of these rough walls even without looking hard.
I walked on and the moon rose, lighting the darkened sky with an electric shade of blue. It was the second time I had seen the same moon on the same spot on this same place.

The moon has confirmed it and now I am certain. Time indeed stops at Vigan’s Calle Crisologo.

Calle Crisologo
Address: Crisolog Street, Vigan City, Ilocos Sur
Hours: Open 24 Hours

GPS Coordinates: 17.572441,120.389055
View Location on Google Maps: Click Here