Culture, calamansi and more to see and do in Pangasinan

PANGASINAN, among the first provinces north of Manila to resume tourism operations, formally unveiled on Monday another attraction, the Casa Real as a National Historical Landmark.

Casa Real, located in the capital town of Lingayen, is a mid-19th century building that served as the province’s first government center during the Spanish era.

Officials of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, Department of Tourism, and the provincial government led Monday’s inauguration ceremony for the restored landmark.

Prior to the Casa Real event, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat arrived in the province Sunday and visited some popular as well as newly-developed tourism sites.

Among her stops were: prayer park in Bayambang town, which holds a Guinness World Records for its statue of St. Vincent as the tallest bamboo structure in the world; Bella’s Puto Calasiao Factory, one of the pioneers in the town’s well-known rice cake delicacy; and the agri-tourism site Calamansian ed Lekep-Butao in San Fabian, a two-hectare calamansi plantation owned and managed by farmers in the community, which also sells calamansi juice and various dessert products.

Visitors coming to the province may check out the requirements and guidelines at the Pangasinan Provincial Tourism & Cultural Affairs Office’s official site www.seepangasinan.com or Facebook page @pangasinan.tourism.

ILOCOS REGION
Going further north, Ms. Puyat said the Tourism department is looking at developing cycling and motorbike trails that traverse Pangasinan and the other provinces in the Ilocos Region — La Union, Ilocos Sur, and Ilocos Norte.

“Region 1 holds so much potential to appeal to tourists under the new normal, given its abundance in nature sites. That is why we are very excited to launch the tourism recovery plan that will introduce new and exciting activities that will provide additional opportunities for the micro, small, and medium enterprises in the region,” Ms. Puyat said in a statement.

Other tourism recovery initiatives in the region include: the Marian Pilgrimage Tour; specialized training for Inabel textile weavers in Ilocos Sur; the Eastern, Western and Central Pangasinan Tourism Circuit; Bird Watching Tourism Circuit in Ilocos Norte; and the development of eco/nature trails in La Union. — Marifi S. Jara