Ilocos Chronicles: Sandboarding at La Paz Sand Dunes

Still on our first day in Ilocos and we are heading to Laoag to go SANDBOARDING!!
After having our Baluarte adventure, we rode an ordinary bus heading to Laoag (Fare: Php120/person), you can wait in the highway for a bus or go to bus terminals like Partas. We went for the former. Also because I prefer the non-aircon bus ride. One can enjoy the road scenery better this way. :)

There's a municipality in Ilocos that's abundant in ONIONS!! I forgot the name tho. But it was fun looking at the onion-laden huts along the road.

Touchdown Laoag at past 4PM.

Vigan to Laoag takes around 2 hours of travel time. We decided to have our Sandboarding at 5PM as Kuya Glenn Guerrero suggested so that we can also see the sunset and it won't be too hot. I really suggest doing this activity in the afternoon if your itinerary permits. :)

Kuya Glenn fetched us in McDonald's Laoag and we headed our way to La Paz Sand Dunes on a 4x4! Awesome, right? It was absurdly windy when we went there though because of the low pressure area, saaaaaand everywhere!

Wear comfortable clothes when you go sandboarding, go for shorts and light materials. You don't want to be a sandbag afterwards, right? You can wear shoes, sandals or slippers but you would probably just remove them when you're on the boards already. Also bring a change of clothes, or at least an extra shirt unlike us who totally forgot that part hence we traveled back to Vigan with sand bits. Also DON'T FORGET to bring a scarf or something close, it will have it's purpose.

Kuya Glenn will give you a short ride around the dunes, bumpy trails, up and down the steep hills. It can be really fun or a little scary (feeling ko kasi baka tumaob yung 4x4). That alone will already give you the adrenaline surge.

And then he asked us where we want to start, the easy hill or the steeper hill. I would be out of my mind if I chose the latter. But when showed us the easy hill, all I said was "Wow, di pa to yung steep?" Looking  down from the top can make you think twice, but as I always say, "Andun ka na, ituloy mo na." Haha!

You can do it sitting down, standing and Kuya Glenn even said others do it face first (if you don't mind eating sand). We first tried it sitting, starting easy! And it wasn't so easy at all, it requires good balance, something of which I don't have. Hence, me redirecting myself towards the grass instead of heading downhill. LOL!

A few more tries! The key to it is balance and just have fun!

You can avail Sand Boarding from Kuya Glenn for Php2500 for an hour which is good for 4 persons already. Pictures included too! :D And do say Hi from me if you decided to have Kuya Glenn as your sandboarding guide. :)

When in doubt, just go down in the sand! Haha! The sand is fine, so no problem if you decide to roll on it (or in my case, swim on it), unless you do this activity under the blazing sun, then laying down on the sand might be a problem.

If you think balancing on the board is hard, think again. It was actually the climb back up the hill that was harder. I ran out of breath from it and felt like almost passing out (must be from the exhaustion from all the activities we did in a day), so I recommend that you bring water and prepare your stamina for this part. In the end, it will all be worth it. :D

Riding the board like a boss!

And you might be wondering why I look like some villain in a Panday movie (yes, some of the old Panday desert scenes were filmed here), it was because I had to keep a scarf covered on my face especially my mouth. With the rate of the wind during our visit there, you will surely eat sand. It can go in your ear lobes, nose, eyelids and anywhere it can reach. You won't know when it will be too windy in La Paz, so have your scarves ready!

Of course, we won't pass up the chance of doing it standing up. D managed to do it on his second try. I, the no-sense-of-balance being I am, failed on my first attempt. But I was more than determined to do it. FOCUS!!

SAND HOARDING - new sport courtesy of me.

I DID IT!! I actually did it until I got too excited and lost my concentration. Thus what was documented was my solid face plant in the sand. It was actually... fun. Haha! It wasn't really that bad! If I hadn't got myself shoved to the sand, it would've been less fun (I think).

Princes and Princess of Persia. Nagffeeling. LOL.

We didn't wait for the the sunset to finish, the wind was too violent already that it pricks when sand slams your skin. And we feared that we might not be able to get a bus back to Vigan so it was time to leave.

Sand Boarding, one thing checked on my Bucket list. ✔

This is definitely one of the many things that I want to do again. Until my return, La Paz! I'll make sure to have my sense of balance fixed by that time. :))


For Sand Boarding lessons, you can contact:
Glenn Guerrero
Contact No.: 0908 8853669