Agoo, Philippines

A small and pleasant town on the road north between San Fabian in Pangasinan and San Fernando in La Union, AGOO is not a significant tourist destination, but there are a smattering of notable sights; it's worth hopping off the bus here, wandering around for an hour, then continuing your journey north or south.

The most significant building in Agoo is the Basilica Minore of Our Lady of Charity, a five-centuries-old Spanish church that has been recently restored with contributions from Italy, Japan and the US. The church, at the back of a leafy plaza on the right-hand side of the main road through Agoo, houses the supposedly miraculous image of Our Lady of Charity; at Easter, thousands of devotees visit Agoo to pay homage to it. Agoo has a reputation among devout Catholics as a place of signs and miracles. In February 1993 a statue of the Virgin Mary here was said to have wept blood and in September 1993 people came from around the country to see an apparition of the Virgin Mary which was predicted to appear by a local boy. It didn't. Opposite the basilica in a fenced garden is the small Museo Iloko (Mon– Fri 9am–4pm; P10), beside the Agoo municipal building, which houses religious artefacts, antique furniture, porcelain and miniature dolls.