Baluarte- started off as a rest house in 1991 with celebrity friends like Fernando Poe Jr. as regular visitor spending long weekends. The place has already considerable numbers of domestic animals like monkeys, chickens, large lizards (bayawak) and rare bird species, right inside the Baluarte forest, these rare bird species are found only in there. Governor Chavit, loves nature and exhibits passion for animals. Baluarte setting is that place where he can enjoy peace and quiet and away from the demands of a busy life and urban living. As a political leader of Ilocos Sur, people searched for him continuously.
So the rest house cannot anymore accommodate people and friends who also enjoy the place, that was, when he decided to slowly construct Baluarte. He first constructed the main house and seeing the beauty of the next, he abandoned the old main house, made it the guest house, and constructed a multi level house on a hilltop that magnifies the fantastic view of Vigan City that stretches all the way to the South China Sea.
