The long, white beach along the coast of Ilocos Norte province in the Northern Philippines is also famous as a scene for movie shooting and delicious seaweeds in addition to having long served as a key tourist attraction.
Due to its signature whitened tone of the sand and the rocks, this entire beach located in Burgos municipality is known as "Kapurpurawan Rocks", after a term in the local language, whose "puraw" derivation means "white".
Joegie Jimenez, chairman of Burgos Tourism Council, says that the brightly-whitened rocks are the signature feature of this beach, which is different from all other beaches whose rock foundation are mostly blackened.
"It’s only here in Burgos where you can see this kind of rock formation because a lot of rock formations is black . And here it’s really white especially during summer time," says Jimenez.
The Burgos attraction and the beach have also served as the venue for shooting of movies and travel documentary, apart from being a place for lovers and people to visit, and enjoy their free time.
"They come here also to shoot the ending of their story because it is a very romantic place (Yes it is). So it’s for love story as well. So action, fantasy, love story, they come here to shoot," he says.
The Kapurpurawan Rocks and the beach are now easier to access after an improvement of the facilities, which shorten the time from 2 hours to 15 minutes for visitors to approach the venue on foot.
Before turning to rely on the revenues from tourism, Burgos is a small town whose key industry were from fishery and sale of seaweeds collected by the fishermen.
"The seaweed gatherers, the fishermen, and their wives would come here to pick that kind of seaweed. And it’s very delicious but it’s expensive because of the hardship in picking it up."
The high tourist season in Burgos is during the hot season, and again in December. The Burgos municipality and its Kapurpurawan Rocks along with the beach are highly recommended if you come to the Philippines and visit Ilocos Norte.