Vahay Ni Dakay In Itbud Village

Vahay Ni Dakay In Itbud Village

Vahay ni Dakay (House of Dakay) is said to be the oldest house in the Batan island of Batanes, which was built in the 1870’s. This is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site. The house is made of corals (before I thought that the walls are made of adobe) and the roof is made of cogon grass (they said that the roof of the Ivatan house should be changed every 25-30 years for a hefty price tag of Php 25,000). Wow that’s a lot of money huh! The house is also one of the five structures that withstanded the earthquake of September 13,1918 which totally destroyed the whole town of Ivana.

The original owner of the house is Luisa Estrella who gave the house to her favotite nephew Jose Dakay Estrella. After which Jose gave the house to Florestida Estrella (Lola Ida for short, who presently owned the house). Lola Ida grew in the Visayas not in Batanes. She was alone when we visited her place. We were not able to talk to her as she was sleeping when we arrived. Too bad we didn’t had enough chance to get to talk to her and ask her on how she survives daily living now that she’s all alone.