The Ilocos Times

[ First of a series ] By Noralyn Dudt Wedged between the Cordillera Mountains and the South China Sea is a long strip of   land called the Ilocos. It's   a very narrow coastal plain where the mountains drop right down to the sea.   A rugged but beautiful terrain that shaped a people who are known for diligence, frugality, determination, simplicity, resourcefulness, and resilience.   "Beware of the Ilocanos for in the face of adversity they are hardy and resilient. They live simply... they are loyal... they have an elaborate network of beliefs and practices which they apply when dealing with people around them,"   was surely an apt   observation by an Augustinian friar back in the 1700s. Such Ilocano characteristics were probably unknown to the young conquistador Captain Juan de Salcedo who was sent to explore the northern part of Luzon in 1565. The grandson of an earlier Conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi,   Juan was charged to lead Spain's investment of so