Intramuros

Intramuros, the Old Walled City of Manila, which my favorite National Artist, Nick Joaquin immortalized its former glory in the many essays, plays and books he wrote about life inside the ancient walls. 

Joaquin described the time when the day dawns sa loob ng Maynila and the cobblestones echo with the clip-clop of horses’ hooves. The guardia civil opens the Parian gate and Chinese merchants throng its puerta to set up their stalls for the day. Students make their pensive way to the many universities within a walking distance from Fort Santiago, where the morning-shift guardia civil man the defenses. 

Not very long, the Governor-General will be passing in his carruaje through the Puerta Real on his way to the Palacio del Gobernador to attend his office while a friar paces meditatively a top a bridge way above Calle Real to San Agustin Church. 

The rising sun lights up the elaborate façade of wealthy Spanish casas, with their capiz shell windows, heavily carved doors and solid piedra china flagstones. 

Close to four hundred years, Intramuros was the Spanish medieval nucleus. It was the core of Philippine church and state until its cruel decimation when Americans and Japanese forces reduced the walls to shambles and the city to rubble during Liberation of Manila in 1945. 

Today, I cannot count the number of visits I had in historic Intramuros. The pleasure of reminiscing those educational grade school field trips at Fort Santiago or the several memorable weddings we attended at San Agustin and annual visita iglesias we had which according to family tradition should always begin at the Manila Cathedral make me go back sa loob ng Maynila over and over. 

It was a few years ago when I had my first walking tour of Intramuros. Just like the Amazing Race, our history professor listed down the “pit stops” within the Walled City. The instruction for this mandatory project was to take photos of these places, write a reflection about the tour and present the project in a fancy folder. After that whole day tour, Intramuros has become a curiosity.  

Probably it’s the nostalgia of my youth or perhaps the history heard deep within  the ancient stones which I never gotten tired of listening again and again where I found inspiration to walk around Intramuros’ moss-covered adobe walls and travel back in time to its romantic glory over and over until this day.

Part 1 –Intramuros ׀ Part 2 –Plaza Roma ׀ Part 3 –The Art of Manila Cathedral ׀ Part 4 –A Short Walk from Postigo Gate ׀ Part 5 –Bitter-Sweet Love Story (Scandal) of 1621  ׀ Part 6 –Casa Manila ׀ Part 7 –San Agustin Church ׀  Part 8 –San Agustin Museum ׀ Part 9 –Father Sepulveda Murder Case ׀ Part 10 –The Augustinians, Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans and Recollects | Part 11 – The Assassination of General Bustamante | Part 12 -The Power and Might of the Cross ׀ Part 13 – Lady in Blue Sash and the Cradle of Basketball in the Philippines ׀ Part 14 –Calle Muralla ׀ Part 15 –Trail, Travels and Travails of the Statue of Isabel  | Part 16 – Nung Bata Pa si Sabel | Part 17 – Around Intendencia  ׀ Part 18 –The Legend of the Twisted Sword ׀ Part 19 – Fortress of Empire: Fort Santiago | Part 20 –Tales of Death from the Dungeons and Jail Cells of Fort Santiago ׀ Part 21 –The Lost Villages of Extramuros | Part 22 –The Grand Marian Procession | Part 23 –Maynila, Ever Noble and Loyal City

San Mateo Flashfloods

Living in San Mateo Rizal for the last five years we’ve never imagined that we’ll ever experience in real life what most people see in movies and on the news – water and mud entering homes, furniture turned over by flashfloods rising more than 10 feet,  and people being swept off balance by gasping water that turned San Mateo’s main road into a raging river!  In less than an hour, our single-level home is submerged in water and mud.

Traveler on Foot will blog again soon.

Traveler on Foot is in StarCentral Daily Top 10 of the Month

TOF Home

All travels have been put on hold lately because of the rains. We are staying at home most of the time. One day we decided to display objects we’ve collected from our travels and ended up with a look and feel that reflects our fancy.  

We find pleasure in old Filipino bric-a-brac. We love paintings, sculptures and furniture made from old hardwood. In collecting art, we simply relied on instinct and we prefer to collect paintings and sculptures from local artists we’ve personally met.  

 

Collecting Art 

Artworks of local contemporary artists like Dominic Rubio, Glenn Cagandahan, Odette Cagandahan, Jovan Benito, Luis Ac-ac, and Otep Bañes as well as Traveler on Foot pictures we took shots at Casa San Pablo and in one of the Houses of History in Taal printed on Wooden Canvas find their space in walls and corners of our living room. 

Old Manila nostalgia extends to our dining room, where, under an old-fashioned oil lamp dinner unfolds around a table made of old Tanguile and Yakal wood. Our dining table was the first furniture we had as a couple. 

 

Viaje del Sol Inspiration 

Our garden is where we spend most of the time with our pet dog Crystal, a pair of cockatiel, some African lovebirds and the redtail catfish “Hito.” We achieved this kind of rustic and rural backyard feel from our Viaje del Sol. 

Most of the plants we got from Manila Seedlings Bank in Quezon City and some trips to Tagaytay. The “ang Nuno” of Angono guards our display of Burnay jars we got from our trip to Vigan . Souvenirs which we got from Ugu Bigyan, Kusina Salud, and during fiestas in Lucban and Pakil are also displayed in different parts of the mini-garden. 

We miss traveling. Soon we’ll be traveling again!

Angeles Pampanga

Angeles was formerly called Barrio Culiat, after the vines that grew abundantly in the area at the time when the first settlers founded the town is now the city’s old district. Spanish-period structures particularly along its oldest streets –Santo Rosario and Santo Entierro are preserved today as delicate reminders of events in Philippine history.     

 

Historic Camalig Restaurant

It was lunch time when we arrived in Angeles City. We went to the Camalig, a restored Spanish rice granary along Santo Rosario Street to sample Armando’s Pizza. 

Built in 1840 by the town’s first mayor Don Ciriaco de Miranda primarily as a shed made of light materials, it was restored in the early 1900s to it present form by the post-colonial mayor Capitan Juan Nepomoceno. 

The father of the current owner Armando’s Pizza, the late Armando Nepomoceno inherited the 150-year old building thus Historic Camalig Restaurant is also billed as “The Home of Armando’s Pizza.” 

While waiting for our orders to be served, we toured the old Camalig to view its gallery of ancient photographs of early Angeles personages and exhibit of relics from a bygone Angeles town. Surrounded by rustic old-world Filipiniana, we enjoyed our Armando’s Pizza served warm in a traditional bilao.

     

 

Miranda House 

Along Santo Rosario Street is the home of Don Angel Panteleon de Miranda and wife Doña Rosalia de Jesus. The couple led their followers from burgeoning city of San Fernando to settle in what is then a forested area they established as Culiat in 1796. By the end of the 19^th century, Barrio Culiat has become a prosperous town. 

In 1824, the couple built their house made of stone and wood. During the Philippine-American War 1899, the Miranda House served the headquarters of the retreating forces of the Revolutionary Government. 

 

Holy Rosary Parish

In 1830, the Augustinians renamed Culiat to Angeles after the name of its founder who “paid from his own purse a part of the expenses of the construction of the church” and also as way of custom its patron: Los Santos Angeles Custodio, The Holy Guardian Angels. 

The present Renaissance-style stone church was built through polos y servicios or forced labor under the Spanish government. It was completed in 1896 which at that time, the church is the tallest in the whole of Pampanga. The twin belfries where used as watchtowers by Filipinos during the Philippine-American War.   

Enshrined in the main altar is the image of the Nuestra Señora de Santissima Rosario de la Naval.  

 

Old Municipal Hall 

Across the church is the old municipal hall. Constructed in 1922 during the term of Mayor Juan Nepomoceno, the building today houses the Museo Ning Angeles. Unfortunately, the museum was closed during our visit. 

                                                     

Bale Herencia 

A two-story ancestral house, Bale Herencia was used as a residence, Catechism school, office of a town councilor, mini-casino and then commercial establishment. Today, it serves as venue for formal events and art exhibits.  

 

Pamintuan Mansion 

During the Philippine-American War, Angeles was where the president of the fledging Philippine Republic, General Emilio Aguinaldo set up his traveling government. The Pamintuan Mansion was his official residence in Angeles. 

It is in this mansion where Aguinaldo watched from the second storey window while waving the original Philippine flag a grand parade in celebration of the first and only anniversary of the shirt-lived republic. Today, the mansion houses Central Bank’s regional clearing office. 

On our way back home after our half-day Pampanga road trip, I can’t help but notice the majestic Mount Arayat overlooking vast emerald green rice fields. 

This concludes our Pampanga road trip. Click here for Part I –Betis, Part II –Bacolor, Part III –San Fernando Heritage Disctrict