[This is the continuation of the church hopping we did on Easter Sunday. It's 3 weeks late, but hope you still enjoy the pictures.]
The next few churches-- were also close to each other, but we had to drive a bit to get to them. On the way, we stopped along the road overlooking
Laguna de Bay.
Some other travelers had also stopped there, and there were little stands selling food and some kids selling quail eggs. That was the only non-church stop we made. I wish we had had more time to make more stops as, later on in the day, we passed many places that had streams and waterfalls and such. I also took a couple of countryside pictures while in the car.
The next church was
Pakil. We could have passed by
Mabitac Church as well, but I think we missed it.
There wasn’t much space in front of Pakil Church, so we couldn’t really take a full picture of its façade. That’s a shame since the façade has such beautiful detailing. The inside is a contrast—it might as well be a different church. Like
Tanay,
the altar and other parts of the church are highly embellished. Over the altar area is what my friend calls the
Sistine Chapel, as it features reproductions of Michelangelo’s paintings. This church also has a nice dome that brings in some natural light to the front of the church.
It was funny because all three of us, who happen to like kiteflying, noticed this relief painting that we thought was of monks flying a kite; it does look like their flying Jesus, though.
In Pakil, as in quite a few of the churches we visited, we saw floats featuring the risen Christ and the Virgin Mary. At dawn (around 4am) on Easter Sunday is the
sugat (in Bisaya) or
salubong (in Tagalog), which means the meeting. The two floats start away from each other and, with people following behind each float, they eventually meet. Then, the procession proceeds to the church. When I was growing up, there were paper
gigantes (giants) at this procession, and one of them represents Judas Iscariot and is burned down.
Paete, right near by, is a town that is well-known for its woodcarving. (The word
paet in Tagalog means chisel.) We thought there would be a lot of woodcarvings at this church—there were some, but not much. The interesting thing about this church is that it has different (and dissimilar) façades on different sides so that, when I was going through the pictures (from two different cameras), I was getting confused as to which pictures belonged to which church. It looked like there was an extra church or two in there. This church has an ornate altar, similar to ones we saw earlier during the day. It has a nice wooden ceiling and dome. It also has nice stained glass windows. In addition, it has a couple of oil paintings on wood, such as this one, dating back from 1850 and one from 1720.
By this time, it was extremely hot, and I was starving (and people who know me know that I should not be allowed to reach this point). But, we couldn’t leave without looking at the shops and the woodcarvings; we also went to one gallery. I was tempted to buy something, but the one thing that I really liked was still about $300. The store, picture here, actually makes papier mache products
Though I was starving, we couldn’t eat at Paete because there really weren’t any restaurants there. There were small places that sold food, but I was too hot and I wanted to go someplace where it was spacious and cool and had a restroom.
Fortunately, there was a restaurant on the highway. We ate at Exotik Garden Restaurant, a nice-looking place. They didn’t really need a gimmick, but they had one—having exotic animals (e.g., huge snakes, a monkey, etc.) on the premises. The food was alright, but I was glad to have the rest.
The next few churches-- were also close to each other, but we had to drive a bit to get to them. On the way, we stopped along the road overlooking Laguna de Bay. 
Some other travelers had also stopped there, and there were little stands selling food and some kids selling quail eggs. That was the only non-church stop we made. I wish we had had more time to make more stops as, later on in the day, we passed many places that had streams and waterfalls and such. I also took a couple of countryside pictures while in the car.
The next church was Pakil. We could have passed by Mabitac Church as well, but I think we missed it.
There wasn’t much space in front of Pakil Church, so we couldn’t really take a full picture of its façade. That’s a shame since the façade has such beautiful detailing. The inside is a contrast—it might as well be a different church. Like Tanay,
the altar and other parts of the church are highly embellished. Over the altar area is what my friend calls the Sistine Chapel, as it features reproductions of Michelangelo’s paintings. This church also has a nice dome that brings in some natural light to the front of the church. 
It was funny because all three of us, who happen to like kiteflying, noticed this relief painting that we thought was of monks flying a kite; it does look like their flying Jesus, though.
In Pakil, as in quite a few of the churches we visited, we saw floats featuring the risen Christ and the Virgin Mary. At dawn (around 4am) on Easter Sunday is the sugat (in Bisaya) or salubong (in Tagalog), which means the meeting. The two floats start away from each other and, with people following behind each float, they eventually meet. Then, the procession proceeds to the church. When I was growing up, there were paper gigantes (giants) at this procession, and one of them represents Judas Iscariot and is burned down.
Paete, right near by, is a town that is well-known for its woodcarving. (The word paet in Tagalog means chisel.) We thought there would be a lot of woodcarvings at this church—there were some, but not much. The interesting thing about this church is that it has different (and dissimilar) façades on different sides so that, when I was going through the pictures (from two different cameras), I was getting confused as to which pictures belonged to which church. It looked like there was an extra church or two in there. This church has an ornate altar, similar to ones we saw earlier during the day. It has a nice wooden ceiling and dome. It also has nice stained glass windows. In addition, it has a couple of oil paintings on wood, such as this one, dating back from 1850 and one from 1720.
By this time, it was extremely hot, and I was starving (and people who know me know that I should not be allowed to reach this point). But, we couldn’t leave without looking at the shops and the woodcarvings; we also went to one gallery. I was tempted to buy something, but the one thing that I really liked was still about $300. The store, picture here, actually makes papier mache products
Though I was starving, we couldn’t eat at Paete because there really weren’t any restaurants there. There were small places that sold food, but I was too hot and I wanted to go someplace where it was spacious and cool and had a restroom. 
Fortunately, there was a restaurant on the highway. We ate at Exotik Garden Restaurant, a nice-looking place. They didn’t really need a gimmick, but they had one—having exotic animals (e.g., huge snakes, a monkey, etc.) on the premises. The food was alright, but I was glad to have the rest.
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