bisita iglesia (part 4)

After our experience at Longos, the following churches paled in comparison. (It probably also didn’t help that we were getting tired and churched out.) Like many of the other churches, Lumban Church, the next church we visited, has an old stone façade with a more modern inside. This church added a newer sculpture of the crucified Jesus atop its belfry that just detracts from the beauty of the church facade. Here, the façade has what appear to be wooden paintings covering the windows. The side windows are made of stained glass.



After seeing seemingly older and older churches, our snobbishness came out when we saw the newish-looking Pagsanjan Church. (Perhaps, there's a reason that the town is primarily known for its river, rapids, and falls.) The church was actually closed but, as some workers were going in the door, we asked to go in as well. Like the other churches, the altar is full of gold. It features a statue of the Virgin Mary that the store pictured for Paete says they made. You can see the bustle of the community through the windows.



We then proceeded to Cavinti, where the streets were narrow and mostly one-way. We had difficulty finding and getting to the church, especially as there was basketball tournament that was just starting. The church was locked, so we couldn’t see the inside. Like Lumban, the windows are covered by wooden paintings. We roamed around the grounds where I saw this display of palm leaves, probably from Palm Sunday, a week earlier. We also saw that they had a gated section with sculptured Stations of the Cross.



After Cavinti, we actually passed another church—that may have been Liliw Church—but I was tired and I just wanted to go to Majayjay Church, which is one that I really wanted to see. But before we got there, we got a little bit lost and almost ended up at Lake Caliraya. That wouldn't have been so bad, but it was getting late. On the way to Majayjay, we saw signs for Majayjay Falls. Wish we had time to see it, but that wasn't in the itinerary.

Though it had already been a long day and we were a bit churched out, I did not want to miss Majayjay Church. I called this the pink church because it looked that way to me in the picture in the book on church façades, entitled Philippine Church Façades, that we looked at at Fully Booked. The church is actually made of brick and only looks pink in pictures and from a distance. By the time we got there, it was probably after 4pm and church was in service. The church is a sight with its reddish hue and the palm trees in front. It has a nice plaza in front.


Right alongside the church was a market with stalls selling all sorts of stuff. This picture of a mossy-looking tree is taken there. According to a marker I read, the town is also known as the place where Emilio Jacinto, one of heroes of the Philippine Revolution, died.

We were supposed to go to Nagcarlan Church afterwards, but we were tired and we decided to skip it. We could also have gone to the churches of Lucban and Tayabas in Quezon Province, but those were out of the way. Maybe a different time.

We hit traffic on the way back to Manila, especially as it was the Sunday after a long holiday weekend. We ended up skipping dinner and got home around 9pm. The poor driver--not only did we have him driving all day, but we didn't even feed him dinner. I hope he doesn't hate us. It was an extremely long day--11 churches in 1 day!--but it was fun. Nothing like a road trip.

longos--bisita iglesia (part 3)

After lunch, we drove a couple of minutes to Longos Church. Longos is a small, small community. (Apparently, Longos itself used to be the center and the name of the town, but now the municipality is called Kalayaan and the center has moved closer to the highway.) When we got there, it seemed deserted—maybe because it was after lunch. The church also seemed old and deserted. It was actually closed, but someone—who turned out to be the caretaker—asked if we wanted to go in. Of course, we said yes. While the façade seemed old, the inside is actually new, with the walls made of unadorned hollow blocks. According the caretaker, the church was bombed by the Japanese. In one of these pictures, you see the ruins—the church used to extend to this point. This is the only church we visited that did not have a historical marker (unless we just didn't see it).

This church turned out to be our best experience. The caretaker showed us a section that belongs to the original church and which used to be where the baptisms took place (as you can see from the baptismal font in the foreground). The picture on the wall (showing the baptism of Jesus Christ) is original and is actually wood relief. This room is normally closed because people take wood chips from the painting (see the lower right corner) as agimat (or talisman).

The caretaker then offered to take us to the belfry. The first set of stairs that led to the choir balcony were okay, but then we went to another set of stairs made of wood and metal. The spiral steps were old and somewhat worn. It was a tight squeeze, and I was afraid of the combination of the height and the rickety steps. But it was worth it once we got to the tower. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a belltower, and it was sweet to be in this old tower. When you step up to the windows, you can see amazing views of the surrounding countryside. Only one of us went to the highest part of the tower (where the bell is) because the floor up there is in really bad condition.

bisita iglesia (part 2)

[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.

back to civilization

We're back in Manila--a week earlier than scheduled. Now I can continue my blogging. But I'm so way behind! And I have a lot of emails to go through. And I'd rather be sleeping really. Well, you'll just have to keep checking...

bisita iglesia (part 1)

On Easter Sunday (March 23), we went on a road trip. Before I even left the US, we had already planned to do bisita iglesia on this day. Literally, bisita iglesia means church visit but, more accurately in sentiment, it is more like church hopping. When I was growing up, this was something that we used to do (that is, when I was allowed to go) on Holy Thursday. After dinner, we would visit 5 (I think) churches, and we would pray a mystery of the rosary at each church. I remember it as being a fun event, maybe because it was at night and I was a little girl who was being allowed to go with the young men and women.

So, for Easter, we had planned a whole day of visiting old churches. I was excited about this because it was a road trip and because we get to see old churches (and I like architecture). In the Philippines, where old buildings were primarily built of wood, the churches are pretty much the oldest buildings still standing. And there’s really something about visiting ancient, sacred places...

Our original travel partners (including the car owner/driver) backed out at the last minute, but we fortunately still had access to my uncle’s vehicle and driver. So, the day before, we asked someone else to join us and we did some research at Fully Booked and on the Internet. With our map and lists of destinations, we were set. [find map]

We woke up at 5am, so we could shower, eat breakfast and leave by 6:30am. After picking up our new travel companion, we were on our way to doing a loop of Laguna de Bay. But, before we did so and since it was on our way, we passed by Antipolo Church, which is dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje (Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage). This church is very well-known in the Philippines, and many people make pilgrimages there. Our Lady of Antipolo is an icon, especially in Luzon, as are the dried flower leis that you buy there. As it was Easter Sunday, it was crowded. Mass had just started (before the first reading) when we got there just after 7am, and the church was overflowing. We didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the façade of the church, but we took some of the inside.

We proceeded to three town churches that are pretty close to each other: Morong, Baras, and Tanay. As with all of the churches we visited on this day, these churches were built in the 17th and 18th centuries but, due to fires, earthquakes, they have been reconstructed or added on to. It’s difficult to make out which portions are original, so I’m including on here the pictures that we took of the historical markers. You can figure out how old these churches really are.

When we got to Morong, services were also under way (it was the offertory when we got there and communion when we left). There were churchgoers in pews outside, on the side of the church. The most striking part of the church is actually the belfry but that actually was added in the mid-19th century, 200 years after the original church.



We got to Baras between church services. I really liked the look and feel of this church. After Morong, this one seems so much older and off-the-beaten-path. Our driver said that he knew about Morong and Tanay, but he didn’t know about Baras. (Our map actually has asterisks for some of the churches on our lists, including Antipolo, Morong, Tanay, and couple of others. I think that means they are well-known and/or bigger churches.) But maybe the fact that it wasn’t crowded with churchgoers enabled us to enjoy it more. I liked the façade of the church, as well as the altar. I also liked the festive plastic streamers that lead to the church; these indicate that it is or almost the town’s fiesta or feast day.


When we got to Tanay, it was about 9:30am (if the clock inside the church in the picture is right), and it was already getting quite hot. Church was also underway. The altar is gilded and quite ornate. There is an inner courtyard, where some people were listening to the services. We didn’t stay there too long.


(This is just the beginning of our day, so there will be one or two more parts coming, but I'm not sure I'll be able to post before we leave for the Mountain Province tonight. And I don't think I'm posting when I'm up there.)