Day 59–March 5th–Manila, Philippines

Today Sharon & I took a tour called “The Highlights of Manila”; this is the best way to get a good overview of a city, especially when it’s a city like Manila where the traffic is so chaotic.  However, for me it’s a challenge being on one of these big tour buses with other tourists from the ship and a tour guide who is constantly lecturing at us.  So for 4 to 5 hours, I just endure patiently or at least I try to….

Tour Bus

Sharon on the bus, looking for something.

 

It rained for most of this tour.  This is Rizel Park which is a memorial to a Filipino hero, a social activist who was executed at Fort Santiago for his politics.

Horse drawn buggies at Fort Santiago.

We visited two Cathedrals:  The Manila Cathedral and the Cathedral of San Augustine.  The Manila Cathedral has quite a remarkable history of tenacity.  It is built on a spot where the original people had a primitive place of worship.  Over the next 5 centuries different structures were rebuilt 12 times because of earthquakes, fires or cyclones.  Catholicism has a huge presence in the Philippines.  The Cathedral of San Augustine is the oldest cathedral in Manila.  I believe it was this one that had a unique organ with bamboo pipes. hard to keep these 2 structures separate in my mind.  However, one of them had this good looking security guard.

 

We then took a very quick tour of a museum which contained rooms from a grand “casa”.  Our guide had a tendency to just keep talking no matter if there was a group in front of her or not, so the details about this museum are real sketchy in my mind.  Just one more old home in another port city…

 From a window.

The door keeper at the museum.  The hat represents the Mexican influence in the Philippines.  The architecture had a strong Spanish flavor.

Our last stop on this tour was the Manila Hotel.  This is where General MacArthur stayed for 4 years when he made the Philippines his headquarters in WWII.  It’s a very grand hotel and the oldest one in Manila.  We had some refreshments here.  The tea and fruit drink were fine but the pastries are all very sticky, almost gummy tasting.

Our greeter.

 My snorkeling buddies from Arizona, Carol and Gary.

A fancy Jeepney parked next to our ship.

Jeepney’s are the favorite mode of mass transportation in Manila, much smaller and rugged looking than the one above.  The passengers sit on two long benches that run down the sides.  It will seat about 24 Filipinos, maybe 18 westerns –

Our show that night was a dance presentation put on by the orphanage that I mentioned before:  Hospicio de San Jose.  It was just so precious, there was not a dry eye in the place afterwards.  To see these orphans from such a poor country dancing and singing with so much joy and pure youthful energy was certainly heart wrenching.    I felt a deep longing for my grandchildren and for the memories I have of my own children when they were young. 

The girl on my left had been adopted by an American family but she couldn’t remember from which state.  Not a shy one in the group.  The Catholic nuns here have done a fabulous job.  I plan on sending them a donation as soon as I find my checkbook.  This certainly put a different light on my earlier concerns, the problems of a rich person (computer and a debit card). 

This was our first Asian port of call, now on to Hong Kong…