Visions on a Sunday in Antipolo

Desirous of a change of scenery, we rented a little taxi (seen to the left) and escaped Makati by heading east for Antipolo city, which because it is perched atop the elevated slopes of the Sierra Madre mountain range is cooler than Manila (check here for a map). We were surprised how quickly the terrain transformed into highlands after we exited the city. The photograph below shows where we stopped en route to take in the view of Ortigas. I am not sure what the height of the land here is above sea level and we may have still been technically in hill territory, but shortly after we departed this look-out area, the road gradient steepened and the countryside steadily became more mountainous. 

What was also noticeable was a large number of churches, cemeteries and quarries. A very hol-y place indeed! 

Our itinerary was meticulously planned; as in, based on my recollection of a friend mentioning a visit to an art gallery in Antipolo several years ago, I did a web search to locate it, and then I pushed my luck further and searched for other sightseeing spots in Antipolo to round out the day and came across the names of a waterfall and an old church. 

I carefully copied the names of all three destinations on my hotel stationery so I could show them to Nito, our taxi driver. We met Nito several weeks earlier when he had taken us to the practice golf range on the Villamor Airforce Base, and had learned at that time that he worked weekdays for a Japanese furniture company and drove a taxi on the weekends as his second job. Armed with his cell phone number as a backup, we requested his services for our Sunday drive. The waterfall seemed a good place to commence the day's activities, but when I spotted the sign for the Pinto Art Gallery while Nito was seeking directions, I  decided it was wiser to alter the itinerary order.

The Pinto Art Gallery, which is within the Silangan Gardens, is located in a regular residential subdivision. The entrance to the gallery was not immediately obvious and when the first door I tried was firmly locked, my heart sank and I thought, "Oh, no, have I been caught out again by internet misinformation?" But then all was well, as we discovered the entrance hiding to the side. Inside the walls, a very spacious and verdant garden dotted with white buildings revealed itself.  We received a map and set forth to explore. The gardens were delightful and the art was original and provocative.                 

I wondered who was responsible for creating such a lovely fusion of creative pieces with nature. There was a plaque on the front wall with a list of names which led me to speculate that perhaps it was a cooperative run by artists, although it looked more like the home of a wealthy family. Post-visit I returned to the internet to search for some answers. It turns out that the Silangan Gardens are the summer home of Doctor Joven Cuanang who is a neurologist associated with St Luke's Medical Center and an art patron (see here for more). He established the Silangan Foundation for the Arts, Culture and Ecology, which is devoted to Philippine Contemporary Art, and is its current Chairman and President. 

       

It was a tranquil and peaceful place to spend an hour. We would have liked to have lingered over merienda (morning tea) and enjoyed the charming scenery longer but the cafe was emphatically closed, and without an excuse to dally, we withdrew. Please see here for more details about Pinto Gallery on its homepage. 

The Hinulugang taktak (waterfall) was next on my list. We found it easily enough but sadly, it was closed to the public for repairs. A friend of mine told me that the falls dried up a few years ago and the works have been "ongoing" for some time now. 

Lastly was the Boso Boso Church. I chose for us to visit the church over the local cathedral despite the fancy dome being home to a 17th century wooden statue of Mary because the church was said to have been built in 1700 and was part of the original settlement of Antipolo. There was mention that parts of it had been destroyed and re-built at various times in its history, but the descriptions I encountered made it seem like an interesting place to see. (Post-visit: I read that it is believed by some people that author Jose Rizal mentioned this church in his seditious novel, "El Filibusterismo").

This is where being a tourist in an unfamiliar environment can be equally a hindrance and a help. It was really quite far to the church from the waterfall. Nito did a good job to find it at all. I had my doubts. The little taxi's engine bravely whirred as it ascended and the rocking motion sent one of the backseat passengers to sleep. I gazed out onto green expanse after green expanse, church after cemetery after church, and our fellow journeymen on the road, the jeepneys. I had no idea how long it would take to reach our destination, and knew that I would probably not receive any elucidation should I attempt to put the question to Nito for it was clear to me that it was his first visit to the region.

It probably took about an hour to arrive at the church, and Nito's face visibly fell when he saw the desolate church (see above photographs)  and my husband jovially enquired, "Don't you know this church? It is very important to Filipino people ". In retrospect, I do wish I had known about the Rizal connection so I could have reassured him about the worth of a visit to such a remote area. 

The plaque screwed on the front of the church stated that it had first been erected by Jesuit priests in 1700 as a mission church. Geographically, I could not pinpoint the logic behind the choice of locale. I could not see a river near by, nor was it on a high point with logistical advantage. The church has been extensively re-built over time and I could not distinguish any original materials amongst the hollow concrete bricks. And unfortunately, any written records of this kind of history have been either lost to mould, or have been lost to the dust of academia. Other than the couple who were selling pineapples at the church gate, the sole praying parishioner, and the two boys who walked through the courtyard, there were eerily, very few people around. 

Thus, it is a help sometimes not to know the complete details, otherwise I may have struck the church off our impromptu tour and headed back to the malls of Makati early, heathen that I am. Which means what? I would not be able to laugh with my husband about the trip we took to such a famous historical landmark. "It's research!" he insisted. Yes, well perhaps it is. More importantly, it was just the change in scenery we had been hankering after in the a.m. and which had prompted the urge to take a Sunday trip out of town in the first place.

An eye-catching Greenbelt experience

 

Lushly green, this shopping mall is appropriately named, "Greenbelt". It is toted as the premier shopping destination in the Philippines on Wikipedia and I can attest to the validity of this claim as it truly does come complete with a raft of restaurants, high-end fashion shops, cinemas, and an open-air chapel. It possesses a dynamic, almost throbbingly alive atmosphere and we have found ourselves soaking in its vibrancy while listening to live music more than once or twice on a Saturday night. During the week, I will often meet a friend at a coffee shop overlooking the pond where two turtles live.

Counting the number of global stores that have hung a shingle here, you could be forgiven for thinking it is a generic mall but the incorporation of the outdoors into the design makes it unlike shopping centres I have experienced anywhere else we have resided. It does become a sticky steam bath during the rainy season and you are likely to be hit with fat drops of water as you scurry between covered areas, but nonetheless, it remains a unique space in a city where urban sprawl is fast spreading its tentacles and choking any greenery in its path. When we arrived in Makati for the first time in February 2001, there was only Greenbelt 1, which multiplied relatively quickly in the following years to become Greenbelt 2, 3, 4, and 5.

The origins of the mall also reflect the history of the Philippines as it was developed and is managed by the real estate arm of Ayala Corporation. This is a family business established in 1834 which has diversified to the extent that its services reach into every home in some shape or form. The list is long, but I will include it for demonstrative purposes: real estate development, banking and financial services, telecommunications, water distribution infrastructure, electronics manufacturing services, automotive dealership, overseas real estate investments, business process outsourcing, renewable energy and power. One of the company's most visible accomplishments is the development of the Makati to become the central business district of Manila and a residential hub. The family traces its roots in the Philippines back to the 18th century when their forebears immigrated here from Germany and Spain (the Spanish side of the family has aristocratic links). Please see here if you are interested to learn more . Needless to say, this family is a prime force in the affairs of the country.

Coincidentally this week, while by day I was navigating the complexity of this modern mall with its labyrinthine floors and connecting escalators, by night, I was being transported back to a simpler time, courtesy of a book I had started reading entitled, "The Women in Black" by Madeline St. John. It was set in the Sydney of the late 1950s in a department store during an era when women would do all their shopping in the one department store and their clothing purchases were altered to fit them. As someone who has spent more than my fair share of hours within change-room confines, there is a part of me that laments the loss of such all-encompassing institutions. My grandmother used to make special shopping forays to Melbourne around the same time of the book's milieu and was said to have had, "really beautiful clothes", and I could almost imagine her walking through the doors and placing her order with one of the characters vividly depicted in St. John's novel. I was also struck by the fact that the author herself was an expat and wrote the book while she was living in London.

Is it distance that focuses the eye, I wonder? This return to Makati I am forcing myself to look anew at my surroundings, which quite often means shop buildings and street pavements. I am aware that it only takes a few short shuffles past a place before familiarity fades the seen into unseen. Life is too short for everything to become predictable too soon so I am hoping my third eye will allow me to experience a new world full of curiosities and awe during this next stay. I wish I could peer into the future, but since I cannot, it is a case again of having to wait to see what the future holds.........................???