Last February 6, my officemates and I went to Intramuros to tour our foreign business counterparts who . This was my first time to get inside the walled city of Manila and visit the Spanish-inspired structures and buildings.
My officemates and I decided to meet at the office (Petron Megaplaza) around 8am. When everyone was already in, I then went to the Manila Peninsula Hotel to fetch Tami and Adrian, our foreign guests. We rode a cab going to Intramuros. While on the car, I acted like a tour guide inside the taxi and started blabbering and explaining about the streets and areas where our taxi passed by. :)
It was around 930am when we arrived at the Manila Cathedral Church. We started the tour inside the Manila Cathedral Church. I got to see the tour group of Carlos Celdran. We originally planned to joined the Celdran tour but decided against it at the last minute because it was a bit pricey for us. We were all on budget mode that time. :) So to improvise, Angeli, one of my officemates, acted as the official tour guide for the group. ;)
The Manila Cathedral is a really majestic church and through time, it has preserved the Spanish colonization influences in the structure. When we went there, there was an exhibit that was going on and we were able to read the history of the Manila Cathedral Church and the Catholic Church as a whole.
Above are some of the pictures that I got from inside the Manila Cathedral Church. After about an hour, we decided to leave the Manila Cathedral Church and head off to Fort Santiago.
The Fort Santiago was where the richest Spaniards lived during the Spanish occupation in the Philippines. It was brick-walled and you can still see the opulent design of the garden and houses inside. There were also several Fort Santiago staff who were role-playing and dressed as guardia-sibils and roaming the fort. I was able to get some shots inside the Fort and capture the scenery and garden inside.
It was already lunch time when we left The Fort Santiago. Since we were all starving already from the walk, we then decided to grab lunch at Greenwich.
After a sumptuous meal, we resumed our Intramuros tour and went to the San Agustin Church and Museum. But there was a wedding that was ongoing. That's why we were not able to get inside the church and museum.
We then headed off to Casa Manila which was an apartment for affluent students during the Spanish colonization. Picture taking was prohibited inside the Casa that's why I was not able to take some shots with me. But the furniture and the furnishings inside the Casa were all very intricate and grand. It showed signs of affluence and granduer.
After a good 30 minute tour inside the Casa, we all decided to cap off our tour and went back to the Manila Cathedral Church.
Above is one of my favorite shots from the tour where it shows the grand facade of the Manila Cathedral Church. If i hadn't known, I would have mistaken it as one of the churches in Europe.
The tour that we had in Intramuros, Manila brought me back to my history and made me appreciate more what the FIlipino heroes did to emancipate our country from the Spanish rule.
Above all, our foreign guests enjoyed the tour very much and had a wonderful time. Below is a picture of my IDS team with Tami Scheben, our counterpart in Cincinnati (L-R Jeline, Tami, Christiane, me).
Below is the picture of everyone in the tour.
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