Travel

Padilla Art Gallery (Calle R. Hidalgo cor. De Guzman St.) Built in the 1880s, the house was renovated by the artist Manuel Padilla and opened as an art gallery in 2012. The gallery featured artworks that reflected the culture of Quiapo and Manila. The house is relatively well preserved but has been closed to the … Read more

Ocampo-Santiago House (Calle R. Hidalgo) Built in 1850, first home of the University of the Philippines (UP) Conservatory of Music in 1916. Notable residents include Pablo Ocampo, statesman and Resident Commissioner to the United States and Dr. Francisco Santiago,first Filipino musical director of the UP Conservatory of Music (now College of Music). Santiago, a prolific … Read more

A graceful double outrigger Bangka (this one known as a kalansisi) graces the shore of Albay Gulf. Because of their intimate link with the sea, Filipinos possess extraordinary boat-building skills, for which the islanders, since pre-Hispanic times, have been renowned. That connection has also stirred the Filipino to master navigation: to know the ebb and … Read more

Bagasbas Beach, Daet, Camarines Norte Though it looks as if the fisherfolk of Bagasbas in Daet, Camarines Norte are practicing social distancing, this “blocking” has been the practice here for many years. Fishnets would have been laid from shore to the deeper sea at midnight. As the skies lighten in the morning, the nets — … Read more

Zamora House (Calle R. Hidalgo) Located in front of the Paterno House, the immense Zamora House forms part of the only surviving cluster of heritage houses along with the once-grand Calle Hidalgo. The house was home to Manuel A. Zamora, a chemist and pharmacist who invented the tiki-tiki formula to combat beriberi, a severe and … Read more