Touring Eric: If These Walls Could Talk.

Part of working in a multinational company is getting to work with people from different countries.  Usually, you would communicate with them via the telephone and email... and you both get by by doing just that.  

It would, however, make things easier if you put a face behind the name so site visits are welcome news for us.

Meet Eric.  He is one of the people we work with in Tampa.

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He was in town during the last week of April.  And because it was his first time, we thought of making his stay a memorable one.


Since we had little time to tour him to the beaches and provinces, we did a tour of Manila... Intramuros to be more exact.  The buzz on the Carlos Celdran tours have been around for quite sometime so, a group of officemates (Marianne, Cindy, Pierre, Imman) and I decided to take Eric's stay as an opportunity to experience the Walk This Way tour.


It all started at the Fort Santiago where we, along with more than 50 folks, both Filipinos and foreigners, gathered in one corner of the park.

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Carlos gave a brief history of the Philippines and Spain, then, off we went.  Here is Fort Santiago.

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Here is us (Cindy taking the picture).

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And here are Jose Rizal's footsteps to Bagumbayan or Luneta.

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After Fort Santiago, we took a calesa (and pedicab) ride to Baluarte de San Diego.

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The Baluarte de San Diego is where the artillery of the Spanish soldiers were kept.  Walls in this part of Intramuros were built to have the cannons mounted on them.  Right now, it has a nice garden and you pay a minimal amount for a visit (tour participants exempted).

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During our stay in the Baluarte, we got to see Carlos Celdran up close.

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Had a much needed drink (not free... Php20 per bottle).

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And had CHOCNUTS!  This time free.

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Our next stop was Victoria St. where the headquarters of Gen. MacArthur once stood.

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This was the most moving part of the tour since he discussed the horrific parts of World War II in Manila.  Many of the things he said I have never heard before in all my history classes which is sad because, in a way, we erase some important parts of our story as a people.


We, then, walked our way to San Agustin Church, the only structure in Intramuros which survived the war  (He is, by the way, not allowed to conduct the tour inside because of the Damaso act months back).  Look at the wonderful church door which I learned is authentic.

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Here he talked about Halo-Halo and how it represents Filipinos.

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Then, he brought us to Barbara's for FREE halo-halo to end the tour.  Yey!

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It was humid and a bit rainy that day but I had lots of fun.  As Cindy would put it, it was the day that we became tourists in Manila.  It was great to re-discover the capital city via Intramuros.  The things I learned in the tour, I would forever remember.

Walk this way!


Photos courtesy of Cindy.

For more of the Carlos Celdran tours, please visit this website.