Wall of Signatures. (I got such a kick that I could take photos inside the museum.)
Sinaunang songhits.
I did a double take on this one. The ends of this ancient farming machine looks like male genitalia. (I know, I know, I'm such a child.)This time, we went with a large group of tourists, which was a good mix of Europeans, Americans and Filipinos who grew up overseas. It's a different experience for me to go through a tour with, well, tourists. It's different going there with classmates--everybody (more or less) knew the history and would opt to just view than listen to a history lesson. But with the foreigners, they wanted to hear about the history. Carlos indulged them. And it was highly entertaining. I laughed, I was awed and I fervently wished all my history teachers were like him. (But he just got out of UP around the time I was a freshman.)
Carlos explaining our rich history interspersed with humor and trivia.
Tilda Swinton was part of our tour group. Kidding. She's a dutch nutritionist from Netherlands who was vacationing here with her husband.
It gave me a nice warm feeling to see Muslim women inside the San Agustin church. They were very interested in our history, and was fascinated with the religious figures and paintings.
Nards taking details of the double doors of San Agustin Church.During lunch, while Omar interviewed Carlos, and Nards took portraits, I sat at another table with Tilda Swinton and her husband. They just got back from a week in Palawan. Prior to that, they explored Sagada. They were gushing over our country saying that they loved the people and all the sights. They were surprised that they were warned that the Philippines was dangerous and not worth seeing, because they fell in love with it so to speak. They said the people were kind, friendly and helpful, despite the little corruption they encountered at the Bureau of Immigration when they applied to have their visa extended. Yep, they extended their visa because wanted more of our country. Of course, they loved Carlos' tour. But they couldn't join the afternoon walking tour at CCP and PICC because they had to make arrangements for their trip to Donsol.
Omar, interviewing Carlos, while Nards listened and checked the outtakes of the portraits he took.
Carlos giving us a very interesting account of how he conceptualized Celdran Tours.Carlos invited us to join the afternoon tours at the CCP and PICC. It would center around Leandro Locsin, and how Imelda's story and dreams were closely related to the birth of those historic buildings. To loosely quote Carlos: the rise and fall of Imelda and the Marcos family is clearly illustrated in the various buildings in that area.
The afternoon tour was just as fun. Carlos knew a lot of trivia about Imelda and the Marcos family and he liberally peppered his "history lesson" with them. It was also very anecdotal. He shared how he met Daphne Ose�a at a party where Madame was in attendance. Daphne dragged him to meet Imelda where she told Madame that Carlos was giving tours of the Coconut Palace, and consequently talk about her. Carlos nearly passed out from mortification. And we were all doubled over with laughter after he finished the story.
Carlos' talking about Leandro Locsin's architectural masterpieces. 
Change of costume. Very appropriate for the content of his tour: Imelda, the arts, disco and revolution.We walked a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. My mary jane walking shoes gave up on me. My feet were killing me before the afternoon was over.
But I had such a great time! I want to join Carlos' Quiapo tour and Binondo tour. Painful soles are a small price to pay for a wonderful history lesson. I hope Men's Health sends us on assignment for those.
No comments:
Post a Comment