Baguio-Quezon: February 2011

26 February 2011

Marcos Bust

Saw this 1986 photo from MLQ3's Tumblr. The Marcos Bust was constructed in the early 80s on a Mountain in Benguet. This was a familiar sight when you travel the winding road of Marcos Highway to and from Baguio. But in 2002 the bust was blown up. The face is mostly gone. Nobody has gone to prison over the travesty, but there were a number of theories as to why it was destroyed: hidden treasure, the left-wing movement, among others.

Doing the thumbs-down sign is Cory Aquino, who overthrew the Marcos regime as a result of People Power. To her left is Doy Laurel, then Vice President.

Technorati tags: Baguio

22 February 2011

Centennial Park in Baguio City, Philippines (part 4 of 4)

Above: the entrance to the park. Wooden slabs have been placed in areas for sitting on.

Below: this "hut" was originally covered with dried grass, simiar to those used on the kubo. That was in the 70s. I guess they did not bother to maintain that.

Fun place for a picnic!

Technorati tags: Baguio

15 February 2011

Centennial Park in Baguio City, Philippines (part 3 of 4)

Clean toilets! Years ago, clean toilets were hard to come by, so this is a huge improvement.

Technorati tags: Baguio

11 February 2011

Centennial Park in Baguio City, Philippines (part 2 of 4)

My wife loves steamed corn

Stalls selling various knitwear and handicrafts

Technorati tags: Baguio

07 February 2011

Centennial Park (was Botanical Garden was Imelda Park)

When we asked the taxi driver to bring us to the Centennial Park formerly called Botanical Garden formerly called Imelda Park, our young driver was surprised to learn it was called Imelda Park before. Well, he learned something that day. We also learned that we are very much a part of Baguio's history!

Imelda Park is a very memorable childhood playground. From Session Road, we used to hike all the way to this park, strolling though the sheltered walkway of Teacher's Camp. At that time, the waterways used to have water in them. There's even a small cascading waterfall. And beside this waterway which runs past the greenhouses is a circular canal which also had water and would usually have tadpoles during the rainy season. We would sometimes catch tadpoles to bring home. But most of the time we'd just have fun walking around til it's late in the afternoon when it's time to go home.

Layout-wise, the park has not changed much. There's just the addition of statues, and the place has been cleaned up nicely. Clean comfort room is now available, which is really good because this lack of facilites had been a problem for a looong time.

We were able to take some rather nice photos. I can't decide on which to remove from the set, and so I decided to share 35 photos in 4 installments. Hope you enjoy the scenery!