Archaeologist Vito Hernandez has another job to add to his resume: tour guide. Raised in the sciences by his mother (an anthrolopogist) and grandparents (both scientists, with his grandma a National Scientist), it was quite peculiar how Vito grew up fascinated about arts and culture. “I wandered a lot around the city when I was a kid, just walking along stretches of roads. I somehow found it fascinating to see how buildings looked and how people were organized, and tried to make sense of it all,” he related.
Fast forward and those walking tours of his youth would lead to an “advocacy”– he prefers the term over career. Albert, “small-time” compared to the more popular tours of Carlos Celdran and Ivan Man Dy, Vito makes up for what he lacks in theatrics with intelligent conversation, surprising trivia, uncanny humor, and a fervent passion to share his city – warts and all – to any visitor willing to lend an ear and follow his trail.
First stop: Sta. Clara Bridge along Katipunan Avenue and Aurora Boulevard. This spot, which overlooks the Marikina Valley, is the center of the creation of Manila into a land mass about 6,000 years ago. At the time, the body of water which would later be called Manila Bay, was still linked with the Laguna de Bay. As a country situated on an active fault line, years of shifting tectonic plates resulted in the rise of the land mass, which his now Metro Manila.
“This actually explains why the City of Manila is virtually a flood plain. The northern parts of the city, namely Quezon City, are elevated, while Manila was just reclaimed from the sea,” Vito hinted. Allusions to local folklore are then conveyed at the foot of the bridge, where Vito leads his guests to offer eggs to Sta. Clara – a popular tradition for good luck.
Second stop: Mendiola. The tourists then take the LRT2 station for Manila, going down the Legarda station. Here, Vito shares his insights about the country’s educational system, while he leads the march going to the university belt in Mendiola that also signifies links with the political history of the country.
While making quips about how anyone can easily buy a diploma along the busy stretch of Recto Avenue, Vito gets reflective on how these enterprises, namely the bangketa is one perennial problem that doesn’t seem to have any solution.
“Our lawmakers are not educated in the Philippines, so even with sincere efforts, they cannot apply the same set of laws in the country, i.e., the proper usage of sidewalks. Abroad, they may be used as walking spaces for pedestrians, but here, we use them as selling areas for dry goods and other stuff. This has been inculcated from the time our ancestors traveled by boat. The sea didn’t have a sidewalk; it was where you bought stuff or traded with merchants.”
Third stop: San Sebastian Church. Accesible via a short walk from Recto, this church shows astounding architecture both in its facade and interiors.
Fourth stop: National Museum. A jeep or G-Liner bus is then boarded for the National Museum Complex, where the tourists go down for a quick look around the country’s premier museum.
Fifth stop: Intramuros. Tourists cross the road to enter the walled city of Intramuros where Vito discusses the period of Spanish colonization in the Philippines during a brief tour of the area’s landmarks.
The last stop within Intramuros is a lookout point in historic Fort Santiago, where Vito points out another central element that links the whole of Metro Manila: Pasig River.
Vito uses the Pasig River to explain the rationale of informal settlers squatting by the river or even next to the railroad tracks. “If you’re coming from the province and going to the city, you enter an unfamiliar environment so you want to be as close to the port of your entry as much possible. From there, encroachment starts and you have people suddenly building their home there.”
Sixth stop: Malate Church. The group moves to this area which hosts the historical church along with a hub for dining and entertainment. But Vito is quick to relate that back in the day, it was the city’s foremost red light district.
Seventh stop: Ayala Museum. The LRT1 is then boarded at the UN Avenue station, exiting at the Edsa Station where they transfer to the MRT. The destination is Ayala Avenue, where they walk the rest of the way to the Ayala Museum. The museum’s valuable relics are a great way to show the country’s more sophisticated side, versus its decrepit image across the globe.
The group then walks toward Ayala’s Heritage Towers and Heritage Library, and this time, Vito shares his knowledge about the bourgeoisie, as personified by the Ayalas.
Eighth stop: Araneta Center. From the Ayalas, the group moves to Cubao also via MRT. The Araneta Center Complex, as everyone knows, is owned by the Aranetas, which is another lineage of Spanish-Filipino families. “This the first commercial center to be built here, and it depicts the plaza system.
You have everything there as a satellite community, which is essentially how Filipinos have always been organized since the days of the barangay. That’s why I believe that zoning laws will be difficult to implement in the country since the concept of barangay is ingrained in our cultural fabric. Filipinos want everything to be within their community such as their residence, their place of worship, and their gathering venues,” Vito added.
Last stop: Cubao X. Formerly known as the Marikina Shoe Expo, this trade center for footwear has been redeveloped into a charming hub for young local artists that enjoy its bohemian vibe –exactly how Vito explains the backpacking culture.
By the end of the tour, Vito also finds the guests to be more laidback, and not surprisingly, they tend to develop friendships after sharing a very enlightening experience. This is why the day tour can extend into an amusing night-out.
“Carlos usually ends his Intramuros tour with halo-halo. I end mine with another Pinoy icon – a bottle of San Miguel beer.”
As a seasoned traveler, Vito also enjoys the advantage of being learned in the field of geology, archaeology, social sciences, culture, and history, having at some point of his life either studied or worked for companies dealing with these subjects. He refrains from quoting old textbooks which have since been refuted; he relies more on in-depth knowledge gathered from his studies and interactions with scholars who vigilantly watch over the knowledge industry.
Backpacking foreigners, balikbayans, and Filipinos who grew abroad comprise his target market, but for any Manileno looking for another side to their city, the tour would be just as educational and fun. Vito wants Manila to shed its image as a mere stopover among vacationers for trips to Boracay or other places outside the capital. There’s more to see here than the hotels, giant malls, and other tourist traps, he added.
Before the tour, Vito advises his guests to bring drinking water, an extra shirt, cap, their camera, and a photocopy of their passport. He discourages them from bringing cellphones, jewelry and even wallets. He wants to ensure the safety of his guests and prefers not to attract attention to them. Throughout the tour, he also prefers a very a casual tone of conversation, which is how Vito earned a reputation for being a “college-buddy-type” of tour guide.
Vito’s tour is not for anyone, and he is the first one to de-clare this fact. He summed up the experience: “My tour is best conducted among small groups. It’s a whole-day journey or about four to six hours going around Metro Manila, where we travel via the backpack route, meaning we walk and take public transportation. I share historical information, but aside from that, I also talk about the geography of the land, the architecture of certain landmarks, and the rationale of how things work in Manila and why Filipinos are this way and that. It’s the best way to learn about the city.”
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Tags: intelligent conversation, katipunan, laguna de bay, metro manila