Illustrado for a Day

Illustrados for a day wannabees

Villa Tortuga by Lito Perez- I’m sure you’ll get a lot of information about it if you’ll search it on the net but this blog will be helpful if you want to know the exact feeling of the whole trip.

August and September are our family months, we made sure that we set up a family day every week for those months. We thought of a different kind of trip this year. Initially, we thought of going to the beach but my parents hate riding the local airplanes so we tried to think of something else. My brother got an article from the inquirer about VillaTortuga.

Villa Tortuga

It is a vintage house rented and preserved by Lito Perez, a designer, in Taal Heritage Village in Batangas. Reservation is a must so we called a day before. I’d say hmmm not bad for 1500php/person which includes welcome drinks, lunch, heritage tour, and a family photoshoot on Lito Perez designed vintage clothes.

We started our day with a good cup of coffee that we brought at the Basilica de San Martin de Tours in Taal. Cafe Bustelo plus the view of an enormous and mountain-like 256 years old church opened the Henry De Tamble within us and it led us back in time... Batangas Illustrado for a day wannabe? Let’s get it on!

Basilica de San Martin de Tours in Taal, Baangas- We met our tour guide, Kuya Bennet, at the Basilica. He gave us a lot of nice to know facts:

*Taal is a UNESCO heritage site. The local government in Taal made sure that there’s no commercial establishment in the area like SM, fastfood chains etc except for the only convenience store in the area, 711, which strictly followed the rules and regulations of the local government like minimal ads etc. It is also true that there is no night life in Taal.

*Basilica de San Martin de Tours claims to be the biggest Catholic Church in Asia by land area which includes the area outside the church itself. The thought was contested by the Sto Domingo Church.

Basilica Ruins

The Basilica was undergoing renovation when we went there. Our travel guide, Kuya Bennet, also gave a short history on how the elders in Taal debated on how the church’s ceiling should look.

Old Taal- after the Basilica tour, the next part of the Itinerary should be at the Agoncillo House but it was closed for maintenance on the day we had the tour so instead, we went to the Old Taal which is by the Taal lake and overlooking the volcano and Mt Makulot from San Nicholas, Batangas view. On the way to the lake is the ruins of the old basilica that was destroyed by the volcanic eruption in 1600s.

Lunch @ Villa Tortuga

Caysasay Church- This church is very rich in history. The church was made by the Chinese traders and has a hint of Chinese culture is every part of it. One can tell right away that the church was inspired by the Chinese people because of temple-like roof and windows. The history of the church evolves with the image of Virgin Mary caught by a fisherman, Juan Manicad. The history is a bit weird but it made sense. Near the church is a healing well.

Villa Tortuga- After the tour, we headed to Villa Tortuga for lunch. Villa Tortuga is situated by Pansipit River which drains to the Balayan Bay to the South China Sea and Taal Lake. Pansipit River was the super highway in 1500s since most of the Chinese traders use it to sell goods during those times.

lakas trip pix

We had our welcome drinks served by a waiter on his 16^th century costume. After an inspiring and perspiring morning time travel, a fresh mango juice from Villa Tortuga, will really make you say “aaah refreshing!”

Evolution of Cameras

 

 

 Sir Rogee , the person who manage Villa Tortuga, gave us a quick tour of the house then we all went to the photo studio inside Villa Tortuga. Lito Perez had the house air-conditioned. They said that the temperature inside the house is the same during 1600s, maybe that’s why people in the past can withstand wearing long Filipiniana gown and coats. One will surely understand why a reservation is needed once you got inside Villa Tortuga. The house is not that big and the dining area can just probably hold 20 persons at a time. At the photo studio, we changed to Lito Perez’ designed 16^th century Filipiniano clothings then we had our family sepia photo. After the photos were taken, we headed to the dining room, still on our filipiniana clothes. There were 2 helpers serving heirloom recipes.

We had Malunggay Sotanghon soup, Adobo sa dilaw, ensalada, paksiw, tapa ng Taal, pork with pineapple, fish omelette in tomato and the best dessert ever... suman and batirol Yummy!

It was a good experience. You’ll really feel that you are living in the 1600s with the ambiance, the helpers in costumes, us in costume, and the music that adds accent in every factor that I said. The music they played can only be heard from the show at Paco Park. My parents enjoyed every bit of our stay in Villa Tortuga. After the good food, more photos taken at the dining area, and loads of conversation, we headed to the next part of our itinerary the Villavicencio house.

Rizal in Calamba

Villavicencio Compound: They call it as the gift house. It was the gift of Gliceria Villavicencio’s husband to her after the wedding. It is a big colourful house where the new telenovela of Nora Aunor was shot. It is also a bed and breakfast so anyone can stay there for the night. There was a bridge connecting the gift house to the main house but they were not able to preserve it. At the main house, a cold face towel was given to all of us before the film showing about the history of the house and the unrecognized heroine, Gliceria Villavicencio. After the tour, we had another serving of Batirol and Suman for our snacks. For the last bit of our tour, we went to Galleria Taal.

Galleria Taal- I think that this is the most expensive museum in Taal. It features the evolution of camera owned by Manny Inumerable and vintage photos from John Silva Collections. The photo that caught my attention was the last photo of Jose Rizal in Luneta.

Well, it was a good experience. We enjoyed every bit of the trip. I will definitely recommend Villa Tortuga to my friends but I guess it is just good for a one time experience. I can’t think of a reason to go back.

After the Villa Tortuga Taal Tour, we spent the night in Tagaytay and ended our day with a dinner at Leslie’s. We thought that we still had a hangover of being an illustrado the day after so after our breakfast at Bag of Beans, we went to Calamba to see Rizal’s Heritage House. It was a disappointment because the furnitures were just replicas. There is a saying that “There’s nothing to do in Calamba” well, I think I’ll second demotion to that. After seeing Rizal’s Shrine in Calamba, we had lunch at RSM then we met up with some family friends. That's how our Illustrado for a day ended. It is so nice to express how you love being a filipino once in a while.