Daily Archives: 13 October, 2002

Church of Pope St. Gregory the Great (Majayjay, Laguna)

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Before departing for Manila, we passed by the Majayjay town center to visit the town’s imposing Spanish-era Church of Pope St. Gregory the Great.  A wedding was in progress when we arrived.  Named after the town’s patron saint (whose feast is held on 12 March), the church suffered successive destruction by fires (1576, 1606, 1660 and 1711) before it was strengthened and enlarged, to its massive and present form, from 1711 to 1734 by Fr. Jose de Puertollano through the forced labor of its 4,000 townspeople.

Church of Pope St. Gregory the Great

The church was again repaired in 1839, 1842 and 1848, because of typhoon damage, and further improved in 1892 when its roof was replaced with galvanized iron by Fr. Gregorio Platero.   During the Philippine-American War, the church became the headquarters of American forces.  The church was repaired again in 1912.

The church interior

This unusually tall, stone and brick colonial Baroque church, with its commanding view of the town and Laguna de Bay, has 6-m. thick adobe walls covered with vines and moss, vaulted halls and enormous and unusual 16.5-m. high solid buttresses supporting a bell tower (with 5 century-old bells) at the rear.  Of equally huge proportions, the tower is topped by a pointed roof and is accessed by concrete steps that also lead to a catwalk above the ceiling (called langit-langitan) that, in turn, leads to the crossing above the transept. The 60-m. long and 17-m. wide nave has balconies on both sides, 3 impressive altars, antique relief statues of saints, azulejo-tiled floor and 5 elaborate retablos (altar backdrops) constructed on the wide pilasters supporting the lateral bays of the capiz window-lined transept.  The adjacent convent, one of the earliest surviving examples in the country, houses a small museum of old parish documents and ecclesiastical silver.  It was slightly defaced when part of it was converted into St. Gregory Academy (later to be renamed Liceo de Majayjay). 

After our church visit, we again passed by Mr. Flory Rosales’ home to thank him personally for the assistance he gave us.  The ladies and Robert also went to the nearby market to buy the fruit of the month of October – lanzones.  As I would say, “Never leave Majayjay without it!” (a pun of the American Express commercial).  I stayed behind to do some people-watching.  One thing noticeable is the unusual number of horse-riding men I saw passing me by.  Majayjay certainly is not your one-horse town.   After a while, my companions returned, all toting 5 kgs. each (at PhP37 per kilo) of the luscious fruit.  These, plus the extra pasalubong of lanzones Mr. Rosales gave us, made us look more like visiting fruit dealers.  Thus fully laden, we all happily went our way back to Manila.

Taytay Falls (Majayjay, Laguna)

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Rain, rain go away. Come again another day.”  So moaned this bored and grounded travel writer who was itching to get out of town again.  It was supposed to be the advent of the dreaded El Niño phenomenon again and, usually, mornings always promise to be a bright, sunny day.  However, expectations always turn to gloom as dark clouds always appear in the horizon by afternoon, bursting into rain hours later.  What the heck! I will go get out, rain or shine (shine I hope).

 Lala, the author, Myrna, Ning and Menchie

I did find people with the same mind set from Jesu-Mariae School (JMS), my son Jandy’s school.  Joining me were Mr. Robert Castañeda, Ms. Elvira “Lala” Mañanita, Ms. Myrna Samson, Ms. Leonila “Ning” Boncayao and Ms. Menchie Fortunado.  We decided to do some overnight camping at Taytay Falls in Brgy. Taytay, Majayjay in Laguna.  We all left JMS, after lunch (1:30 PM) on 12 October, a Saturday.  The trip to Majayjay was to take all of 120 kms.. Aside from my passengers, my Mitsubishi Adventure was laden with tents, backpacks, sleeping bags and provisions.  The afternoon skies were again overcast. We traveled via the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) all the way to Calamba City, then on to the resort town of Los Baños, Bay (the old Laguna capital), Calauan, Victoria, Pila and Sta. Cruz (the provincial capital), turning right at the junction on to a road leading to Nagcarlan, Liliw and finally Majayjay.  There were glimmers of hope as the sun shone most of the way.

Settling in our tents

The last leg was particularly winding but altogether  scenic; passing beautiful mountain scenery (1,470-m. high Mt. Cristobal and 2,177-m. high Mt. Banahaw), lanzones trees laden with ripe and read-to-harvest fruit, and clear, swift flowing rivers with bathing children and washing mothers.  It was truly a scene for a Fernando Amorsolo genre painting. We arrived at Majayjay’s poblacion by 5 PM with hopes dashed as it began to rain. We were truly in for a “wet” reception. We first paid a visit to the home of Mr. Florencio “Flory” Rosales, secretary of town councilor Rey Cube (referred to us by Mr. Manuel “Noli” Canlas, board member of JMS).  Mr. Rosales was more than kind enough to personally guide us towards the staging area for the trek to Taytay Falls, waiving the entrance fee of PhP20 per person.  He also assigned guides to assist us.  From hereon we were on our own.

It was already getting dark when we arrived at the staging area.  Normally the hike to the falls takes just 10mins..  However, this was a different story as we would be trekking in the pitch-black darkness of a rainy, eerie and moonless night.  Luckily, we had flashlights and our guides.  The narrow, two-foot wide concrete path was sandwiched between a mountain spring-fed canal running alongside the mountain on the left and deep, treacherous ravines on the right. G.I. pipe railings kept us on the safe side.  We arrived at the campsite after what seemed an eternity.

Taytay Falls

Our first face-to-face encounter with the falls would have to wait for tomorrow due to darkness but the sound of its onrushing waters would be a constant reminder of its presence.  For the time being, we had other concerns to think about. Beautiful places such as these are not well-kept secrets and the place was teeming with weekend campers from the town and Manila.  We were quite a sorry sight, drenched from head to foot by the rain, muddied, hungry and with no proper place to pitch a tent.  While our kusineras Myrna and Ning hastily prepared our dinner of fried liempo (it would have been barbecued if not for someone forgetting the grille – me), corned beef and steamed rice over my portable stove, Robert and I groped in dark for a less than suitable place (our selected site was rocky) to pitch 3 of our tents.  Once settled in, we attacked, with gusto, our prepared dinner and hit the sack early for a well-deserved but not so fitful sleep.

View of campsite from atop the falls

I woke up very early in the morning with somewhat revived spirits and a sore back (“Pwedeng pang sungka ang likod ko”).  The others soon followed, all in a similar state of mind and body.  As the early morning sun crept in, the beauty of the place slowly emerged.   No rain.  Our campsite was located beside a moderately flowing river whose icy-cold, crystal-clear waters came from the beautiful 30-ft. high waterfall located about 100 m.  away.  Everyone was excited to sample its inviting waters.  But first, my early morning coffee fix and breakfast!  As soon as it was prepared by our ever dependable kusineras, we all transferred all our stuff: tents, backpacks and prepared breakfast, to a more suitable site right beside the falls. Who cares about breakfast in bed when you can’t have it beside a beautiful waterfall!   That done, we soon settled down to a filling repast similar to what we had last night.

Our excitement to have our first dip at the falls soon turned to cowardice as we dipped our toes in the icy-cold waters of the natural pool.  Brrrr!  What the heck!  I bravely dove in and endured the shivering and the sound of my teeth clattering as my body slowly, but surely, adjusted to the temperature. After much goading, the others (Myrna, Ning, Menchit and Lala in that order of bravery) soon followed my lead.   Robert and I also did some exploring of our own by clambering up a well-defined but muddy trail to the top of the falls. It was even more beautiful here (and less crowded).  From here, we had a bird’s eye view of the campsite (our companions look like ants below), creek and the surrounding verdant rainforest.  I could stay here forever.   Back at the campsite and terra firma, we soon had our fill of the falls and its verdant surroundings, packed our tents, backpacks and other gear and soon made our way back to the staging area and our car.