A Visit to Villa Escudero

Street scene in Alabang on the way to Laguna

This post was meant to have been published sometime ago but had to be postponed due to the recent tropical storm Ondoy which made me focus to report on the calamity.

Anyway, prior to Ondoy, which submerged many parts of Metro Manila in flash floods, I was able to take some time off to join in a trip to Laguna, to visit the famed Villa Escudero--the only working plantation/hacienda in the country that is open for tourists.

I would like to thank Mr. Gaspar Vibal of Vibal Publishing Group for sponsoring this trip and making special arrangements so I can shoot inside the Escudero hacienda and mansion which contained some great collections of Philippine/Oriental antiquities collected by the late Don Arsenio Escudero and his wife Dona Rosario Adap Escudero. As a collector of Filipiniana materials myself, the prospect of seeing and photographing this famed collection is truly exciting. Also, I consider this trip as a breather after posting some very bleak articles in the past.

Coming early from Manila, our group arrived at the Villa Escudero around eleven in the morning.The Villa is located at the Laguna (San Pablo City) and Quezon (Tiaong) provinces boundary. The place abounds with acres upon acres of coconut plantations, which gave a very rustic ambiance to the already provincial scenery.

From the main highway, our van traversed a long and narrow dirt road that led to the Villa Escudero itself. Upon entering the hacienda, some gracious hosts wearing traditional baro at saya, accommodated us to the receiving area where we were greeted by some men who serenaded us with original Filipino music. I thought that it was a wonderful way to introduce us to the barrio theme of the Villa. Then some women also wearing traditional dress gave us refreshing ice cold teas to relieve our already parched throats.

Since it was already almost mid-afternoon, we decided to take our lunch in the famed waterfalls dining area. It was a man-made falls that flows directly underneath the tables. I didn't want to soak my shoes so I removed them prior to entering dining area. The water was quite cold to my feet and the floor was slippery and I had to take very careful steps lest I slip and fall and become the object of everyone's sight.

The dining place was filled with tourists, balikbayans, as well as some Manila students on a field trip. We had to wait sometime for some of the tables to be vacated by the previous diners. The food was a banquet style where you pick up a plate, spoon and fork, line up, and serve for yourself any amount that you can eat. No need to worry as there were plenty of food to choose from. There were some lechon manok, a kalderetang baka, seafoods, some fried fishes, fresh steamed vegetables, and so on. The food was overall good but not spectacular. I was just disappointed that they only had paper plates and Jollibee-like plastic spoons and forks. Anyway, I had a hard time cutting my meat to pieces because of the plastic spoons which keep on breaking and bending (Note: next time I visit I'd bring my own steel spoon and fork). What saved the meal was some nice galapong milk dessert that was later served to us.

My favorite food in the banquet was this steamed kangkong with fresh tomatoes and bagoong!

After dining, my companions and I took sometime to photograph ourselves against the backdrop of the lovely waterfalls. Afterwards, we proceeded to tour the hacienda. My companions from Vibal were tasked to photograph the works of the famous early 20th century Filipino sculptor Isabelo Tampingco for the book about him being produced by the Vibal Foundation. The Escudero family has a magnificent collection of Tampingco works.

Meanwhile, I---well, I was assigned to blog about this trip for the website of the Vibal Foundation. Actually, this was the first time that I would be earning some money just to blog. Mr. Gaspar Vibal hired me as a regular writer and photographer for his foundation and this is my first assignment. Well, I better try my best so I can keep this job ;)

Next post: Inside the Escudero Mansion