Lakbay Lakaran: An interesting view of the treasures of Quiapo

Yes Quiapo is not the place where you just buy bootleg DVD of movies and or pirated stuff. Despite the growing number of Muslims in the area and degree of deterioration. One can always glimpse its glorious past. Often times hidden by the dark reality of life and greed of people.

My journey of course starts at the most famous place - the Quiapo Church.

The meeting place is at the Casa Boix located on Bautista Street. You cannot miss the place because it stands out among the buildings on the Streets.

Bahay Nakpil-Bautista

The group started gravitating to Hidalgo street and its many interesting houses.

We go to to the Chapel of the Holy Face and see the things inside.

Ms. Tess Obusan

I don't remember this much but this is the tomb of the founder of this nunnery. She is also the woman behind a phenomenon of the rose petals with the image of Jesus and Mary.

Then we went to the other Church of Quiapo - the San Sebastian Church.

Postcards are also sold at San Sebastian Church. This is the only Church that has stampitas of St. Ezekiel Moreno.

Then there is Sta. Rita college beside. This is where I took a bunch of the photos. I could say its an exclusive area to visit. The nuns were very accommodating and kind.

The group was led by the KKB (or Kapitbahayan sa Kalye Bautista) a non profit organization that promotes the history and faith of Quiapo inspired by Hermano Puli.

This congregation has their own museum. I am not sure if its open to the public but this is the first time I learned of such a museum run by nuns. It contains religious images, stamps, things that was owned by the nuns, pictures and others.

The next stop is the St. John of God.

This dog approaches me first among the group. 

At St. John of God the brothers were eager to share the history of Quiapo, religion and even of Hermano Puli. They have interesting relics of their brothers and a well research on the life of Hermano Puli and even art work commissioned. Fr. Luke is one guy who knows his history well.

Then there is this private chapel that I always pass by. It looks boring outside but quite a surprise inside. It has lots of interesting religious images. I was not aware of its age. The chapel is dedicated to San Roque and was built in the 30s.

Walking around we see the other interesting houses of Quiapo. I feel that soon all of this will be lost.

One treasure of Quiapo is the Ocampo Pagoda. It's located on a bigger area called the Ocampo compound. Its now hard to pin point this and that because of the chaos on how houses were made within this once Japanese garden area of Quiapo. Must have been a wonderful place.

A penguin at the one the remaining gates of the Ocampo compound.

Sculptures are scattered at the whole of the compound. Most of them are of Saints and maybe that is one reason they were not destroyed. Such images survived the war but maybe not urbanization.

A sculpture depicting the Ocampo family.

Then we went to another great house in Quiapo now turned into a nice museum.

Wow that was a lot. There was also a tour of the Golden Mosque but I was too tired since the sun was blazing hot that day. I headed back to Casa Boix and had lunch. I was so thirsty that I kept dinking water.

The wonderful people of KKB.