Tuesday, August 05, 2008 Local Walking Tours By Paulita Roa Past Speaks
SIX years ago, I saw that there was a big need to introduce local heritage tourism through a walking tour around the oldest section of Cagayan de Oro. This led me to write a simple walking tour guide that will take visitors to places steeped with local history like the Gaston Park, the old water tower, St. Agustine Cathedral, the Duaw Park by the river, Ysalina bridge, the City Executive House and the Oro Doctors and Maternity Hospital, the site of the historic Club Popular.
With the exception of the water tower, all the old buildings in this area that date back to the Spanish colonial period were either destroyed by fire or were bombed during the Second World War. But even if the buildings are gone, the sites they once stood are considered marked heritage locations through their associations with important past events and personalities. So I made a basic walking tour guide in such a way that even with the absence of the physical structures of the past, our local history will still be interesting and appreciated by tourists.
The response to the walking tour I made was overwhelming and it was the first of such kind conducted in the city in year 2002. I later wrote an expanded version of it by drawing data from my ever-growing resource base. The resource base is a varied mixture of past events, personalities, folk memories, local literature, legends, songs, physical relics and of course, the places that they are symbolically associated with. All these can be packaged into one great walking tour.
Think Carlos Celdran and his classic Intramurous walking tour where he is dressed as an 18th century Tagalog gentleman complete with the barong, sapatillos and a black top hat. Then there is Ivan Dy who tours you around Manila's exotic Chinatown. He is in his usual getup of denims and rubber shoes but with a twist - he puts on a Chinese silk cap and his hair is gathered into a braided ponytail. Both of them made full use of their resource bases that turned their walking tours to big hits. They are now considered the icons of the heritage tourism industry in this country.
A walking tour must have a full stamp of authenticity or truth to it. All the given data must be double-checked for its authenticity is crucial in heritage sites. And this includes historic trivia. I say this for I could not understand why some tourist guides insist that during the 1962 inauguration of the Ramon Magsaysay monument in Divisoria, the city's special guest was Golda Meir, the former Prime Minister of Israel. I wonder where they got their information. Madame Meir came to Cagayan de Oro in 1961 for an observation tour. It was my late father, Councilor Pio I. Roa who brought her around the city and some outlying barrios for three days. I recalled how amused he was when she thought that the cemetery was located in the middle of the city. She mistook the concrete fences of the City Central School with the names of donors written in them for tombstones! By the way, the special guests for that 1962 inauguration were the famous Magsaysay boys -- Senators Raul Manglapus and Manuel Manahan. I know this for I was present in the inaugural rites and program.
One of the highlights of a walking tour is a visit to a local craft store or a shop that sells local delicacies. I sorely missed Ah Fat Bakery whose crusty pan de sal was the sole reason why many go out at dawn to buy it. Breakfast was not complete without Ah Fat's signature pan de sal. The secret why their bread was consistently good was their old oven that was made of bricks and salt. Ah Fat was the city's oldest bakery and had other popular baked goodies with names like dalagang bukid, bagong bayan, pancho and the dinigmok ni Ah Fat. The place where the bakery once stood is now a pile of rubble. It would have been a great stopover for my Divisoria walking tour.
For me, writing and conducting walking heritage tours is a joy and a privilege for I am presenting Cagayan de Oro's history and culture to tourists and locals alike. It is not what you know that matters, but how you let them know what you know - that is important! A rich resource base, a good style presentation, creativeness and enthusiasm are the keys to success.
Finally, a good walking tour can help create public awareness on the importance of our heritage sites and how to conserve them properly. It is also a commercial activity that can help generate income for the local residents. Most of all, if handled well, it can be a rich asset to local tourism whose market are the numerous educational tour groups that come to the city monthly.
On September 1, 2008, I will be giving away for free copies of the following guided tours that I wrote:
- a walking tour of the City's heritage sites
- the Divisoria walking tour
- the Cagayan de Oro river tour
- a local running tour
This will be perfect for teachers, students and aficionados of local history.
Any interested person or group can get copies of these tours at the office of the Cagayan de Oro Historical and Cultural Commission, 4th floor, City Hall annex building.
