Intramuros

Within the Walls

(intra muros)

Less than an hour away from the hustle and bustle of Makati city is a whole different world. Pass Taft Avenue, take Roxas Boulevard and in a few minutes time, you’ll enter a city that seems to be exactly what Jose Rizal described in his famous book, “Noli Me Tangere”. Intramuros is often referred to as the “Walled City”. This is because it is literally enclosed with thick high stonewalls. Last Saturday, July 21, 2007, I, along with my group mates, visited Intramuros. I had been before, several times actually, for basketball games, parties and gatherings but never really to see and tour the city. It was only until last Saturday that I realized that it was such an amazing city. For some reason, everything just seemed so fascinating and enthralling. We got on a horse-driven carriage, or what Filipinos refer to as a “kalesa”, and explored the city. Everything in Intramuros is so well preserved. The long and tight stoned streets, the grand lampposts, the huge stone buildings that were turned into company offices, the massive steel-barred gates, the grand churches, everything just seemed so full of life. My imagination ran wild, there was so much life to everything that it seemed so possible any minute then to see Sisa, the crazy woman in Noli Me Tangere, suddenly run out of San Agustin Church screaming her head off for mercy or to see Juan Crisostomo Ibarra, another character of Noli Me Tangere, walking around the streets in deep thought, as he