Legazpi Port District

After Lignon Hill, we drove towards the Port District to see what it has to offer. We cruised along the Daraga-Legazpi Diversion Road towards the National Highway, and found ourselves back on Penaranda Road where our hotel is. Almost a few minutes after, we saw the old and non-functioning Legazpi PNR Station. Hopefully with the goverment already working on the soon to be operational trains - this station would be bustling again the way it used to be in the past.
The Post District is the commercial part of the city - malls, public market, offices, restaurants, and public terminals - most of it were one-way streets - and it takes some time getting used to which streets to take.

We saw St. Raphael Church, where across it is a Rizal Park with a Rizal Monument. It was just pretty surprising to know that a lot of the towns and places that we saw along this trip - have a Rizal Park almost always all the time!

We got to a rotunda with the Trylon Monument in the center of it. Created in 1965, it is a 16-meter high heroes memorial that commemorates the Puente de San Rafael, where Bicolanos fought with the Americans in 1900.

Near the Trylon Monument is the Headless Monument, located just within the Legaspi Post Office. It was said to be dedicated to the unknown and unsung heroes who fought against the Japanese in the 1940s. The monument is quite unknown for itself - we hardly saw it - it was unkept and was practically almost obliterated with campaign posters.

We then drove towards the Port Area to see a new place in Legazpi, Embarcadero de Legazpi or the Sunwest Wharf. It was actually a mall, that housed several restaurants and clothes shops. Hardly a third of the mall was operational. They were pretty proud of a light tower, but when we got there, there were repairs ongoing so we weren't able to go up. Mount Mayon stood proudly in the background and I finally saw its tip though the rest of its body was covered in clouds.
Beyond was Kapuntukan Hill, or what is also called Sleeping Lion Hill. I had to stretch my imagination to believe that it looked like a sleeping lion.

We then left to see the Guadalupe Shrine. From the Port District, we had to go back to the Trylon Rotunda, and proceed to Rizal Street, where we made a left with the signage of the shrine. It was a grotto with winding steps along the side of the hill - along the way of which were the 14 stations of the cross. A huge image of the Blessed Mary is at the hilltop. Again there was no place to park again, altho at the back of the shrine is a street that leads to the chapel at the top. But the street is very very narrow, can only accomodate one small vehicle at a time. One lesson learned from the trip - the advantage and disadvantages of bringing your own vehicle versus commuting. It was quite easy going from place to place but it was hard for us whenever there was no safe parking to leave the car and no one is willing to stay behind and look after the car.

From the shrine we headed towards the Landco area - we saw the Legazpi Public Terminal, the currently being renovated Ibalong Center for Recreation and two malls, Metro Gaisano and Pacific Mall. Behind the malls, we stopped to have a taste of DJC Halo-Halo. The place was packed with a busload of Taiwanese tourists. Service was not that good, and when we finally got our servings of our halo halo - I thought the ones in Chowking are much better.

It was already almost 530pm and we decided to head back to the hotel. With the heat , time to shower again - and we lounged at the hotel lobby afterwards, talking with the hotel staff about the activities of the 2010 Magayon Festival. I was taken aback when they couldn't even give us an idea of the proceedings or much so, a brochure of the event. So I just went online to search for it, and there I was able to save the information. Tomorrow was going to be Camalig Day with a series of programs and activities.
We had a chit chat with the security guard and asked which place he would recommend for us to have dinner - bicol style. He told us to go to Hawak-Kamay. We just boarded a tricycle and told the driver of our destination - each of us paid P20. It was a small local restaurant with native huts for style. We had pinaputok na tilapia and bicol express, and I must say that the food was just great. It was not that expensive, and we stayed behind to have some beer.
Just the perfect way to end a long tiring day. For tomorrow, we are going to explore a few towns, plus Mayon Volcano itself.