Believe

I have always wanted to include Pila, Laguna, since my very first Laguna Loop tour.  However, going to Pila meant skipping Magdalena, Majayjay, Liliw and Nagcarlan which have some of the best churches in the province, because Pila is just a town away from Pagsanjan which is the turning point to three alternative routes.  Unless you have more than a day to spare, by all means do them all.


So the trip to Pagsanjan Falls gave me the opportunity to at last include Pila in the itinerary because we would no longer go to most of the churches we've covered before.  After all, how can I pass up the chance to see what is widely known to be a national heritage site because of the ancestral houses that can be seen there, "in the league" of Vigan, Ilocos Sur in my mind.


However, plans changed because we miscalculated the time we needed to spend in Pagsanjan and because SRP also wanted to see Majayjay Church again, we chose to go to San Pablo instead of Pila, the former having a lake view as an added attraction.

And it was a huge disappointment!  I remember passing by San Pablo Church at night and I thought it was bigger and grander, which was probably because of the lighting.  For me, it is ordinary and luckluster, at least compared to the rest of the Laguna churches.

So even if we knew that it would be a long way to Pila, we decided to skip the lake and immediately leave San Pablo.  Good thing that the roads are well-paved with relaxing views and ample markers to guide newbies like us.

Finally, the town of Pila.  Above is the San Antonio de Padua Parish Church.  Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed.  Although it is no doubt beautiful, I am not liking the fact that the belfry is different, in terms of the materials it is made of, from the frontispiece.  I know for a fact that almost all of the churches have undergone renovations due to damage from natural and man-made disasters, but at least stay true to the original form.

Although I wasn't able to completely check out the interior, it looked well maintained, although small, and I am loving the chandeliers.

My favorite ancestral home among the many that surround the town plaza...

like this one...

and this one.

Some of the things that I wanted to see were the old houses converted into cafes and restaurants as I have read in the different blogs about the place.  Unfortunately, the two that we checked out, including the one above, were again a disappointment.

They are, at best, cariderias.  But since it was already around 6pm, we decided to settle with this one because it was the only one with customers that time, an indication of sort that it's better than the other one across the street.  We ordered pancit canton.  40 minutes passed and no sign of our pancit.  We were already going to cancel the order when it finally arrived on our table...

and it was so worth it!  For only Php 90.00, this dish can be shared by three to four persons.  Absolutely delish and very generous with the ingredients.  SRP wanted to order another to go, but we could so not afford to wait another 40 minutes.  Apparently, the pancit they sell is outsourced from somewhere and not cooked in-house.

To sum, Pila is still a must see if you happen to be within the area.  The well-maintained houses surround the town plaza which give one a glimpse into the alta sociedad of olden Philippines.  Although I was hoping that the people, locals and tourists alike, grow some respect and decency in their bodies to keep the place clean.  There were trash everywhere and it was such an eyesore.


Pila is nothing like Vigan, Ilocos Sur, as I have wrongly expected.  Pagsanjan has as much ancestral houses, just not as strategically laid out as in Pila.  If I have to see a heritage site, I need not to look elsewhere, Intramuros is way better.


Do not get me wrong, Pila is beautiful, sans the garbage situation, but not as I was made to believe by some of the blogs I read.  This time, to see is to truly believe.