What is Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar?
"Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar" is a 400-hectare heritage park, owned by Jose "Gerry" Acuzar (hence the name Acuzar), located in Bagac, Bataan(Central Luzon of the Philippines) that has nearly 30 Spanish-colonial houses, and more houses are being built.
What to see inside "Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar"?
1. Casas or Houses.Some casas are being rented privately,and the price will starts from Php 20,000.00
Above is Casa Ladrillo. As the name suggests, the house is made out of bricks(ladrillo).
Above is Casa Hagonoy. This is one of the first houses that is open for the tour.
2. Hotels and Restaurants. The Heritage park has hotels too and one of them is Hotel De Oriente. Hotel De Oriente is based on the the hotel in Binondo that is said to be the first premier hotel of the country and also the second building here in the Philippines that has telephone. And the hote was built in 2013.
3. Statues. Statues that would make us connect with wayback our younger years-maybe 20-50 years ago.T
Above is Lola Basyang(Grandma Basyang), one of the greatest story teller of all time. The grandma that introduced stories and learn from it.
Above is statue of "palosebo". This is one of the Filipino games that aims to climb up to the top and get a "wrapped" price. Sounds easy? There is a catch on this, the bamboo pole is rubbed with oil/grease making the pole to be slippery.
What else is see and check in Las Casa Filipinas de Acuzar?
1. La Playa and Batis. La Playa is the beach front and the Batis is the heritage park's version of swimming pool.
6. Paseo de Escolta. This is the place where souvenir shops can be seen from a photo studio to food shops.
Photographia de Escolta. This is where you can have your photos taken with your complete colonial regalia with that sepia color.
Panderia is the place where you buy baked products.
7. La Tiendecitias. This is the store where you can buy shirts, and hats(very advisable when you take the walk in tour) and other mementos.
They also have church inside the Heritage park and grassy park.
How did we get there?
We travelled from Ilocos Sur(Northern Philippines) on a bus that we hired and it take us more than 8 hours.
How much did we spend for the tour?
The Heritage Day Tour is Php 999. The amount includes water/welcome drink and cold towel. At first, I was very reluctant with the amount, but when the tour was done, it was worth it and thanks to Keisha, our lovely, witty and with great sense of humor tour guide.
There is another way to go around the heritage park, by water. They have this "estero", a venice like tour.
You can also ride the jeep or tram, and definitely FREE!
Summary of the Heritage Day Tour.
The tour is more than what I expect. Seeing those old casas is just like an "appetizer". Each casas has their own story(one gave me ghost bumps), it is like going back to school and learn about history again, this time the "teacher" is not boring. And I am planning to go back there and maybe check into their hotel. ;)
