It's Sunday

I spent this afternoon driving to Las Pinas to take another look at the bamboo organ of Las Pinas. 

I might have seen this when I was a kid, but I probably filed the memory under the heading Useless Things We Do as Kids Because Adults Made Us Do Them. Probably the value of the bamboo organ wasn't explained well enough to me. 

This is the church's facade. What amazed me was how well-kept the whole structure is. Even the buildings in front were made to conform with the design of the church.

This was made by Napoleon Abueva. It celebrates the creation of the bamboo organ by Fr. Diego Cera, which was finished in 1824.  Fr. Cera is one cool guy. He wore the habit but was also into engineering, architecture, and other disciplines. 

A  foundation now manages the tour of the church. Kids are in charge of the tour and visitors pay P100 each. They're pretty good, these kids. 

This is the original keys of the old organ. In 1972, the bamboo organ needed restoration. It was first brought to Japan, then to Bonn, Germany. 

The bamboo organ is one of a handful in the world. However, it is the only one that still functions. It still gets played during mass. 

Fr. Cera apparently left behind many stones engraved with his initials. It was only discovered in the 70s, when the plaster was peeled to reveal the stoneworks. 

One thing I learned today is that Las Pinas used to be a salt-making community. The salt beds are gone, taken over by malls and other "modern" structures. 

Las Pinas got its name probably from the pineapples that was heavily traded in the area from Batangas and Laguna. Another theory is that it came from "Las Penas," from the  rocks used to build structures then.  

Honestly, I toyed with the idea of going to Bustos, Bulacan today to look at the dam there. But the bad weather made me change my mind.