An Early Evening Walk in the City

(Note this happened on July 21st.)

I was planning to take a long walk to the beach and catch the sunset. But the sky was cloudy. So I thought I'll just stay home and start my article for the latest writing prompt of @JonicaBradley with the topic on 'Success'

But I don't feel like doing any writing. I decided to play a game a bit. Until it got dark.

My wife was too tired to cook for dinner. We agreed that I would just buy our som's favorite. And I now have an excuse to take a walk in the city.

Hello, readers. I have a list of topics that I wanted to write about. And one of those topics is a photoblog series about our city and perhaps our province.

I live in Roxas City, Capiz. Located on the northern part of Panay Island in the Western Visayas of the Philippines.

About Roxas City

It's a quiet place. It's not a well-known city. Even some Filipinos are not even familiar with it. But this city was the birthplace of a President that bears the same name. And a former Senator was also born here... Two of them.

Anyways I'm not here to give a history lesson. On second thought, will be a few history lessons.

In this post, I will share with you a few photos that I took while walking. I realized now that I should have taken more.

The Plaza

Roxas City is an old town. The layout is typical to almost every town in the country. Ruled by the Spaniards for over three hundred years, you will find four common structures near the plaza. A church, the town hall, a school, and a marketplace.

In Roxas City, the old marketplace was located at the back of the Church, but it was burned down decades ago.

I should have taken a shot of the whole view of the plaza. Anyways here are some of the shots that I took.

The Lamp

When the current mayor won the election three years ago. One of the visible projects that his administration did was replacing the power-hog mercury lamps with these circular LED lamps. It's more attractive and saved the city a lot on its electric bills.

And with these lights all around the plaza, it feels safer to take a walk here at night.

The Immaculate Conception Catholic Cathedral.

Perhaps, the oldest structure in the city. This was built by the Spanish friars way back in the 1800s.

On the left of the church is the city hall and on the right is one of the oldest colleges here in the city.

And on my right when I took this photo is another historic structure in the city... The water fountain.

(Sorry, as I have said, I should have taken more photos during my walk. )

The Centennial Bridge

Officially, it's known as the Roxas City Bridge. It's not the only bridge in the city. But it is the oldest bridge in the city that is still in use.

It was built by the Americans in 1910. The bridge stands across the Panay River and is still fully functioning today.

It has gone through numerous superficial repairs over the years. Mostly repainting and the latest one are the lights on and on both sides of the bridges.

Whenever there is an occasion, the lights can be set to change colors like the Christmas Lights.

The structural integrity of the bridge remains strong. An old engineering marvel if you ask me.

To think, it survived the Japanese occupation in the 1940s and several Super Typhoons.

The bridge was designed with the safety of pedestrians in mind. It has walkways on both sides separated by concrete barriers (I don't that it is the proper term)

The decorative tiles were added recently. Honestly speaking, I seldom cross the bridge walking.

The Old Business District

This is the old business district. Even before the pandemic, the city streets are almost empty after dark.

There are several street food vendors at night. Their clientele is those who are going home 'late' from work and living on the outskirts of the city or the neighboring towns. 7 PM here is already late.

This man and the other one across the street are selling crunchy fried chicken.

The Band Stand

I just realized that this bandstand has turned 100 years old last year. This one is set right across the city hall.

It was noted that the bandstand was movable because of how its base was designed.

Read more at: http://www.geocities.ws/roxascity_ph/places1.html

I wanted to take more pictures but the food I'm carrying was getting cold. So I walked briskly home.

And when I got home, I get to enjoy the simple pleasure that I have bought during my walk. Roasted Chicken!

I will take more photos next time and write more about the city and our neighboring towns.

Thanks for eating... I mean reading.

All photos are mine. Taken using Huawei Nova 7 SE.

Edit

I originally wrote 'Roasted Fried Chicken' but it's supposed to be 'Roasted Chcken' only