Visiting Via Dolorosa (White Cross) & Hinulugang Taktak

Today is lenten season, most of us are having time with our families to reflect and also to have a vacation because it's holiday.  So today, me and hubby decided to go on a trip to Antipolo City again.  Actually, it's not the first time we visited this city. But I must admit, it is one of my favorite place because first, it's near Metro Manila (travel time less than an hour only!), and second because there are a lot of places and landmarks to visit to.

We wanted to pray to church so we headed straight to the famous "Antipolo Cathedral".  It's Good Friday today so we expected that there were a lot of people (those who went for "Alay-lakad"). We just rode with our Mio Scooter.  Travel from Taguig to Antipolo took us about 45 minutes. 

This is the facade of "Antipolo Cathedral"

The altar inside the church.

We heard about "Via Dolorosa" is just around Antipolo and so we decided to go there too.  Via Dolorosa or also known as White Cross is a sacred place where you can see stations of the cross, and large religious statues.  As expected, they were a lot of people visited the place.  Via Dolorosa is open for public and has no entrance free.  The place is really great, however as you pass through each station of the cross it's quiet hard to walk because the path is getting steeper (because of the uphill and downhill way).  It was really tiring walking and trecking just to pass through each station, but I should tell you that it's worth it!  It is something that you should never miss.  You can pray each station and stop for a moment yo reflect as what we did.  Oh by the way,on the entrance gate, visitors are not allowed to bring food and drinks inside because they wanted to maintain the cleanliness of the place and ofcourse all were asked to keep quiet as much a possible. 

The entrance gate - Via Dolorosa.

Jesus with his diciples.

Stations of the Cross.

At the end of the Stations, there is a large White Cross.  

Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage statue at the tip of the hill. 

Indeed, Via Dolorosa is a nice place for us to go to this Lenten season.  I definitely recommend it!

Just before Via Dolorosa, you can pass by the famous "Hinulugang Taktak".  There's no entrance fee here and parking space is free.  They said that the government of Antipolo made an effort to re-open this place and made it more attractive to visitors.  On the entrace, people are required to log in or register on their logbook and also lighters, cigarettes and bladed weapons are not allowed inside.  Cottages are also free for all and you can bring food and have some picnic inside if you wish to.

Although the falls is inviting, still it is not that clean to swim to.  Swimming is not allowed in the falls, I noticed some bubbles forming below the falls which indicates that its still not that clean.  But I must say the entire place is clean and well maintained, so Kudos to the government of Antipolo for making an effort to relive this place!

So there you go! Our trip to Antipolo on this Lenten Season :)