Tourist Attraction

We have a visitor from HQ with us this week and as part of his Philippines experience he came with us on our usual Saturday trip into Tacloban.

It takes about an hour to drive to the city: 30 minutes to get to the outskirts and then another 30 minutes battling the traffic to get into the city centre. The congestion is not as bad as in some of the other places I have lived (such as Kampala or Nairobi) but the combination of pedestrians, pedicabs, motor tricycles, jeepneys (the local buses) and cars make for slow progress through the narrow streets.

Despite the tedious journey it's good to have a change of scenery after a week spent living and working in the same street. We usually go to a cafe and enjoy good coffee, tasty food and free wi-fi before heading to the supermarket to do the weekly food shopping.

In an effort to show our visitor something of the area we also stopped at what would seem to be one of the few tourist attractions in the area. The MacArthur Landing Site is the place where US troops, led by General MacArthur, landed in October 1944 to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese occupation. It would seem to be a popular place to visit. There were lots of people enjoying the park that has been created there: flying kites, walking along the seafront, eating ice cream, reading the plaques that describe the historic events, admiring the monument.

I imagine this park, which is so close to the sea, was badly damaged during Typhoon Yolanda and the subsequent storm surge that devastated so much of this area. So it is interesting to see that it has already been restored and reopened - a good reminder of the importance of leisure activities in people's recovery from devastating events.

The area is also known as MacArthur Park, so yes, I've had that song going around in my head ever since...