City walk · Makati · Philippines
José Bonifacio Róxas
a careful 19th-century estate buyer, dry about money, astonished by what his fields became
Read what José Bonifacio Róxas says
I am José Bonifacio Róxas. I paid 52,800 pesos to the Jesuits for a quiet estate called San Pedro de Macati, mostly grass, a river at its back. They tell me a city grew on it, and that before the city there was an airport in the middle of my fields, and that the airport is gone. I would like to know what it was called, and whether anything of it survives. Walk the line of it with me, and bring me back the words.
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Makati · 8 stops · 3.9 km
about 64 min walking, 32 min listening at the stops — going inside is extra · Tap a stop on the map for a preview.
96 min · 3.9 km · 8 stops · medium
Partly shadedBest time to walk: Morning or after 4pm. Salcedo Park's market is Saturday 7am-2pm, and the Yuchengco Museum opens 10AM-6PM.
The walk
Makati's business district is built on one old estate, the Hacienda San Pedro de Macati, and on the runways of a pre-war airport that no longer exists. This walk runs in one line from a modernist church in Bel-Air down through the office towers, parks and malls to the gardens where the airport's control tower still stands. The guide is the man who bought the whole estate from the Jesuits, and he wants to know what became of his land. Along the way: weekend markets, gold from before the Spaniards, the country's second-tallest tower and a chapel in a garden.
Start here
Constellation Street, Bel-Air
Begin outside Saint Andrew the Apostle Church in Bel-Air Village, at the front of the church where the parish sign stands.
DirectionsYour mission
Collect ten words and name the airfield that lies under Makati.
8 stops · 7 clues and 1 photo challenge · a final puzzle
