Tarlac City: Stopping by the Capitol Grounds

10 Day 10K Challenge: Tarlac City, TARLAC

Date: MAY 19, 2014

Tourist spots? Landmarks? Unfortunately, Tarlac City is not known for those – instead, the city is known to be the stopover capital of North Luzon. Today, as my northern journey continues, I will on a short stopover at this city and my primary objective is to visit their provincial capitol building which can also be found printed at the back of old P500 bills.

Maria Cristina Park, just outside the capitol building

DAY 3

Francisco Makabulos monument

The journey from Capas public market to Tarlac City took me 45 minutes, and the moment I arrived at the city, I headed straight to the street leading to the provincial capitol building. However, because of the heat, I decided to go for a quick stop and ordered a cup of chocolate smoothie at a local food stall outside the capitol.

It felt refreshing as I sip the cold chocolate shake, eliminating the heat that was tormenting me that time. I continued walking until I reached the provincial capitol complex. The building’s design was simple – just a plain yellow structure with a handful of columns built in its facade, and it has a small open area in front where vehicles were parked.

Maria Cristina Park can be found right in front of the capitol building – and it has an open grassland complete with trees and bleachers. Youth groups practicing for something and many skaters doing exhibitions were just a few examples of what I encountered at the park that day. Also, located at the far end side of the park, was a monument dedicated to Francisco Makabulos - known to be the liberator of Tarlac.

After walking around the capitol grounds, I decided to leave the city of Tarlac and continue my journey. From Maria Cristina Park, I had to take a jeepney that would pass by the highway, and from there, wait for ordinary buses bound to the next destination on my list – the province of Pangasinan.

Tarlac Provincial Capitol

This post is part of my 10 Day 10K Challenge that took place between May 17-26, 2014. Read the first entry here. Read the post about the previous destination here. Proceed to the next destination here.