More commonly known as Jaro Plaza, the Graciano Lopez-Jaena Park is a piece of history and culture right at the heart of the Jaro District of Iloilo City. When the Poor Traveler was walking around the place I was flooded with childhood memories. It’s not because I had been there before, it was actually my first time there. It just reminded me of the places that I grew up in. They kinda looked similar but those places are gone now.

Anyway, the first thing that I caught my attention when I stepped into the park’s premises was this structure bearing the “Graciano Lopez Jaena Park” signage. The first thing that entered my head upon seeing that was, “Oh, Lopez-Jaena was from here?” Forgive my insufficient knowledge on Philippine History I honestly had no idea.

The park is surrounded by awesome awesome old buildings starting off with the Jaro Cathedral and its Belfry, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Jaro Palace, and several old Spanish style mansions. Around it, you would find the Jaro Gym, a mini-aviary, a playground for children, a basketball court, and several food stalls. Yep, of course we tried some of their street foods. Mind you, they were really clean.