Our Lady of the Pension, Malate

It's said that whatever you plan to do in the Philippines, it will take longer than you expect.

We came up against this one Wednesday morning when checking into Pension Natividad, in Malate, Manila.

The place was pleasant enough, an oasis in the center of a pretty yucky area.

This is the dining hall sans people. But when we arrived to check in, there was Mass going on here! We had to wait until the Mass was over as the entire staff was attending.

This, however, made up for it. I'm very fond of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and there she was, just above the front desk, looking down on us benevolently. Lila (or was it the clerk?) told me that she had been the Patroness of the Philippines but was no longer (Wikipedia says only 1935-1942), as she had been Patroness of "New Spain" since 1754, and is now "Patroness of the Americas" since 1946.

We had a nice stay at Natividad.