Galleon Trade News: Galleon Andalucía Arriving Manila 6th October
 |
|
Image courtesy NCCA
|
UPDATE 4th October 2010: The replica Manila Galleon Andalucía will arrive Manila Bay from Shanghai on the morning of 6th October and remain in Manila, wharfed at Manila Port, until 9th October. Galleon Andalucia will set sail for Cebu on 9th October. While in Manila she will be open to the public from 8am to 4pm daily (closed for lunch).
Original Article: The Philippines will host the galleon Andalucía – a replica of a 16th/17th century Manila Galleon. Berthing at Manila Harbor, guests and visitors will be able to board the ship and walk through history. With the exception of two diesel engines (for times when there is no wind) and minimal other modern navigation & communications technology, the galleon Andalucía is sailed in almost exactly the same way as the famed Manila Galleons of four hundred years ago.
In this first UNESCO-endorsed Día del Galeón Festival year, the Philippines will reclaim its rightful place as one of the centers of global trade and cultural transmission.
For 250 years the Manila Galleons, which traveled twice a year between Manila and Acapulco, took with them goods from four continents. Bounties of the Earth such as gold, silver, pearls and chocolate; exquisitely made items such as porcelain, silk and pina were traded in Philippine and Mexican ports. From the typically Filipino Barong Tagalog dress-shirt & the typically intoxicating tuba (coconut wine), to vocabulary like bundok (in English “boondocks”), the Manila Galleons ensured that a little piece of the Philippines has reached every corner of the World.
Like many global trading ships today, the Manila Galleons’ crew were typically up to eighty percent Filipino. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts and Día del Galeón in partnership with the Fundacion Nao Victoria of Spain, have collaborated and will bring a piece of world seafaring history to Philippine shores once more.
The replica galleon Andalucía was built in Punta Umbria, Huelva, Spain, in December 2009. With a crew of 40, she sailed from Seville, Spain, 21st March, crossing the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean to the Shanghai International Expo in China. The galleon Andalucía is 52 meters long. Weighing in at 495 tons, and with a reported capacity for up to 5000 people, she has ten cast-iron cannon – reminiscent of days gone by when a trading ship had to defend herself against pirates (much as ships sailing around the Horn of Africa are inclined to do today).
One of the goals of Día del Galeón Festival is to bring history to light. Philippine national and cultural agencies have pooled their resources together with the Philippine Ports Authority, MARINA, Philippine Coast Guard, and the Philippine Shippers Association to plan the arrival of the galleon Andalucía. The galleon Andalucía will be in Manila from 5th – 9th October; the Día del Galeón Festival runs from 15th September to 9th October; and, the official UNESCO designated Día del Galeón is 8th October.
The Honorary Chairperson of the Día del Galeón Festival is Senator Edgardo J. Angara supported by Cecile Guidote-Alvarez as the Festival’s Director General.
For more information about the Día del Galeón Festival contact:
Ms. Charisse Aquino-Tugade
6F NCCA Building, 633 General Luna St., Intramuros, Manila
Telephone: (632) 527 2192 local 616
Email: diadelgaleon@yahoo.com
Facebook and Twitter: “diadelgaleon”
Links:
The Día del Galeón Festival webpage at NCCA
View Manila Bay now, via webcam