Ride Fun with Kalesa

July 29, 2010 · Posted in Philippine Traditions

A kalesa or calesa is Philippines traditional mode of transportation. It is not just an ordinary horse back riding because there is a calash (carriage) attached at the back of the horse. On that way, it can accommodate few more passengers in just a single ride. The word “calesa” originally predates the Spanish conquest and descends ultimately from an Old Church Slavonic word meaning “wheels”.

In 18th century, the Spaniards was the one who first introduced this mode of transportation here in the Philippines. Then, it was being used as transportation for the ilustrados or the upper class Filipinos. A kalesa is something looks like an inclined cart with two round wheels on each side and two rows of seats that can accommodate at least four persons. The driver sits on a block of wood located at the front of the cart near the horse. They commonly called it as “Cochero” or “Kutsero”.

Kalesa is now rarely used as mode of transportation due to modern counterpart technologies such as private cars, motorcycles, sidecar motorcycles, jeepneys, trucks, and bicycles. Although, they can be seen in some places of the Philippines, kalesa’s some century-old examples are still preserved in areas of Vigan and Laoag. Some of them can also be found in Intramuros and Binondo in the city of Manila, Iligan City, and Pasil area of Cebu.

Comments

3 Responses to “Ride Fun with Kalesa”

Garrick Fitzerald on July 30th, 2010 4:52 am

I really love horse back riding but putting a carriage at the back of the horse is a different story… I wanna try it someday.
Mark Maranga on August 3rd, 2010 4:35 pm

Hi, I also write about Travel in the Philippines. Can we exchange links?
Biyaheng Pinoy on August 27th, 2010 3:39 pm

I only experienced riding a kalesa when I was in Vigan.