Faces of Davao 02 - Osmena Park

Osmena Park stands beside Davao City's Hall of Justice, near the City Hall. Tourists - both foreign and local - mostly ignore this neglected parcel of land. I don't recall ever visiting this before. But it's an interesting place where a cheap massage could be had under tree canopies. There's a monument at the center of the park, with some canons surrounding it. Nearby is a children's playground with replicas of life-sized animals: eagle, crocodile, giraffe, monkeys, elephant, rhinoceros, zebra. Museo Dabawenyo is found at the back of this park, upon crossing the street. Entrance to this park is free.

There is an inscription near the entrance that reads:

"Extending 350 meters from this marker was the old Davao settlement. As a community under Datu Bago, the houses were close to the banks of the Davao river bend where now stands Bolton Bridge. The houses were burned down when Oyanguren succeeded in driving away Datu Bago and his followers in heir final battle in June 1848. The new Christian settlers at first established their community in the same area, but floods often inundated the settlement so that in 1861 the authorities ordered the relocation of the community to higher grounds that centered on the present site of the Davao Cathedral. An old relief map of 1862 shows the old Davao settlement."

Isn't that fascinating? Here I thought that the Davao of yesteryears was always dry; that the floods that Davao have been experiencing of late are a result of the changing climate and melting of glaciers elsewhere in the globe. This underscores some of the reasons why history is of considerable importance.

Osmena Park was named after a former President, Sergio Osmena.

This is the Eye in the Sky!



































There are massage therapists at one corner of the park, duly licensed by a governing arm.

TAKING STOCK OF SITE TRAFFIC

Do I really need traffic from Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Forum? To make an objective assessment, I observed two successive 24-hour traffic in “Eye in the Sky” and came up with this: the first 24-hour generated 2 visits from the forum, the next one had “one”. If we do the math, that’s 2 out of 251 visits or 2 out of 333 page reads within a day. What percentage is 2 out of 333? Is that an impressive number in any shape or form? Should I seek out its traffic-generating prowess?

In another documented statistics of referring URLs and sites (date inclusion: last 30 days), most of my traffic came from google.

If I were thinking straight, why would I willingly and “gratuitously promote” my blog in a site that generates such measly referral? I didn’t even invite all my yahoo and Facebook friends to visit my blog – now that would assure a steady number of visitors. I hate lightly veiled threats, but more so in the form of “friendly reminders”. They dumb down sarcasm and inspire arrogance on my part.

Traffic generated from Thorn Tree? Where?