Philippines: Attractions at Eden Nature Park... and getting lost

Date: May 4, 2014

The first half of my day was spent at the SkyCycle and zipline area. Now it was time for lunch.

Forest path Eden Nature park Davao — I crossed the road and walked to the cafe where my lunch coupon was valid

Restaurant Eden Nature park Davao — This is the main restaurant at Eden Nature Park

Buffet Eden Nature Park Davao — They have buffet lunch too, but that costs extra

Cafe Eden Nature park Davao — This is the cafe where I was going to get my ‘lunch’ as included in the ticket

Spaghetti tomato sauce Eden Nature park — A glass of soft drink, a cupcake and a plate of spaghetti with meat sauce, and garlic bread

If you are wondering where the meat in the sauce is… yeah I wondered that too. I only got mushroom bits, and when I asked the server where the beef bits where, he looked at the plate and poured more of the same sauce.

So after a sloppy, lousy spaghetti meal, I began to explore the rest of the park.

Family Village Eden Nature Park Davao — I walked to the Family Village

Philippines monkey Eden Park Davao — More of a mini-zoo really. This the Philippines Monkey.

Cockatoo Eden Nature park Davao — Cockatoo

Peacock Eden Nature park Davao — Peacocks

There were a few more animals and birds but it was all things I had seen at many other zoos or bird parks. Plus the condition the cages were in were pretty poor. So I felt guilty standing there taking photos of these animals.

Way to butterfly park Eden Nature Park Davao — I walked to the Butterfly Garden next

Butterfly garden Davao Philippines — I swapped my wide angle for the 70-200mm

Black white butterfly flower Davao — I don’t know the names of the various species of butterflies…

Butterfly wings Davao Philippines — … because there were so many of them

Black white butterfly Eden Nature park — Still, I just enjoyed taking these close up photos

Black green teal butterfly Davao Philippines — The many wonderful creations of mother nature

Feeding butterfly watermelon Davao Philippines — They sure do love water melon

Butterfly mating Eden Park Davao — Didn’t mean to intrude on their private moment (butterflies mating)

Stick insect Eden Park Davao Philippines — Not a butterfly, but stick insects amaze me!

Fishing village Eden Nature Park Davao — I left the butterfly garden and walked next to the Fishing Village

Fishing village pond Eden Park Davao — You can pay to feed fish here. Boring. So I left.

Eden Nature Deer Park Davao — I walked past the deer park

Philippines deer Eden Davao — The Philippines deer

Eden Nature park trek path — To the right was Eden Nature Park’s offices. I walked down the road on the left.

Eden Nature Park trekking road — It was a downhill trekking path and the bricked path gives way to unpaved stretches

Tana-Tanaman village Eden Nature park — There are attractions along the trekking path. This is the Tana-Tanaman village.

Tana-Tanaman village Eden Nature park Davao — This place was dedicated to showcasing the culture of the indigenous people of Southern Philippines

Eden Nature park viewpoint Davao — This was Lola’s Garden (‘lola’ = grandmother in Filipino)

Eden Nature park hillview Davao — Lot of agriculture in and around Eden Nature Park

Hut Eden Nature park hillview — You can just sit here and enjoy the view

Fruit tree collection Eden Nature park Davao — This is a collection of a variety of fruit trees they grow in the park

Vegetable growing Eden Nature park — Dragonfruit plantation?

Log cabin house Eden Nature park — One of the few log cabins you can rent. Eden Nature Park offers several different types of guest accommodation.

Hanging bridge Eden Nature park Davao Philippines — This is a hanging bridge you pass along the trekking path

Hanging bridge Eden park Davao — And I walked on it (it’s sturdy)

Forest trek Eden Nature park — This stretch has a mini waterfall… but more like a small stream

Waterfall stream Eden Nature park Davao Philippines — Maybe it looks better after heavy rains

Truth be told, from here on I got a bit lost. I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended near a forest area where a few visitors were zip-lining and setting up camp for the night (which Eden provides for). I went around in circles before getting really frustrated and ran towards a staff member whenever I crossed paths with one.

I asked for directions and how to get back because there were no arrows pointing back to the main reception area.

Bizarre flower Eden Park Davao — This was the last photo I took as I didn’t care much for photography anymore. It was nearing 5pm and I didn’t want to get lost in the dark!

After nearly an hour wasted, I ended up back-tracking and walked across the hanging bridge and made it all the way back.

Fern trees Eden Nature park Davao — By the time I made it back to the starting point, other visitors were barely visible

I rushed back out just as the last few cars were leaving Eden Nature Park. At this point, after an hour of getting lost, I didn’t care about visiting Mt. Apo or anything. I just wanted to get back to Davao City!

Downhill road from Eden nature park — I hired a bike taxi which took me all the way back to Toril (cost ₱100 this time)

Road to Toril from Eden Nature park Davao — The amazing part was that for much of the journey downhill, the bike’s engine wasn’t even running!

Here’s a video I took:

All the more reason to question why these bike taxi guys charge ₱100 for a ride that doesn’t consume as much fuel as the ride going up to Eden Nature Park!

Toril market Davao Philippines — I reached Toril market and just then two things happened. 1) The strap of my slippers broke, 2) electricity went!

Toril market trike jam Davao — The citizens just expressed a loud, collective sigh when the power went 🙂

Toril barbershop shoe repair Davao — Conveniently enough I found a shoe repair boy (in front of a barber shop) who stitched the strap all for just ₱10

Jeepney ride Toril Davao evening — I waited by the highway and managed to get a jeepney going to SM Davao

The sun had set by the time I got down at SM Davao. I decided to have an early dinner from here itself before taking another jeepney back to town.

Curacha red crab Davao Philippines — It’s called a Curacha, a type of crab quite common in South Philippines

It cost ₱105 for the curacha with some rice — and it wasn’t worth it. Hardly any meat inside, and by the end of the meal, I still felt hungry. So I went and had two slices of Pizza Hut pizza (₱55). After checking out a few stores, I left SM Davao and hopped on a van taxi going to Davao City.

Once I reached my stop, I walked back to Green Windows Dormitel after picking up some baked goodies for tomorrow’s breakfast. Tomorrow, I would visit Philippines Eagle Center… which is another long drive from the city.

Next post in this series:

Philippines 2014: Philippine Eagle Center, Davao

Philippines 2014: Scuba diving for the first time, at Samal Island (Davao)

Philippines 2014: Japanese tunnel; leaving Davao for Manila

Philippines 2014: Bargain shopping in Manila; Paseo de Santa Rosa & Solenad

Philippines 2014: Corregidor Island tour

Philippines 2014: Manila Chinese Cemetery

Philippines 2014: Pahiyas Festival in Lucban; Kamay Ni Hesus

Previous post(s) in this series:

Philippines 2014: Sky Cycle at Eden Nature Park, Davao

Philippines 2014: Leaving Cebu for Davao; Davao City sights

Philippines 2014: Tumalog Falls; Oslob church, Cuartel