I crossed the road and walked to the cafe where my lunch coupon was validThis is the main restaurant at Eden Nature ParkThey have buffet lunch too, but that costs extraThis is the cafe where I was going to get my ‘lunch’ as included in the ticketA 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.
I walked to the Family VillageMore of a mini-zoo really. This the Philippines Monkey.CockatooPeacocks
Today I wondered what to check out first. I came to Davao with two main activity highlights: 1) Go sky cycling at Eden Nature Park, 2) Get a shot of Mount Apo. But despite residing at a dormitel situated on Mt. Apo street, the famed mountain — the largest in Philippines — was nowhere near me. Heck, Mount Apo, wasn’t even visible from Davao City! It seems Mount Apo is so huge that most people just go there as part of a multi-day trek.
I couldn’t do that since I only had two more days in Davao so I figured I’ll go check out Eden Nature Park. I followed the instructions on their website on how to get to Eden Nature Park and boarded a jeepney going to Toril (₱20). The landmark given to get down at was a Mercury Drug Store in Toril.
I sat up front beside the driverSaw where the SM Davao mall is located. We were driving down McArthur HighwayIt was a looooong ride to TorilNearly an hour later, I got down at a junction at Toril where you have a Chowking to your leftThis was taken while I was standing on the left side. Across the road is the Mercury Drug Store. From here there were many bike taxis offering to take you to Eden Nature ParkOn Eden Nature Park’s website, they mentioned bike taxis would charge ₱80 for the ride from the junction at Toril to the entrance of the park. But the bike taxis guys here were pushing for ₱200! I told them about ₱80 and they scoffed claiming that was more than a year ago. I bargained as much as I could but eventually settled for ₱150. I couldn’t delay myself anymore.It was a 20 minute bike ride up to the park’s entranceThe good roads for much of the journey gave way to a bad, pot-holed stretchBut the park was close now
It was along this road I saw signs pointing to Mount Apo. Excited about seeing Mt. Apo after my time at Eden Nature Park, I asked the bike taxi driver if he could take me to Mt. Apo National Park so that I could just take a photo of the mountain. But the driver told me it’s still many kilometres further from Eden Nature Park. Continue reading “Philippines: Sky Cycle at Eden Nature Park, Davao” »
