Thursday, 20 August 2009
After checking in at Sampaguita, I had a quick breakfast at the lobby diner while waiting to meet some of my flickr friends Rodel, Christy and Mawie, who arrived the day before and who had planned to join me to visit some places in Davao that morning.Our itinerary included a visit to the Malagos Garden Resort and the Philippine Eagle Center, both of which are in Barangay Malagos, some 30 km or about a 45-minute drive from the Poblacion.
Sampaguita Inn ~ Malagos
After some haggling with cab drivers queued outside the hotel, we finally settled for one who agreed to take us to and fro for Php1,200. Not so bad, as we were four in the group anyway.
So off we went to Malagos, that turned out to be an amusing scenic ride across the Davao countryside.
umbrella trikes, a unique form of transport in Davao
T’was about a quarter past 9 a.m. when we reached our first stop, the Garden Resort. At the reception desk, however, we were told that some areas of the facility were closed for renovation, including the butterfly sanctuary and the indigenous birds park, the places we would have wanted to see.
I really find that annoying and quite unfair. I think the management should at least post something like that in their website, so as not to waste people’s time, effort and money.
They still offered a shuttle tour of the place, though, for Php100 per person. I would have wanted to see the adjacent integrated farm which I heard sells a variety of organic products, but my friends didn’t seem to like the idea.
So what next? It was too early for the eagle center, as we were planning to get there before the birds’ feeding time at around 11 a.m.
Anyway, we saw this orchid farm just across the resort. It wasn’t really part of our schedule, but since there was nothing else to do, we decided to give it a shot.
A white-spathed Flamingo Lily (Anthurium andraeanum) with a yellow gold spadix, found at the Puentespina Orchid Farm in Malagos
A hybrid cross-bred from several species of Waling-Waling (Vanda sanderiana), a product of the tissue culture laboratory at the Puentespina Orchid Farm
a not so common variety of violets found at Puentespina
Inside one of the greenhouses at Puentespina
Though it wasn’t what I expected, at least the first part of our journey didn’t turn out so bad after all.
To be continued ...
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