Avilon adventure

since august is ghost month for chinese and of course, rainy season, konti lang weddings. breather before the september to february wedding season (ewan ko ba pati last year dami kami september eh) so i made it a point to do something nice this weekend. a few weeks ago, knowing that i'll be free this weekend, i asked jojie to reserve aug 26 and 27, isip ko out of town kami. i asked, "hon, may gagawin ka ba sa 26 and 27? reserve mo ha." he replied, "actually, sasabihin ko nga na i-reserve mo kasi binyag ng anak ni paul." nye! since paul was his best man and i know he seldom sees his friends from la salle, wala ako choice but for us to go there (masayang kasama yung mga friends ni jojie sa la salle kaya okay din naman for me to go talaga).

since aug 26 would be taken na, i had to be contented with having a day thing instead of an overnight trip. i wanted to plan our itinerary pero since sunday at wala akong magandang play na makita, i couldn't plan another cultural day (the last cultural day i planned went bust because my back ached so much di ba and i had to go to the doctor instead. sobrang tuwa niya kasi inamin na rin niya na ayaw niyang pumunta ng national museum! hahaha!) dahil dun, tinamad na akong mag-plan so i told him to plan instead. syempre aug 26 na wala pa rin siyang plan... andun pa rin lang kami sa "sa morning punta tayo sa starbucks harbor square for breakfast..." tapos wala na siyang maisip na kasunod. haaaay! in desperation, dahil siguro alam niyang maainis na ako, he suggested going to avilon zoo. tagal ko na siyang inaaya dito pero sabi niya ang layo daw.... actually ang sinabi niya eh... "HON! alam mo ba kung gaano kalayo ang montalban?!?" hahaha! eh since desperado na siya for an activity, avilon na kami bigla! mwehehe!

our day started with brunch at pancake house. pero since super late na nun kasi super tanghali na kami gumising, lunch na yun. hehe!

there are three ways to go to avilon --- marikina route, sandiganbayan route, and payatas route. we chose the sandiganbayan route kasi pinakamalapit sa amin. armed with the directions from the zoo's website (which i must say was very detailed), we journeyd the 30 kilometers to avilon zoo. aba! malayo nga yun ah. para na rin akong pumunta ng alabang! :)

we got there around 130pm. we were greeted by a tour guide who explained that the 7.5 hectare Avilon ("Land of the Birds") Zoo housed more than 3000 animals belonging to more than 500 species. we were offered the service of a tour guide but since we enjoy exploring different places on our own, we declined. at least ako yun yung reason. yung asawa ko namahalan sa P350.00 na fee nung tour guide! mwehehehe!

after paying the P208.00/person entrance at the gate, we went inside. we asked the staff if there were maps available or if there were signs along the way, wala daw kasi hindi pa complete yung facilities ng zoo and many areas are still under construction. not to be deterred, we started walking. there were two roads. since the right road had a "this way to parking" sign, we chose to go to the left road. after 30 meters, dead end na at gate na uli! hahaha! nagpanic ako! akala ko kelangan namin ng tour guide! si jojie naman, "ha? yun na ung 7 heactares?" yun pala, the zoo proper was located in the right side. :)

there were amazing animals in avilon. since the cages were designed to look lilke their natural habitat, ang ganda talaga! super kami nag-enjoy sa cats (since jojie adores wild cats.. memorized niya kung ano kaibahan ng lion sa tiger sa cheetah sa cougar sa lynx sa leopard sa juagar...), sa arapaima (you get to feed them by throwing chicken heads to the water), and sa reptiles (which i hate pero syempre gusto rin ng asawa ko!). syempre since land of birds ang avilon, we also enjoyed seeing the different species of bird they have. we particularly liked the american white breasted eagle and the owl (hehe! hindi ko alam kung anong klaseng owl). these two birds are not caged and are just with a zookeeper. they are perched on guests' shoulders for photo ops. :) syempre si jojie dahil mahilig din sa ibon go agad dun sa eagle. ako hindi kinaya at sa owl lang ako pumayag. :) ang super natuwa kami dito kasi nung nakikita namin ung ibang zoo visitors dun sa area na yun, puro pictures lang with the owl and the eagle yung ginagawa nila. when it was our turn, the zookeeper let go of the eagle and it flew about 15 meters away. he gave jojie a thick rubber glove to wear then he signaled the bird to come back. it swooped down to us and landed on jojie's arms! ang galing talaga! :)

avilon, according to the guides, can be explored in a couple of hours. pero kami inabot ng closing time!!! we really enjoyed taking pictures and just looking at the animals. :) jojie and i were saying na super gaganda ang avilon pag natapos na at na-complete na nila yung collection nila (giraffes, elephants, and other animals are scheduled to arrive soon when their cages are ready). we left the zoo at 5pm (sinasara na yung mga cages at meal time na nung mga cats kaya wala na kami choice but to go).

we traveled another 28 miles and had dinner at cookbook kitchen, a sort of secret restaurant (secret kasi wala sa main road at mejo hahanapin mo talaga) i found the other day while surfing for something to do in manila (visit http://anton.blogs.com/awesome/2006/07/cookbook_kitche_1.html). ang sarap ng food! super yuuuummm talaga! we ordered exactly what anton did (pork steak with honey mustard sauce and parmesan-crusted white fish) and YUM!!! the owners were very nice pa. can't wait to go there again. after dinner, jojie and i talked about our day (super kami natuwa talaga) and headed home. and although i know the coming weeks will be really busy, i'll have this weekend to go back to, at least until the next weekend na walang wedding.

:)

Pictures at http://community.webshots.com/user/jojieging2