Zoobic Safari

Zoobic Safari by Geof

 5 May 2013. Our summer trip to Subic inlcudes the Zoobic Safari. First, we saw a lot of birds and farm animals. Second, we took a train that brought us to the many sections of the zoo. The first stop was a close encounter with tigers. We went in a jeep and saw them up close. The handlers also fed them meat. The next stop, we saw where all the tigers were being held. For the third stop, we saw an Aeta dance ritual. Then we saw an exhibit of many animal skins and hides. Finally, we walked over a bridge overlooking a pond full of crocodiles. Even though it was hot that day, I still had a fun experience there.

Camels

Milk feeding the goats!

Inside the safari jeep

Ouch! The tiger bit my finger!

Tiger - happy with the finger!

An Aeta Dance

Geof and the crocodiles

Geof and Julia strolling at the Zoobic park

Ocean Adventure at Subic

Our Ocean Adventure by Geof

  

4 May 2013. During our trip to Subic, our first destination was Ocean Adventure. First, we went to the Animal Kingdom. There, we learned about the many types of animals, birds, and reptiles. Next, we watched Kenyan acrobats do all types of stunts and acrobatics. Third, we watched the dolphins do stunts and interact with the audience. Finally, we watched a show about sea lions doing tricks with their trainers. As an added bonus, one of the audience fell into the sea lion’s pool. After all that, we went to an aquarium and saw all kinds of sea animals. Finally, we bought 2 stuffed animals at the souvenir shop. It was an amazing experience!

 

Animal Show - Reptiles and Dogs

Kenyan Acrobats - Awesome and Funny!

Dolphins say bye-bye!

Sea Lions Show

Mr. Blowfish!

Souvenir shop

Sketches at the UP Oval

May 12, 2013 we celebrated Mother's Day at the UP Oval honing our hobbies - Geoffrey painted a landscape using watercolor, Apple is engrossed reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo", Julia played with her scooter and exoplored the insects with her magnifying glass. In my case, I tried my hand in pencil sketching using some sceneries at the UP Oval and Lagoon as my subjects.

Geoffrey did some landscape using water color

Apple reads the kindle and Julia explores

Our Bohol Trip: Wonders of Nature by Geof

Geof writes about Bohol's wonders of nature: The Chocolate Hills and the Hinagdanan Cave.


Bohol's Chocolate Hills - one of the world's wonders of nature. One legend tells "the story of two feuding giants who hurled rocks, boulders, and sand at each other. The fighting lasted for days, and exhausted the two giants. In their exhaustion, they forgot about their feud and became friends, but when they left they forgot to clean up the mess they had made during their battle, hence the Chocolate Hills." - Wikipedia

The plaque says that "the unique land form known as the Chocolate Hills of Bohol was formed ages ago by the uplift of coral deposits and the action of rain water and erosion."



To get a good view of the chocolate hills, we had to climb up a very high observation deck. Even though it was tiring, the view was worth it.

Hinagdanan cave is at Panglao island. Geof says "This is my first time being inside a cave. We saw stalactites, stalagmites, and a lot of swallow birds."

Inside the Hinagdanan cave, you will find a painting of snake-like image.

Hinagdanan came from the root word "hagdan" or stairs.

Inside the cave, you will find a lake where you can dip to cool yourself

Our Bohol Trip: The Tarsier, Prony and the Butterflies by Geof

Our Bohol summer trip last April 26-29, 2012 was filled with memories of Bohol's fauna. We booked a one day tour where we saw, touch and interact with Bohol's lovable fauna. Geof and I describe below our experience with these wonderful treasures of Bohol.

Sleepy Tarsier

The Tarsier. It's small but terrible - according to our guide, the Tarsier is a territorial animal. When it is removed from its territory it becomes suicidal and it kills itself by not eating, by not breathing or by banging a soft part of its head. The Tarsier is one of the most popular animals in the Philippines and unique in the world. It's a primate that is as small as your fist. With his big bulging eyes, you will be reminded by Yoda of Star Wars. Its hands are like that of ET.  At the Tarier Conservation Area, we walked through the forest and and your objective is to spot a Tarsier. A guide usually stands beside a Tarsier. Here, we took many pictures of the Tarsier, learned about it’s nature and habitat, and bought souvenirs.



"May the force be with you" 



The Python. Prony is the name of the largest python in the Philippines.  Prony's waistline is 30 inches - and can eat a whole pig weighing 65 kg (pig-in-tummy after just an hr!) or 2 goats. Digestion takes 1 month, after which Prony eats again.  Julia and I were able to touch it’s body, and take pictures of it.

Butterflies.  Our next destination was the butterfly farm. Our tour guide took a picture of Julia and my parents with wings. It was awesome - my Mom was transformed into a butterfly. We  saw many colorful and beautiful butterfly species. A butterfly even landed on Julia's hair and hand.

 

Butterfly on Julia's hand



LOL! A Butterfly lands on Julia's hair

Julia Butterfly

I can fly!

Butterflies in love

For information about affordable Bohol tours, contact Randy Amores at http://affordableboholislatour.com/

A Day at La Mesa Ecopark

La Mesa Ecopark is a 33 hectare public park which was developed by ABS-CBN and MWSS to create public awareness on the protection and preservation of the La Mesa watershed. At La Mesa Ecopark, each member of the family can enjoy varied outdoor activities. La Mesa Ecopark boasts of the following facilities:  (a) Five hectares of picnic spots with grilling facilities underneath a forest of varied trees, (b) Salt Water Swimming Pool –  Salt granules are used instead of chlorine making the water safer and less toxic, (c) Superferry Boating Lagoon, (d) Fishing Lagoon where you can relax while waiting to catch a fish, (e) Mountain Bike Trail  where you can test your biking skills under the shade of trees.  (f)Shell Flower Terraces – Two hectares of flower terraces, (g) Ecomuseum – A museum dedicated to environmental education and biodiversity conservation, (h) Butterfly Trail and Hatchery – An educational walk through the wonderful, colorful world of butterflies, (i) Various pavilions for rent for private functions and overnight camping facilities.

We visited the ecopark with the family of my balikbayan sister, Cosette last July 23, 2011. We were fortunate that time - it was a sunny day, the rain came just before we left. It was a relaxing day for us. We held a mini-picnic of fishballs, chicharon and chips. The kids - Geof, Julia and Anne Marie - enjoyed biking. Joey, who love nature, exhausted his energy taking pictures of flowers, trees and plants. We climbed the stairs to view the La Mesa Dam reservoir - Joey lost a lot of calories - that's why he has to refuel during our lunch at Kanin Club, UP Technohub. The park was too big and we were not able to see the other attractions. But the short encounter with nature made our day.

The KL Bird Park by Geof Oreta

 

 One of the best and educational places we visited at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this summer 2011 was the KL Bird Park. When we went in, we were surprised by the vast number of birds. Because of the diversity of the different species of birds, I took many good pictures with my camera. Along the way, we encountered some egrets and peacocks, The birds were freely walking and flying in the park. We also saw some rare, exotic, and endangered birds. We even saw some eagles!!!  When we -were having a snack, my mom fed some of the birds some kropeck and they enjoyed it. While enjoying the kropeck, one bird started pooping (LOL!). After our snack, we saw the flamingos and an Egyptian bird. Julia played in the playground for a while, and then we went to the bird show. We enjoyed the acts as we saw macaws do the tightrope, ride a bicycle, drive a jeep, and do some Mathematics. Finally, we went to the nursery and saw bird eggs. We also learned different things about birds hatching. My sister’s favourite bird is the Black eagle. Below is the gallery of the pictures that I took:

 

A Good Time at Tagaytay's ZOOs by Geof

View of Taal volcano and lake

We had a nice time in Residence Inn and paradiZOO at Tagaytay City last March 14, 2010. First, we went to Residence Inn, a mini-zoo of wild animals. I was able to interact with a baby tiger. There, I was also able to touch a python. It was AWESOME! We discovered more animals like monkeys, birds, lions, tigers, owls and lots more snakes.

SSSSSSSSSnake!

Bee kingdom

ParadiZOO

We also went to paradiZOO, another attraction managed by the Residence Inn. A shuttle bus brought us there. It was a fifteen minute ride. There, I learned about farm animals, butterflies and bees. We even saw a bee hive! Mommy brought two bottles of honey. There was even a pet cemetery... spooky!!! Then finally before leaving the zoo, I bought a yummy strawberry milkshake which I shared with my sister Julia. We had a very good time. I wish I could go there again!

Blog written by Geof - 31 March 2010

Geof: "Look at bee hive...zzzzzzzzz!"