TraveLore: 2014 Summer, Preluded!

Summer’s already here. Everybody’s gearing up now for their summer escapades, booking trips, arranging reservations, and getting ready for their wow summer body. Most of the people are already looking forward for that long road trip to some famous resorts, getting excited about island hopping and under the water exploration.

However, when you’re not yet up to some expensive and faraway summer fun due to work schedules, financial issue, and other concerns, there are still lots of options to enjoy the season. Only last week we have found a spot that is affordable and yet have lots to offer to get you relieved from the scorching heat– the La Mesa Eco Park!

Last Saturday, some of us in the choir group planned to go to Wawa in Montalban for some nature tripping and river experience. On the last minute, the plan was changed to Eco Park since it’s nearer and more accessible to those who will follow in the afternoon.

I came late (what’s new) because I wasn’t able to set my alarm clock. La Mesa Eco Park is located at North Fairview, Quezon City. It has entrance fee of PHP50 for non-residents of QC and PHP40 for the QC residents (don’t forget to bring your I.D for proof of residency). I arrived there around 11AM and found them on topmost parts of the stairs which I was forced to climb! And right when I got there, we started going down. .hohoho! There were just the six of us that day. With our bags of chips, foods, and breads we started for the newly installed pool complex. The entrance there is PHP80 and everybody are required to be in proper swimming attire. No foods and drinks are allowed inside to ensure the sanitation of the pool area. If you’ll eat, you have to go out the pool area where cottages and benches are found. You can rent a cottage for the whole family or set up your tent on the vacant space there around the area.

Excited and thrilled about our first swimming for the year, we changed at once to our swimming outfit and plunged into the water. There are only two pools there, half Olympic sized pool for adults and pool for the kiddos. The pool measures 4FT to 8FT depth and it’s really a big one that you could really enjoy the floating and swimming across the water. Me and Virgie were nestled contentedly to the 4FT (which appeared like 5FT!) since we couldn’t swim like the others. The security is very much secured with a lifeguard on watch.

The pool has diving board that sends you directly to the 8FT water. This diving board I only enjoyed by posing on the pic that I could dive, wherein fact I couldn’t even swim! But hey I could float and glide for short time period…hehe. While enjoying the cold water (yes it’s really ice-cold despite the sunny weather), we got to meet kuya Alex. He was there practicing his swimming skills and he has been so kind to teach us some beginners’ should-know-about-swimming things such as bubbles, turtle float, swimming strokes and other else.

Finally we heeded to the rumbling of our stomachs and weakening of knees that we set out to take a bite. We were not really much prepared for up-to-lunch swimming so all we had were breakfast items (hotdog, bread, pancit canton, biko).Nonetheless, it was a still hearty meal.

We resumed the swimming fun after we ate our lunch. And we had on-water games like mataya-taya on water (Virgie and I didn’t join) and hanapan piso wherein we all need to dive down to the pool’s floor to find and get the coin.

We started packing up by 3PM and after few more last pictures by the pool we started our way out. Ecopark has lots to offer aside from swimming – you can have picnic, do fishing, bungee jumping, orchidarium visit, forest stroll, and many many more. We met along Santino the horse and took our pictures with him.

Finally the sun was already setting down and we were all tired and exhausted. We started for the exit and went home weary but fully satisfied for a well-spent day.