The Trip to Eden Nature Park

   
By jingfrey73, shot with SONY ERICSSON P1i

Took a "nap" and woke up at 6:00 am to a rainy Davao City morning.

Watched the news on cable while waiting for my turn at the bathroom but nothing was really registering in my brain.

When Rhoda and I were both finished, we went down to Cafe Marco where breakfast is served. We saw Cezar and Neil and ate with them.

We were almost finished when the rest of the PNB gang came down, which also meant that although assembly time for the Eden Nature Park Tour was 8:00 am, only Rhoda and I from PNB were there.

While waiting for the bus, Gidget was distributing stubs which would serve as our bus tickets. We learned that there will be two buses. Rhoda and I decided to board the first one instead of waiting for the rest of the PNB crew and board the second bus. Once inside the bus, someone from the tour company began collecting the stubs and replacing them with stickers which would serve as our lunch stubs at the resort. Rey texted me that he wasn't feeling well and that only Tryke would join the tour - and would I also please look after the kid. Tryke boarded the bus with Dennis' son in tow. Apparently, Dennis had also decided to stay at the hotel.

We were on the road by 8:40. The trip would take about an hour. The tour guide would point out interesting places as we passed by them. In between, he would say trivia like:

• there are a number of people in Davao with Japanese ancestry, some of them descending from the Japanese the Americans brought in before the war to build infrastructure ... the same Japanese that built Kenon Road in Baguio City
• Davao City has the largest brewery in Asia
• the city's top export is the banana
• Davao's top export used to be abaca, but demand for it waned after nylon became the choice material for making cords and ropes
• 40% of the flowers exported by the Philippines come from Davao

He also instructed us a bit on Philippine Eagles:

• they are blue eyed, making them unique among raptors
• they are diurnal - another way of saying that they hunt during daytime
• the females are larger than the males
• courtship usually takes three months
• they are monogamous

For most of the trip, the scenery was like that of Manila, only with a lower skyline. It was only upon reaching the foot of Mount Apo that we saw a lot of greenery and colorful flowers outside the window.