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On the day of the trip, for once there were no objections to getting up early. Neither of the girls made so much as a whimper of complaint. After a slight mishap with the water container, which tipped over when we started the L300 and sloshed wash water over most of the vehicle’s floor, we picked Mama up and set off on the real trip. At last.

Daren brought Busty along, for reasons I couldn’t figure out.

Mama and Diana were all smiles. So was Elmo, though you can’t see it in the photo.

Dern kept his eyes on the road. Luckily for him, I was too slow to catch him yawning while we waited for the light to turn green at the Katipunan-Boni Serrano intersection.

Dawn found us on the E. Rodriguez-Ortigas flyover.

No one had wanted breakfast before leaving, so a stopover at McDonald’s on SLEX was inevitable.

Finding Paradizoo was a bit difficult, especially since Dern had forgotten the name of the zoo and insisted that we were looking for another place altogether. Still, we were the first visitors of the day, which meant we had the place to ourselves for a good bit of the morning.

We were guided around the zoo (farm, rather) by Miss Cherry. Some of the things we saw:

A cockatoo, not too happy that we had arrived so early.

(There was a peacock lurking around too, but it wouldn’t stand still long enough for a good photo to be taken.)

Some blue flowers whose name I forgot to take note of.

One of the many camels on the place. Their hides were a bit scruffy and looked as though they were shedding. Felt sorry for them, though they didn’t seem to mind.

Ostriches in residence, along with the famous five-legged bullock in the background. Danged birds kept getting in the way, so I couldn’t get a better shot.

One of the ostrich hens was curious enough to give us the once-over.

There were some geese in the same enclosure, and they let it be known that we had disturbed their beauty sleep.

And there was that ostrich hen again.

Still in the same pen, we saw this white calf and its sadly emaciated dam.

This water buffalo gave Diana a scare when it came in for a closer look at her red coat.

Next we visited the goat pens, which were quite clean and relatively odor-free — a surprise, considering there were quite a few goats in there. Look at the horns on this old billy:

After some cajoling, this kid agreed to pose with the girls and Mama.

We each had a gulp of goat’s milk, courtesy of this nanny.

Further on we saw these llamas having breakfast.

These two annoyed Diana because they were dropping bits of their food on the backs of the llamas who were lying down.

Remember those blue flowers earlier? That was just the tip of the iceberg, to mix a metaphor. Get a load of these:

However, these were by far the prettiest flowers I saw today:

If you look closely, you’ll see the butterfly that didn’t want me to photograph it.

These were so red that i couldn’t resist taking a shot.

Diana posed with a very different species of llama.

Good thing these ti plants had an identifying sign, otherwise they would be as anonymous as the luckless blue flowers earlier.

Same goes for the aptly-named forget-me-nots.

Dern decided to have his photo op next to the sili plants. Appropriate, yes?

Now here’s a photo which I’ll be using as my desktop wallpaper!

Mama told me these were called milleflor … (Anyone know if they’re the same as Italy’s millefiori?)

… and these, red bells.

On the way up to the Orchidarium, we passed the lagoon (of which more later).

The girls had to stop for a rest among the orchids, but ended up clowning around.

We even spotted a Halloween ghoul hidden in the flowers.

There was a Hydroponics section, too.

Going back to the lagoon, there were several borders of Bandera Espanola.

The girls wanted some photos in the lagoon hut. They had to be careful crossing the footbridge as the lagoon was deeper than it looked.

We also caught this duck fishing for his breakfast.

One last shot of the flowers (again, the name was the last thing on my mind — I just wanted to get as many photos as possible. Sue me).

On our way down, Diana managed to trip over her own feet on the dirt road. Too bad I only raised the cam after she got up and dusted herself off.

So I decided to shoot the papayas instead. Sans dancers.

Diana was none the worse for her stumble. Look at her reach for the sky –er, flower.

Our next stop was the Butterfly House. Cherry said the butterflies live about ten days, and can only be held or touched near the end of their lifespans.

Adjoining the Butterfly House was the Apiary. So many bees, and every single one busy.

And there were still more flowers. This one looked like some kind of gumamela.

This bunch of bananas looked even bigger than Diana.

These bananas were just beginning to assume their final shapes.

We saw another five-legged animal — a pig, this time. He obligingly showed us his extra leg when we came up to his pen, but this black so-and-so got in the way.

There was a little story posted above the piggery, for the edification of visitors.

Cherry let us go into the chicken coop and collect eggs, which we later paid for and took home.

Some young pigs were being bathed in a separate pen. These were crossbreeds between domesticated and wild pigs. One of them was an albino.

Near the end of the visit, we passed a pit bull and a Dalmatian. The former had no interest in us, but the Dalmatian deigned to give us a second look.

By this time we had worked our way around the whole farm and were almost back at the beginning. There was another pen where crossbred piglets were sleeping in the sun.

A few steps away was a coffee tree.

And I finally managed to photograph that peacock.

The last animals we saw were these tiny bunnies.

Dern and the kids posed on the veranda of the guest cottage before we left.

I think it’s safe to say Diana enjoyed herself. We all did.

But that was just this morning.

We had lunch in the L300, which was parked just outside Paradizoo’s entrance. After some discussion, we decided to go on to Residence Inn, which is actually owned by the same folks who own Paradizoo, and for which Cherry had given us free entrance passes.

This wasn’t the first time we’d been to the Inn — we’d visited it before with Daren, on our own and during one of her school field trips. After the farm, though, it was a bit of a letdown, being smellier and just not as clean. At any rate, we went around it one more time for Diana’s benefit.

First off we saw some birds.

And another llama.

And a pony.

Which Diana rode, but only after much urging.

Nah, it didn’t throw her off. Didn’t even budge from the spot.

Then came the snake. I could be wrong, but I’m guessing this is the same snake we posed with on our last trip.

Diana wanted me to include the piglet eating lunch, so I did.

We climbed up to the tiger cages, which were definitely not as clean as before.

Then down to see the hawks.

The lion was down there too, but it was so thin and depressed that I didn’t photograph it. Instead I took a photo of Taal Volcano, while we were recovering from the climb back up.

And a photo of the mountains. What the heck.

There was this fish with a really strange bend in its dorsal ridge. Kind of a reverse hunchback.

Dern scared the girls when he pulled this stunt.

But this albino snake scared him more when its taped snout scraped his neck. LOL.

We weren’t scared. Were we, girls?

“Daddy’s a fraidy cat.”

By this time Diana was showing signs of weariness.

So we took a few more bird photos on our way out.

We had a second lunch in the L300 and drove on to Balayan for some bagoong. The girls fell asleep at some point, and to be honest so did the photographer (hence no pictures). We also picked up some fresh beef on the way back. When the girls woke up, we went to Mushroomburger for, you guessed it, the famed mushroom patties. While Dern was buying the sandwiches, we stayed outside where it was cooler.

And that’s all, basically. After one last stop at Good Shepherd for ube jam and buko pie, we were homeward bound.

A very long day, but a very merry one too.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3, 2007 at 9:44 pm under Home and Family, Local. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.