Incredible experiences of nature at unnatural prices

(more photos to come when our new wi-fi gets to know us and trust us better)

Our last morning at Loboc.

A lovely chat with Danielle (miss you!) from our balcony overlooking the river before our morning swim and delicious breakfast. 

We then headed off for three incredible experiences of nature at unnatural prices.

First, the Loboc Ecotourism Park. Hamish braved the superman zipline - 520m long and 120m above the beautiful Loboc river. 

Shaun thought he was pretty brave riding the open air cable car. Either way the waterfalls and rapids were amazingly beautiful from way up there. 

An incredible experience, all for just $12 each for the return trip!

Second, we stumbled across the Loboc Nature & Wildlife park. I hadn’t heard anything about this and the entrance seemed unimpressive – a few ostriches in a bare cage, so I was doubtful. But when I asked what we’d see, 24 exotic animals with your own personal guide was hard to turn down. 

The highlights?
Exotic chickens and pheasants, a tarsier, a lion (in a very poor cage which will be improved soon), an owl, 

a bear cat, 

an albino python

 and a crocodile

How much for all this you want to know? $5 each!

Third, we made for the Pangas Falls. Not as secluded as the other falls we visited, but not nearly so difficult to get to. We loved their beauty and power. 

Hamish bravely jumped off the falls.

Elijah bravely jumped off the platform.

Shaun bravely took the photos.

After about 30 minutes, the noises that sounded like thunder developed and the rain started to pour down. Where else would you go but in the cave behind the waterfall, where we waited to see what would happen. This wasn’t just practical but an awesome experience in itself.

How much for this wonderful experience? Waterfalls, toilets, shelters, a ticket seller at the road, an observer at the falls and a guide in the water, all for the princely sum of $1 each!

Someone needs to help the Filipinos charge more, especially us tourists.

When the rain didn’t stop and I began to be a little nervous about the drive back along the dirt road, we decided to get out and soon headed off. Thankfully the rain did stop about 10 minutes after we left. It's actually the wet season here, but this year has been very dry, though it still looks lush. So far we have had about 40 minutes total rain in 7 days – good for us but bad for them. Hopefully for their sake it will start raining soon.

We started the long loop back to town to the mall again to replace our suitcase. One of the wheels broke off when we got out of the car at Richmond station, and it wasn’t long before the whole corner had broken off. The new suitcase was cheap by Australian prices, but not quite as cheap as our nature experiences. Together with a couple of t-shirts it came to over 5000 pesos (~$180), a sum so large that the salesperson asked to see my driver's license before I could use my credit card. Tougher security than the guards at the door of the mall - they just ask to see whichever compartment of your bag that you want to show them, and then touch your lower back as you walk past in case you are silly enough to conceal your gun there. 

We braved the supermarket again (more impressive than braving the cable car or the zipline!) 

before heading off to our final accommodation on Panglao island.

Looking forward to exploring tomorrow. Also looking forward to returning the car. It has been great to have the freedom to get around, and for me it's the only way to go long distances and not get travel sick, but I am not going to miss driving on the the right side of the road at an average speed of 40 km/h even when it's not peak hour and you are doing your best to overtake slow vehicles. And the roadworks! It seems every road is being worked on in some way or other, or is in great need of work! Sometimes there are workmen sitting on a chair waving a red or green flag to let you know whether you can proceed, but most of the time you just have to work it out. Worst of all are the cross intersections. We haven’t seen one set of traffic lights or a round about, and only one stop sign, so we all just make it up together and hope we don't get to know the other drivers too closely.  

The two best days of any overseas holiday? The day you pick up the hire car and the day you drop off the hire car.