Davao, Philippines - Day 1

It was only 4AM and I needed to wake up already. Only had 3-4 hours of sleep. Most of you would think that it was a start of a lousy day, but not for me. Well not for that day at least. Why??? Because our scheduled flight to DAVAO is at 7AM. This was my first time to go to a place in Mindanao. Another opportunity for me to travel. New adventure awaits. New food to taste. New scenery's to shoot and more. What's even more exciting about this trip was that we brought together with us our Little Angel. This was her first time to travel by plane.

We arrived at NAIA 3 at about 6AM. We waited a little while before we were allowed to check-in. I needed to check-in manually (web check-in is not allowed if you are with an Infant), my wife got herself a web check-in, convenience? Web check-in sucks. At least for our experience. After checking-in, we met up with the office mate of hers. And after waiting for some time, we boarded the flight to Davao.

On the flight to Davao, we managed to keep our daughter to be asleep for half of the flight, the other half we had tried all the tricks to keep her noise at minimum. And at last we arrived at Davao International Airport at 9 AM. The shuttle pick us up and I was lucky to be able to take a snap shot of the airport.

The shuttle ride was just about 20 minutes from the airport. We checked-in at Waterfront Insular Hotel.

After we brought our things to our rooms, we proceeded to the reception area where we asked for a shuttle service to tour us around Davao. It was 11:30 AM and the travel time going to our first destination was about an hour. Just enough time before my tummy cried for help.

Our first stop: Eden Nature Park. The air was fresh, it's like being at Baguio for the first time. It was also cold and relaxing.

First on the agenda for today: Buffet Lunch.

The food choices were limited to 4-5 viands, maybe we came already a bit late. I am sorry for not been able to get the name of the food that was served. We took turns during the meal because our daughter wanted to go out already and start to play outside. I thought that this will be our usually routine during meals. After the meal, we went outside to have a tour on the park before I could decide to have an afternoon nap. I could just save it later for our travel to our second destination.

It was such a wonderful time to be able to bond with my family. It was such a trill and fun thing to do. Like the time when I was chasing a peacock just to take s photo of it.

After about an hour of touring the place we decided to go to our next destination. The place where "Pangil" lives, the second largest crocodile living in the Philippines. We heard that there is an animal show there, I was hoping we could make it there on time. On our way, we were able to rest a bit so to have the energy to go around the place.

At last. Davao Crocodile Park.

We really had a great experience since our daughter enjoyed walking around and saw all the animals at the zoo since this was her first time to visit a place like this.

This was also the first time that I saw an ostrich in person.

Before 4PM, the zoo keepers were already calling all tourist to assemble near the front gate for the start of the animal show. It was a nice. They presented different animals whom they call the Animal Ambassadors. Pangil is one of them. Due to our amusement of the show, I forgot to list down the names of the ambassadors who performed. (I think I really need to buy a pocket size notebook)

They also gave us a wet experience when we watched how Pangil will react when there is danger around him, after all crocodiles are known to be territorial in nature. Good thing there were people in front of us so that wet experience was limited to few audience.

There was also a performance where individuals cross a thin rope across a man made sanctuary for the crocodiles with no harness and no safety net. If ever they would fall, it could mean the end of there lives which I think brought more excitement to the act. Unfortunately, after the show, I just found out that I lost my lens cap. Huhuhuhu. We tried to trace back our steps but to no avail, the lens cap was never found. And it is now starting to get late and we still have another location to go to, so we gave up the search for my missing lens cap.

The next location will be the last for today's outing. My wife told me that there is a overlooking scenery on our next stop.

Final stop: Jacks Ridge. We took sometime taking pictures of the place.

We also played at the playground area where my daughter seem to like a lot, that it was hard for us take her away from the slide, swing and the merry-go-around. She always came back to it whenever we let her walk no her own.

After playing and sweating for a good 30 minutes, we decided to have our dinner and shoot some scenery. Unfortunately, I had not taken some shots of our meal that night except for my wife's mango shake.

During our dinner, rain clouds were starting to form across the sky.

Good thing that we were at our last part of the tour on first day. After finishing our meal, we went back to our hotel to have good rest. One day down, three more days to go.

Good Night.