zoo on the ridge

tagaytay ridge, that is.

once more, borrowed the handy little casio camera of jose with the intention of revisiting a zoo on the tagaytay ridge. it's actually part of a hotel called residence inn -- i'd been there god knows how long ago and didn't even remember where it was located.

the internet was less than useless insofar as a map of establishments on the tagaytay ridge, so it was an "ask when we get there" kind of thing.

the plan therefore was to leave bright and early (with makati housemate glenn in tow), have lunch at the bag o' beans and then inquire of the local populace where this zoo might be found.

now this would make the second sunday in succession that i'd be driving to tagaytay, so i decided that it would be a good "control" test too for something i'd noticed the previous trip: the car seemed to get excellent mileage -- provided one did not exceed 2000rpm in any gear (which equated to 60/70 in 5th). needless to say, that kind of velocity had others zooming by on either side, but what the hey.

at any rate, got to bag o' beans, lunched, and asked of the policeman/traffic aide outside where we might find the zoo. he didn't have a clue.

the only information i got from the web search was that the establishment was around the kilometer 62 marker or somesuch. in which direction, i had no idea. therefore we decided to ply the route to the people's park in the sky (which happened to be the end destination of the previous trip).

hmm. past the junction, past the rotonda, past the santa rosa road -- still no kilometer markers to be found. and no residence inn.

beyond picnic grove, on the right side of the road, finally a marker. it was in the 50's so that was good. onward then.

all the way to people's park. still no residence inn.

finally, glenn got out and asked one of the parking wardens at the park if he knew where the zoo was.

well, what do you know. it was just beyond bag o' beans.

back, back, then.

all the while not exceeding 60kph.

and then we found it. entrance fee was rather steep (200 pesos per -- then again, i have no idea what the fees are for other zoos). pictures next post.

picture taking done, another fairly leisurely drive back to makati.

i did my calculations and ended up with at least 15 kilometers to a liter. wow, twice the mileage of my weekly commute.

so the car can get quite a ways on a tank of gas, as it were.

just takes a heck of a lot of discipline on the gas pedal.