On the third day of my mini-vacation, I met up with my Taiwanese student. I've known him for quite a long time, too, but it's the first time we're meeting up in person. He came to Cebu with his mom, aunt, and cousin... and they invited me to go with them to Cebu Safari.
I had to wake up early because the vehicle they chartered would arrive at their hotel at around 8:30 AM, and it takes me around an hour to get there from my cousin's place.
I arrived there around 7:50 AM and waited for them in the lobby. The vehicle arrived earlier, at around 8:10 AM, so we headed to our destination ahead of schedule.
It took us around 2 hours to get to the destination from their hotel, which was located in the downtown area of Cebu. It was pretty sunny, but the area is in the mountains, so it was windy and comfortable. It's pretty similar to where I live.
Before entering, we took a photo at the entrance near the parking area. From here, we're going to ride a tram which will take us to the base camp. The base camp is basically the receiving area for guests. There's also a restaurant where people can enjoy some Filipino food. We were also given further instructions on how to explore the place.
The first area we visited was the aviary dome, which was just beside the base camp. There were several species of birds, and guests can feed them for an extra price.
I relayed the information given to us by the guides, so we tried to plan our route around the safari. The whole area is walkable, but there are tram stops where we can ride to certain points of the safari.
Since we wanted to explore and enjoy the place, we decided to walk and follow the animal trail next to the safari fountain.
I've always been fascinated by capybara. I've never seen it in person, but I had an image that they're pretty chill animals. I got more interested in them after knowing Raijinmaru from the anime World Trigger. hahaha
I was so happy to finally see them. They're so cute!!
They shared the same open space with the llamas and some other animals. The llama and capybara were casually chilling and taking a bath together. haha We saw more animals, but I was too distracted to take more photos. XD
Then, we went to see the tigers. They had a tiger feeding at around 10:30 AM, but we were not able to arrive on time for it. Still, we were able to see this magnificent animal. Its enclosure is pretty wide, so we're lucky it stayed near the glass. The other one was quite far, but we saw it when we were walking towards another area.
The safari also has its own veterinary medical center. We saw eggs being incubated and really young animals being taken care of before being released.
We saw a lot of peacocks and other animals casually crossing the roads, or just chilling by the pathway. It's great to see that even though the place is technically a zoo, they're able to roam around a wide space.
After visiting several more areas like the deer district, orangutown, and the safari stadium, we decided to take the tram and head to the white lion safari, which is among the farthest areas.
There are three white lions in this area: Jack, Max, and Bugoy. It was interesting for me because our Golden Retriever's name is also Max... and they're of similar color.
And from there, we visited the Dromedary Camels and Birds of the World areas.
Then, we rode another tram going to the African Savanna. Before we entered the African Savanna, we checked out some otters, crocodiles, and turtles along the way.
I used to live near a Crocodile farm, so it was interesting to see them in a different place. haha
We had to ride another tram to go around the African Savanna. Luckily, I sat at the far end, so it was easy to see the animals.
There were different types of animals, including impala, gazelle, waterbuck, zebras, and so on. We could go around the area for around 10 minutes, as the guide gave us more information about the animals. To be honest, I can't distinguish many of them as I'm not familiar with them... well, aside from the zebras. XD
From there, we decided to walk again and explore other areas.
The cheetah was resting. I remember my student's cousin typed in her phone's translator and told me the cheetah was quite chubby. Hahah We communicated with each other via a translation app since she couldn't speak English, but she wanted to talk with me.
The view we see as we walk around is so pretty. There were a lot of trees and amazing green spaces. My student's mom and aunt were also fascinated by the plants, especially the wild orchids. My student told me that his aunt is a farmer, and they export flowers to Japan. That's why she's also very enthusiastic to explore the plants in the area.
After more walking, we decided to finally have lunch. It was already around 2 PM at that time, but I thought it was a good thing because we were able to avoid the busy time. There were several places to eat, but the base camp and the outpost offered lunch. The others were mainly just drinks and snacks.
We decided to eat at the outpost area, overlooking the giraffes.
After our late lunch, we decided to head back to the base camp via the Canopy trail. It was the last area we had yet to explore. There were various animals, too... However, I only took photos of the pelicans because they were so interesting. XD
We were able to explore almost the entire area except for the adventure rides and other facilities. We also skipped the garden and pavilion area, but we were able to see them while we were on the tram on our way back to the parking area.
We dropped by the gift shop to check what was there before heading back to the city. We walked a lot, but it wasn't tiring because we could enjoy watching the animals. The animals didn't seem like they were in an enclosure (well, except for the birds), because the area is too spacious. Some of them were even walking around from one place to another.
I couldn't take photos of all the animals because I was trying to enjoy the moment. Though I took photos of the ones that really caught my attention. I also wanted to show the photos to my cousins. haha It would be awesome to go there again, but with my family next time.
I had an enjoyable time with my student and his family, though. They were so kind and fun to be with despite the language barrier. They invited me to dinner as well, so I took them to a local area to eat some grilled food. They had fun eating using their hands and trying new things the Filipino way.
I had a great time, and I gained a new friend... My student's cousin also loves reading manga and Webtoon, so we exchanged LINE and became chatmates. hahaha We came for the animals, but we found friendship. LOL
Anyway, I'll end this post here. It's already midnight, so I'll go to bed soon. Thanks for reading, and see you around! (^^,)/