Iloilo Fun at Garin Farm

Our second day in Iloilo City was supposed to be dedicated to church hopping. That was all I could find to do in Iloilo, although I did plan to stop by RACSOS to let the children swim or something. After all, my planned itinerary of old churches and cemeteries was bound to bore them.

We asked the lady at the reception desk of One Lourdes Dormitel where we could get jeepneys going to San Joaquin. Luckily, all we had to do was walk a block or two to the old market and find the terminal of jeeps going to San Joaguin.

We asked to go to San Joaquin (P60/each) but when we were near San Joaquin, they asked us again if church or farm. We asked those riding with us what we can see at the farm and they told us it's some sort of leisure park so we decided to check it out since we're already in the area. We had to pay an exra P10 each since Garin Farm is out of the way (we could have gotten off the main road and just hired a tricycle, but we'd also pay the same rate per person). But oh, it was soooo worth it going there! We actually ended up spending most of the day there and really delighted in the design of the farm.

we paid P150/each but were able to get the children in for free, much to the displeasure of the employee getting the tickets (despite the fact that the ticket seller ok'd it with their supervisor)

it felt like a dream walking under this walkway shaded by squash and upo vines... I really loved it!

may our little boy grow up with green thumbs

Yakee saw some little lambs

singing the Bahay-Kubo song to your child just got more interesting when you go through this place, with all the plants in the song sequentially planted around the hut

MIL and Yamee inside the bahay-kubo

close encounters with the pig kind

let me hear you say, "Moo"

as cute as it gets :)

being a typical boy

and crying coz he can't board that toy

waiting for food at the restaurant (loved their pansit and fish, haha)

feeding piegons at lunch time

Pappie's best shot here

unlike me, he doesn't have any fear of horses

one of the scenes at the pilgrimage part... loved it coz it was John's baptism (and Yamee's name Yannis is Hebrew/Greek for John)

the crucifixion scene.... sculptures of people going to where Christ was crucified was a really nice touch

MIL climbing the 400+ steps with me (well, ahead of me as I was taking pictures)

me at the summit...  too bad I couldn't share it with hubs coz he had to take Yakee horseback riding


my boys would have loved this scene but we didn't take them in here anymore, lest they insist on climbing up to the Cross

Someday, we hope to be back. Most probably the plants there are healthier and the farm part will have more interesting gimmicks for kids and regular people to be interested in farming. I really hope to do the layered tires challenge and have some plants outside our home... just so my sons can start learning the cycle of seeds and rythm of harvest.

I'd also love to stay there for a night and enjoy the night breeze... and go swimming, of course :)

Garin Farm was really lots of fun and I think it will be one of Iloilo's great pride and joy too.