Okay... what did we do last Friday? Ummm, not much?

NOT! Beya saw on TV while my bro Allan was watching the local cable channel a feature about DIOKO RESORT AND BUTTERFLY FARM located right here in San Joaquin, San Pablo City! She got so excited she wants us all to check it out right away!

And as luck would have it, our driver Nonoy had nothing to do because he took the day off so he could get registered as a voter but the office denied him to prioritize newbies.

So soon enough we're on our way through rough roads(and I mean ROUGH! Not for cars with lowered engines!) expecting to see a butterfly farm but half-afraid we'd be disappointed to see a lousy resort with a few dead insects in frames.

Well, what the hey! The first thing we saw as we drove up inside are ostriches!

Friggin' OSTRICHES running around in their cages! They huge! and I gotta admit kinda scary. After we made sure the cages are secure we snapped pics. I'll upload the pics when they get developed :) the film's supposed to be for the butterflies but there we were snapping away at peacocks, snakes, deers, wild cats, kangaroos, eagles, falcon, monkeysand lots of other animals.

And that is only on our way to the frickin' buttefly farm. We found a few swimming pools. And we passed through a cute little garden to get to the entrance to the farm. When asked for tickets we asked Nonoy to run and get tickets for all six of us (Mamy, Beya, Allan, me, Wanwan, Nonoy and Mikko(he's free :p). A ticket costs PhP40 for grown-ups, PhP20 for kids.

after the cute garden we saw... dead insects in frames. But lo and behold! What's behind door number 2?! after pushing through plastic curtains we're in! Butterfly Farm! We're surrounded with flitting, floating butterflies! wan kept squaling and laughing because they tickle when they rest on our bare skin. wan's wearing a sleeveless and skirt so yes, she's the noisiest among us :)

We took our time taking in all the different kinds of butterflies and flowers. The variety isn't as big as any butterfly encyclopedia, but their sheer number is enough to make you want to stand still just long enough for one of them to rest on you. And in the middle is pretty fish pond full of colorful japanese carp.

we just followed the zigzag path inside the garden and soon we made our way out because they butterflies are starting to freak wanwan and allan out("geez! get offa me already!!!")... heheheh!

And when we got out we found a playground and took the liberty of making fools of ourselves by playing like kids(good thing the film ran out halfway through the butterfly farm). I nudged my way down slides, rode the swings til I rocked the poor foundations and see-sawed until it nearly broke under our extreme weight!

after that we walked around the resort and found more swimming pools. the place was nearly empty (duh! why else would we play in the playground?!) as we pester the employees there about cottage rates and stuff. entrance fee for the resort is PhP70 i think. a room with 3 beds and an aircon and a full bath is maybe PhP1200.

soon after we made our way home and stopped by Folcon's Bakery and coffee shop along Maharlika Hi-Way to buy pastries. And it's day well-spent :)