Date of visit: May 8, 2010

After our farm lunch, we headed to Baluarte for some close encounter with nature. :)

Right at the entrance is the petting zoo. This is where you can freely interact and take photos with different animals like camels, ostriches, deer, parrots, orangutans, and a lot more.

It is not just a zoo, it's an interactive wildlife sanctuary and facility.

Aside from plainly interacting with the animals, visitors also have the chance to feed them.

They also offer free mini horse rides called "tiburin". The mini horse pulls a small carriage that can accommodate up to 4 persons including the "caballero". Taking photos and riding the mini horse is absolutely free of charge.

Another attraction here is the close encounter with the tigers. You can have your photos taken with the tigers for Php25 per person.

Baluarte sure is one of the must-visit places in Vigan. With just a few minute drive from the heart of Vigan, you can already have an extraordinary adventure and experience the wonders of nature with your family. What's more amazing is that the admission to Baluarte is FREE. :)

BALUARTE
Vigan, Ilocos Sur

After watching the dolphins and sea lions at Ocean Adventure, we headed to Zoobic Safari for another close encounter with some wild animals.

We had our souvenir photo taken with the native Aetas the moment we got into the place.

We had a short briefing on how the tour will go about.





We were then grouped and each group was assigned a tour guide.



After the briefing we watched some animal shows and then we're off for the tour!




First we had a walk along the forest where we encountered a lot of wild animals. Mark enjoyed seeing and feeding (and bullying) the animals. He just stopped his being bully when an ostrich bit his chest! Haha!

For our next stop, the others took the safari train while we drove to the tigers' den. We first went to their cages while the tour guide informed us about some interesting facts about tigers. Then we had a close encounter with them, and I mean really close! We rode in a caged jeepney and drove into a place where the tigers roamed around.

We also bought some chicken to be fed to the tigers. We were lucky to have caught the attention of one hungry tiger. He immediately went to our jeepney and munched the chicken which the feeder bravely waved with his bare hands!

We then drove to the bone museum and then headed to the crocodile farm.

We ended the tour with a souvenir photo taken with a python. :)

We completed the tour around half past 5pm. The tour was very long and tiring. I really wasn't ecstatic during the tour because it was just like the ones that I had in some zoos during school field trips.

I got to see some animals for the first time though, but I'm really not a fan of these kinds of tours. I was also very moody during the tour (sorry Mark *mwah*). Maybe I just got tired of the long walk under the scorching sun. But it was fun and I enjoyed it, really. ;p