La Mesa Eco Park Experience

I have been bugging my parents for the longest time for us to have a Family Day aka Picnic Day at the La Mesa Eco Park in East Fairview, Quezon City. Since I moved to the GY shift, I found myself having time for actual newspaper reading every morning when I arrive home from work. And I think it was through one of those news articles that I came across reading about the said park. I wanted to check it out because it sounds sooo near and it sounds nice too.

So I planned for us to go there Friday, November 4, since it’s a holiday and my rest day as well so we are all free. Plus, I wanted it to serve as my make-up day for having to work during the All Saints’ Day holidays. But come Thursday night, my Dad said that he has to work the following day, thus all our plans for the picnic became useless. I felt kinda sad but told myself I can just spend the day in a different way since Dad had to work. Me and my sibs even went out late Thursday evening (around 11pm) to grab coffee and we also drove around Manila until 1am. I felt sleepy around 3am so I went to bed, but I guess my body has just been so used to sleeping during the day, I ended up sleeping at 6am, also becoz my sis Bonzai kept on chatting me up.

Around 9:30am, my Mom woke us up and told us Dad’s work got cancelled at the last minute and asked if we still wanted to push through with going to the Park that day. Hell yeah! So with 3-hours worth of shut-eye, we left home around 10am with a blanket and a cooler in our compartment. While we were dressing up, my Mom called my cousins who live nearby and asked if they wanted to come, so our first stop was at their house where we picked up Ate Ria, Dimple and our niece Chelly, and also my Tito June. We then stopped by Ever Commonwealth to buy lunch, snacks, drinks and pizza to bring to the park.

I thought that going there would be quite a long drive, I know it sounded near, but it’s the La Mesa Dam, how can it be so near the city. But no, a good 20 mins after leaving Ever, we were already there. It was so easy to find because there were very helpful road signs on how to go there. In a way, the La Mesa Dam kinda reminded me of Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija, only it was way smaller, I can’t imagine how it supplies water to the whole of Metro Manila, with so many people living in the city. It was funny that they didn’t allow picture/video taking in the dam itself, and when I asked my Dad why, he said it was to prevent bombs to be planted. Okay.

We then reached the parking lot and it was funny coz we thought that the park itself was just straight ahead. It’s a good thing some of the workers stopped us and asked where we were going and when we said to the park, they told us we are already way passed it. But since we were already in that area, they told us to check out the nearby boating area, which is a real beauty if you ask me, with the water so clear and all. It was green too, meaning it’s very deep. I wanted to try boating but when I saw that it was a paddle-your-own boat kinda thing, with no life jackets, I decided against it. So we then trotted to the park itself. The park charges 40bux per person as entrance fee, good until 6pm. In the park there are tables that is a free-for-all kinda thing, just go where it’s free and that’s where you can stay for the rest of the day. We arrived there late so we were a bit worried there won’t be any more tables left, and also because much to our surprise, there were quite a lot of people. Our blanket deemed useless because it rained a bit before we could get there. Yes, it always has to rain when I’m out. But luckily, we found an empty table and had our lunch right away.

The park itself is not that spectacular, but if you consider the fact that you’re still in QC with all those greens surrounding you, it’s not so bad after all. It still needs a lot of development but it looks promising nonetheless. My Tito June commented that it kinda feels like being in Camp John Hay in Baguio only it’s not cold. I walked around with my Dad after lunch and we toured the orchidarium which has lots of orchid plants but none are in bloom. We stayed there until 4pm maybe, just ate and chit-chatted and took pictures and bought souvenirs before leaving.

Before heading home, we stopped by UP and ate fishballs, and I was so glad to have found the fishball stand we used to frequent when I was still in college. They have the best fishball sauce in the whole UP, I swear! I was sooo sleepy after that I slept from 6pm to 8am the following day, 14 hours straight!

I enjoyed my weekend, thank you Lord.