The Crocodile Farm is a favorite attraction
of the city. As the name suggests, is a sanctuary for those
reptiles, they breed crocodiles in here.
Do you know that lots of restaurants in the city are offering it cooked (or raw meat) as a delicacy?
There is a short introduction session prior to the
tour and then you’re on your own. Explore the huge open hall where small
crocodiles are in breed captivity in small to medium sizes. Bigger ones are down the swampy area, there’s
a bridge for visitors to watch those crocs below.
Aside from crocodiles, they keep some endangered animal species
scattered in huge cages around the forest wildlife park like talking maynahs,
eagles, bearcats, a lonely snake, and others.
There are also a lot of trees and different kind of flora, some of them
have labels – scientific names – some are rare species. You just have to follow the clearly marked
paths.
The highlight for me – aside from the crocs of course – are the lovely
talking Hill Mynahs of Palawan. Scientific
name: Gracula religiosa palawanensis,
also called the Philippine Talking Mynah or simply Palawan Mynah.
They’re lovely black birds with yellow beaks that mimic human
speech. They’re amazing creatures,
almost unbelievably smart birds that talks like- you know - humans? When I first saw them in a big cage sitting
on a tree and I started hearing whistles blowing particularly the “you’re sexy”
whistles and several “wows” I thought they’re coming from people around, took
me a minute or two before I’d figured out it’s actually coming from those black
birds. I was so amused, never really
seen birds talking, except from some parrots I saw at a pet store few months
back that meows and whistles, well, its
cage is beside several kittens.
OK, going back to those talking mynahs of Palawan, throw them some
words, and if you’re lucky, they’d shout the same words back at you. Although, they already have sets of memorized
words like “panget” (Filipino word for ugly).
That made me wonder, why do some (or maybe most) Filipinos always let others
learn the basic Filipino language starting with the word “ugly”, and then
some really ugly words? Why? I’ve heard lots of arabs utter those tagalog
curses like .. you know what I mean… then there’s the words “kuripot”
(tightfisted), “gago” (stupid?), etc.
Anyways, I’ll save that topic for another post.
After exploring the crocodile farm, getting out of the area is
easy, there are multicabs running along
the highway in front of the gate for 10 pesos back to the downtown, or take the
parked tricycles there if it’s not closing time already when most of them are gone.
How to get there:
You can reach this attraction by either joining the “City Tour” offered by your hotel or any tour operators in town, the airconditioned van group tour costs 600 pesos per person and it includes some highlights of the city of Puerto Princesa. You could also find multicabs along Rizal Avenue at the downtown near Jollibee with the sign “Irawan”. Just tell the driver that you’re going to Crocodile Farm, fare is only 15 pesos, unless of course you’re a big group, hiring a tricycle or renting a multicab would be cost-effective.
Entry Fee: P40 for Adults, Discount applies for students, children and senior citizens.
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