Fly High in 2010 at ZipZone in Bukidnon

Here's our first wish item for all our adventurous friends and readers in 2010.  We'd like them to feel like the jacksully avatar or a derivative Superman or Batman (Wapakman too?) while they spread their wings up in the air and hover over a deep canyon and some forest covers in just about one minute!

The trick is to make sure there is a morning or early afternoon to spare if anyone has a business or leisure trip to Cagayan de Oro or any place else in Misamis Oriental or Bukidnon.  That's for hieing off to fly at the ZipZone Dahilayan Adventure Park in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon, around one and a half hours drive from CdeO.  As our pictures tell, it's flying by wire.

The park is just about four months old, but already the booking is heavy.  They can only take three hundred flyers a day, Wednesday to Sunday.  When we went the first time on 27th December, the place was teeming with daring souls.  Our party of six could not be accomodated because there were still spill-overs from the previous day.  So we had to book for the 29th, and already we were on the 8th slot.  Thus anybody who wants to fly has to make a reservation in advance (simply google ZipZone for the numbers to call).

There are three events--the 350 meter, 120 m and 840 m ziplines, in that order.  The flying rates are still promo/introductory:   Php200 for the 350+120m; Php400 for the 840m (Asia's longest at this time); and Php500 for all rides.

Our advice: go fly while the rates are still promo and wallet-friendly, which we suspect may be over by summer next year esp. during the Holy Week.

Sad to say, but there are height and weight requirements before one can be wired for the flying.  For safety engineering reasons, one must not be less than 52" tall and not more than 75" tall, and must be between 80 lbs and 250 lbs. 

We were fortunate to meet the ZipZone owner, Elpi(dio), one of ten Paras siblings; likewise, his brother Jess, the Department of Agriculture Undersecretary, who owns the all terrain vehicle (ATV) segment of the park.  Another sibling takes care of horseback riding and the Cowboy Grill restaurant.  Another has opened a botanical garden with a cafe, and another is setting up a wedding center atop a rolling hill. 

USec Jess told us that the amusement park is intended to be family-oriented.  And he's putting the finishing touches to his green villa that has rooms for rent for families who intend to extend their quality time up there in the mountain barangay of Dahilayan. 

It's Baguio-like up there. If one has been missing pine trees in the northern Luzon city, he'll find plenty in this Bukidnon park, and in the neighboring Mountain View Farm and Park of the Xavier family.  Dahilayan might yet metamorphose into the Baguio of Mindanao considering all the a-planting and a-building up there.

Of course, going up to Dahilayan from CdeO takes one past the iconic giant pineapple landmark of Del Monte Corporation, through the Camp Phillips residential areas of wooden chalets and then the vast pineapple plantations.  During early mornings, one would pass by clusters of plantation workers eating their baon breakfast or doing their assignments out there in the open field (at this time, they are tending very young plants) or families plodding their way home and trying to hitch a ride (we didn't see any public transport plying the plantation road).  

We'd like to believe that a time will come (and it should be soonest) when we will no longer drive past destitute houses along the road between the corporate plantation and the adventure park no matter if they're made bit brighter by vari-colored flowering ornamental plants like roses, anthuriums, lantanas, etc. in the front yard.  But this is another story.

Go fly high!