Happy Valentine's Day from Minalungao National Park!

After a failed first attempt at reaching this elusive river park two weeks ago, this weekend we finally made it safely to Minalungao National Park located in the town of General Tinio in the Nueva Ecija province. I must say, it was definitely worth the long trip. Getting there from Angeles City took almost three hours, with one hour of driving on very rough terrain. This time, we had my nephew, brother and sister-in-law along for the ride. We were worried that we would get lost again, but we finally managed in the end.

The park area itself wasn't big. We were greeted by the beautiful Peñaranda river which was lined with cottages made of nipa and bamboo. We rented a bamboo raft for five hundred pesos. The raft takes you to a narrow pathway in the river sandwiched between two rock formations. It was reminiscent of the fjords in Norway, albeit at a much smaller scale.

The views were spectacular but the park is still quite underdeveloped. There is not much one can do except walk around and explore the rocks. Some parts of the river are too rocky and deep for the raft to cross but I guess it won't be a problem for kayaks to navigate around them. We did see some new structures emerging, and our boatman informed they will be offering trekking activities around the Sierra Madre mountain ranges, as well as a zip line, in the coming months.

It was a short trip but the family had a lot of fun. This was a much better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than going to the mall or to a restaurant and be surrounded by couples. It has been a while since I had so much fun on February 14th!

You may have noticed that I am towing a DSLR in some of the pictures. It's a loaner from a friend while I am still in between cameras. Hopefully I will be able to have my own camera before the next road trip.