San Pablo, Laguna
May 2002
Villa Escudero was a vast plantation/hacienda now turned into a resort. This is located about two to three hours from Manila. Upon arriving, we took a cart ride pulled by a carabao (water buffalo). This was Luna's favorite part.
One of the strange things is that the resort is populated by a number of cement statues - two of which you can see below - just sort of doing everyday things. The hacienda was owned by a turn of the century "Don" who, judging from the estate, indulged his every whim.
The highlight of the place is lunch at the waterfalls. This rich guy built himself a hydroelectric powerplant in the early part of this century and sold the power to the surrounding community. I couldn't imagine this being a vast moneymaker since, even to this day, it's a fairly sparsely populated area.
It makes for a nice waterfall though.
