Our father loves fishing and it’s been awhile since he had the chance to cast his line. So for his 70th birthday, my sisters and I decided to bring him to Agriya, an agritourism development in Panabo City (about 1.5hrs drive from Davao City), where he can have a chance to do one of his three favourite hobbies (one is gardening and the other is playing coin pusher at the arcade — both our Papa excels in like a pro)!

When we arrived at the agritourism park, we were immediately assisted by their staff. It was a nice touch, showing really good customer service. Prior to going there, we communicated with Agriya via their Facebook page our plan to celebrate our father’s special day at their space. It also helped that we went on a weekday so it felt like we booked an exclusive tour (I heard they are always packed with tourists during the weekends!)

They have a lot of offerings to enjoy nature and agriculture — hence their term Naturetainment for the space.

Bananas from across the world

We paid 150PHP per person for the entrance fee which included the tour of the place. We started with the presentation of the different varieties of bananas from across the world.

Farm animals

Next stop was visiting the chicken roost, goats, sheep and horses.

We rented the carabao ride for 200PHP to make the tour more fun for the kids.

Aquaponics and crab farm

Fish ponds

We rented bamboo fishing rods for 100PHP each to fish in their fish ponds. We did not intend to use them as our father brought his own fancy fishing rods.

But after almost 30mins of unsuccessful fishing with the fancy rods, Luke and I tried the bamboo ones with the fish feed — and immediately caught our first bangus (milkfish). After almost an hour, we all learned the fish in Agriya lake prefer the bamboo fish rods to the fancy ones; they also like fishfeed more than worms (which the staff patiently found for our father who said he normally used worms for bait).

In the end – my father finally caught the third and last catch of the day*. Everyone was happy especially the birthday boy!

*We brought home our three bangus for 180PHP/kilo. They were served grilled for lunch the next day!

Playground for kids

While the adults were fishing – the children went over to the playground of Agriya. Not one of us took a photo of the kids as we were all busy trying to prove we can catch a fish.

The only thing we were sad about the day was that we did not have enough time to spend in Agriya. We missed going on the pedal boat around the lake and the kids could have spent another hour playing in the playground. Also – the staff prepared a really lovely venue by the lake, where we could have had our picnic while watching the sunset overlooking the Naturetainment space. Perhaps next time when we come back – we’ll be wiser with time and maybe we’ll be able to have dinner in Agriya too (they are already planning for a floating restaurant there!)

So yes – we all look forward to the next time, Agriya. Thank you for helping make our father’s birthday a memorable one!