CALIRAYA SPRINGS, Cavinti,Laguna: A Freshwater Wonderland Unveiled by Serendipity

Long weekend vacations are opportunities for spending out-of-town vacations. For people on a bucket list quest, it is best to anticipate upcoming long weekend vacations and do research and careful planning to maximize time and budget  in order to experience a carefree, quality time with your loved ones and still come home early with a day to spare for rest before the start of a new week.  

Some people thought that our out-of-town trips are expensive because we travel by car, but on the contrary, the cost of our trips are reasonable for physically-challenged individuals like us because the shorter travel time using a private car enables us to visit more places, enjoy the moment without rushing, worry-free shopping with worry-free baggage space, unlimited stop-overs for food run and toilet breaks,  take alternate routes to avoid traffic and eliminate waiting time in public transport terminals.

Time and fuel is worthily spent with quality time in the luxury of your own vehicle. In many instances, sharing a really happy disposition to the people you encounter often leads to getting the service or commodity discounted or better yet given for free because they simply enjoyed your company.  At the end of the day, the vacation is really worth the money spent, and best of all, you will still have money left to spare when you get home.

The Caliraya adventure was a sentimental journey for us.  We had the opportunity to visit this beautiful place before the turn of the new millennium and stayed at the now closed Lake Caliraya Country Club.  Much of the place hasn’t changed since.  It is still as beautiful as when we visited here the first time.    When we had our year-end outing here, me and our colleagues stayed in Villa Ruthman.  The resort is owned by a German expat with a Filipino wife.  However, when we passed by the place, Villa Ruthman is nowhere to be found.  All we found was an abandoned place with structures in ruins.  The nearest resort is the popular Caliraya Resort  with their bicycle zipline as their main attraction.  However, we do not prefer the place because it does not allow guests to bring in food and the place no longer has its nature ambiance. And since our plan was originally to cook our own food picnic-style, this wouldn’t be the place for it.  Second was their policy of charging each guest 3500 pesos per head which is beyond our budget.

A local harbor attendant narrated that much of the Lake Caliraya Country Club was destroyed by Typhoon Millenyo and the owners never recovered from the deluge and has since closed the place. The place was still beautiful when seen from afar but it seems obvious that the remaining structures are all dilapidated and abandoned. Even the swimming pool is dark, empty when I was looking at it in Google Earth.  Since our original venue was no longer available, it's either we abort and go to Caliraya Resort Club or explore deeper along the coast.  We decided to look for another place.  We continued along the coast and passed by the Japanese Garden. There were several resorts after that but what happened next was something we did not expect.

Serendipity casted its unexpected hands on us when we stumbled upon a resort that wasn't there the last time we visited Caliraya.  I remembered that the farthest resort during that time was Lagos del Sol, where we took a boat to ferry us to a private island in the middle of the lake.  The accidental discovery was the CALIRAYA SPRINGS!

The name of the place was posted in front of the entrance of what seems to be a private subdivision.  We were reluctant to ask the guard at first but since we still have no place to stay we were compelled to ask what the place is.  They gladly told us that it's a resort open to the public so they ushered us in and gave directions to the clubhouse.

The place seems to be a high-end subdivision with its wide roads and sidewalks and an area that is so vast and scenic that it took us a while before reaching the clubhouse.  When we finally reached the place, we realized that its actually a clubhouse of an 18-hole par 72 golf course of which I regret not having brought my golf set with me.  

The clubhouse is a hotel as well, hence its name "The Residence".  We learned upon having a conversation with the hotel manager that the owner is a Chinese businessman who incidentally is the father of the winner of the "Biggest Loser" 2nd edition. Seeing us very happy to visit the place, the hotel manager gladly gave us free use of some of their facilities such as the bicycles and jacuzzi. The added amenities really pumped our excitement to the ceiling!  With eyes gazing, we noticed that the reception area has an atrium with a rock garden at the center and a dining area with a panoramic view of the golf course.

Upon checking in, we ventured around the clubhouse to see its other amenities.  We took some pictures in the veranda and checked out the bicycles outside.  After a quick tour we decided to rest in our room for the afternoon as it began to rain.

The room was a cozy 2-bedroom suite with its own toilet and bath and cable tv and wifi.  First thing though, we began to figure out how we can fit in a single-size bed together and laughed our hearts off at the idea.  There was no double-bed room available at that time so we had to make do with this.  We brought in our food from the car, ate lunch and rested until the rain stopped.  After having rested and the rain had stopped, we went out to check their other attraction - The "Caliraya Mountain Lake Resort", 

 The resort, which is also owned by the same Chinese businessman, has many exciting facilities which really added to our happy vacation - a swimming pool, zipline, various boating activities, mexican bonfire, fishing, hanging bridge and their primo attraction - the water obstacle course.  I will be relating our activities here on my next blog.  

As dusk settled in the horizon to formally end the day, we went back to The Residence to settle in for the night.  We proceeded to the dining area and checked out the menu.  They recommended cream dory for the main entree so we willingly ordered cream dory stew.  Since we don't want to wait in the dining area because we prefer watching our favorite movie on cable, we requested our dinner to be brought in our room.  

After enjoying a sumptuous cream dory dinner and resting a little bit to digest the fish,  we decided to check out the sauna and jacuzzi.  You know the best thing about this vacation is the privacy that the hotel accords its guests.  Having the impression that the place is expensive probably made many people to shun the place and that's why there were only a handful of guests checked in that day.  Probably, we wouldn't be having the sauna and jacuzzi for ourselves if there are many guests checked in,  But as serendipity played on our side, We enjoyed every bit and minute of our stay in the sauna and jacuzzi in sheer bliss and utmost privacy!

The jacuzzi experience we had here is by far the best there is compared to the other jacuzzi moments we had in other places.  First, this is the first time we had bathed in an INDOOR jacuzzi!  Talk about the good life! The moment was definitely "sans rival"!  The water was simply fantastic with its massaging sensation.  It really removed the stress and strain of travel for the day and makes us feel so relaxed that we began to feel sleepy from its hypnotic whirlpool effect of its hydrating, jetstreams of water.  After an exciting day of fun, laughter and romance, it was time to hit the sack.  We settled down in our room and tired but happy and watched our favorite movies on cable until we dozed off to sleep.

The next day, we rose up early to get some sunshine walk in the golf course.  The sight of the manicured green and pine trees was enough to awaken our senses.  We took our first morning picture in front of a pond where a flock of ducks were wading in the water.

     

  We then proceeded to the bikes so that we can we explore the golf course even farther while the morning is still cold.  We asked permission from the hotel manager if we can bike thru the pavement where the golf carts travel and she said yes as long as there are no golfers playing in the fairway. So off we go on a double, parellel bicycle we have chosen among different types of bicycles.  There were several mountain bikes and double bikes where passengers are in series.  We chose the parallel bikes because it is more romantic to pedal side by side with your partner and as we pedal along, the song by Pharrel Williams entered my mind and started to sing out loud. "Because we're HAPPY! Clap along if you can like a room without a roof!  Because we're HAPPY!  

Biking side by side with my dear wife through the concrete paths of the pine-laden fairways, winding along numerous greens of varying contours with sand traps and water hazards adding to the excitement of the place was truly a magic moment for us as the cool morning wind of the Caliraya countryside blows in our faces ,awakening the stress-laden soul within us.

We took a moment in the front-nine to take some fun pictures while no one has teed-off for their morning round of golf.  It was really another stroke of serendipity that we were the only guests who experienced roaming the fairways on bike since they normally don't allow biking when golfers are wacking around with their clubs in the fairway and golf balls are buzzing in the air in all directions.  The early bird does get to catch the worm!

The entire 18-hole golf course was too big for us to explore so we were only able to roam the front nine.  The parallel bike is also quite heavy to maneuver so we took a rest and spent the remaining coolness of the morning simply enjoying the spectacular view. 

Our stay in Caliraya Springs is definitely one for the books.  Hadn't it been for serendipity, we would be able to hit this two-birds-with-one-stone chance of a lifetime.  Our other exciting activities here were taken in the Caliraya Mountain Lake Resort but I felt the need to write it in separate blog because the story here is getting too long and you might start to get bored or just too sweet for comfort.  For connubial explorers like us, the moment here is something worth reminiscing through the years as we grow old into our twilight years together.