Residence Inn Zoo (Tagaytay City, Cavite)

From the 41st Division P.A. USAFFE Shrine, Jandy and I continued on our way to Residence Inn.  As it was along the highway, it was easy to find.  There’s an entrance fee.  The inn,  which also has an excellent view of Taal Volcano and Lake, has airconditioned accommodations and a restaurant.

Check out “41st Division P.A. USAFFE Shrine

However, we were just there on a 1-day tour of its mini-zoo which is more like an interactive petting zoo as, at the entrance, fresh fruits and other food  are sold to visitors who want to feed the animals (except the tigers).  The zoo has a menagerie of 30 or so animals,  some caged while others were free-roaming.

Jandy beside a free-roaming cassowary
A caged tiger

The first animals we saw were the noisily chirping parrots and cockatoos, some caged while others were out, tied loosely to their perches.  Also near the entrance were pythons, fishes and a tiger cub.  There were also screaming monkeys, caged Malay civet cats and tigers, free-roaming peacocks, ponies, llamas,  a free-roaming cassowary, wild pigs and crocodiles.  The zoo could actually be toured in an hour.

A caged crocodile
A python in a glass case

Residence Inn: Km. 65, Brgy. Neogan, Tagaytay City, Cavite. Tel: (632) 899-9829 (Manila)

41st Division P.A. USAFFE Shrine (Tagaytay City, Cavite)

After my jobsite inspection at La Residencia de Laguna and lunch in Tagaytay City, Jandy and I went out of our way to visit the Residence Inn Zoo.  Along the way, we made a stopover at the 41st Division P.A. USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East) Shrine, beside the City Hall and Tagaytay Convention Center.

Check out “Residence Inn Zoo

41st Division P.A. USAFFE Shrine

Within the shrine are marble walls etched with the names of all 6,000 servicemen of the 41st Division, Philippine Army, under the command of Brig.-Gen. Vicente P. Lim.  Coming from Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Tayabas (now Quezon) and Palawan, these men mobilized on Tagaytay Ridge on August 1941.  Here, they set up camp and trained for war, prior to joining the ensuing Battle of Bataan. A bas-relief sculpture also helps tell the heroic story of the defenders of Bataan and Corregidor.

The bas-relief sculpture

41st Division P.A. USAFFE Shrine: Km. 59, Emilio Aguinaldo Highway, Brgy. Kaybagal South, Tagaytay City, Cavite.