Province of Negros Oriental Off The Beaten Path

a different kind of zoo

by uysijessa

we read about paradise zoo while researching on things we can do in negros oriental and not having anything else to do on a saturday afternoon we headed in that direction. paradise zoo is located in one of the barangays in zamboangita. from dumaguete we took a jeep (P20/pax) and got down at the town proper of zamboangita and then rented a habal-habal that would take us to the zoo and back to town (P150). the zoo was spearheaded by the late Eleuterio Tropa, a former catholic priest who formed his own religious sect cum environmentalist group who called themselves “The Lamplighters”. it is also called Spaceship 2000 ET and is an extensive ipil-ipil forested area enclosed by a perimeter fence. for an entrance fee of P10 you can walk around the place and find birds of varied species and zoo animals such as a snake, a tiger, crocodile and some monkeys. there is also a museum inside that...