What are the best things a place can have to be considered as good or even best to be visited especially when you are with your family, friends, or special someone? Relaxing view, wonderful landscapes, things that are displayed and are being sold, cool breeze, creatures to ride on? All of those can be offered by Baguio City’s Wright Park.
Baguio is a famous city in Northern Philippines and is not big, that is why one can easily find the places he would want to visit. If you are in the city and want to visit Wright Park, you should ask others how to get there. They may suggest you to just walk because you are already near the place. Most people there are honest, so you have nothing to worry about asking and having a good or right answer. If they say you are still far from the place, you can take the taxi.
The park has no gate but you can go, let the taxi drop you, and enter the park either in the entrance where plants are sold and the horses can be seen or at the front of The Mansion (the place where the Philippine President stays when he/she is in Baguio). Yes, The Mansion faces Wright Park, so if tourists will go there, they can visit two spots. They can go to The Mansion before or after taking a walk in Wright Park. Most people enter the park through the first option. Before entering, you can take pictures on the statues and hole-faced images of the Igorot. Beautiful and colorful plants are also displayed there. Since the City is known for its beautiful flowers and plants, you can buy them in affordable prices.
Horses can also be found in the place. You can rent a horse (with a person to guide and watch you) and ride on it for Php300 per hour (as of January 2014). The minimum pay is Php150 and that is only up to 30 minutes. You can choose from a lot of horses lined in the place. There are different sizes and colors. Some horses wear their natural colors (brown, black, and white or mixed), and some were in their artificial colors (pink, blue, yellow, etc). The ones which are in pink or blue are what children choose most of the time. You can take the ride around the place and if you are good in horseback riding, you can tell the owner and ride without a guide.
Moving forward, you can have a walk and take the stairs to see the wonderful view of the place, the horses and some people riding on them. You can also go to stalls on the far side of the stairs and buy souvenirs. They have weaved products, key chains, t-shirts, peanut brittles, strawberry jams, and a lot more. On the stairs, you can see people to whom you can rent Igorot attires for only Php10 and take pictures. Igorots are the natives of the Northern Part of the Philippines.
Upon reaching the upper part of the place, you can stop for a while on wonderful structures.
When you already reached the uppermost part of the park, you can see an elongated, rectangular pool in between pine and weeping willow trees. This is the feature that faces The Mansion.
Wright Park can be considered as one of the best places where you and the people with you can enjoy. No entrance fees to be paid, but you can have worthy experiences.
/// Written by Dorothy Joyse V. Pama, The Philippines