Gliding along the paved as well as dirt roads in Barangay Tala, Orani, Bataan, the tricycle tackled the barely imperceptible ascent to the foothills and slopes of Mt. Natib. And then, 500 meters above sea level, with a bracing view of Manila Bay, you came upon an oasis: the Sinagtala Farm Resort & Retreat Park.
There is a chapel (for weddings and renewal of vows), a clubhouse, an attractive pool with waters that seemingly cascade down the mountainside; native-style picnic huts, a three-level treehouse; an organic farm planted to seasonal crops and tropical fruits; adventure trails, and other features.
You are surrounded by fruit-bearing trees, plants, forested areas and thick vegetation. It is cool even during summer.
Sinagtala is owned by Tala Properties, Inc., headed by Felicito C. Payumo, recently named chair of the Bases Conversion Development Authority by President Aquino; architect-environmentalist Nestor S. David, and eleven other associates.
The vision of the founders, aside from the usual refuge from urban stress, includes physical and spiritual renewal, creativity, and productivity. The components are faith, nature-based tourism, and livelihood. In line with this vision, the original residents of the area, informal settlers from Batangas who introduced their coffee trees, were not evicted but given employment opportunities.
A master plan calls for more amenities, including additional guest rooms and a zipline. The resort also has five horses for riding around the adventure trails, which lead to a free-flowing lagoon and a river.
Sinagtala is ideal for retreatants, families (the kids will like the swimming pool and maybe the horses, if properly supervised), seminar-workshop participants and even honeymooners. But if you are a couple, you better be “canonically married” (my phrase, not theirs).
Alcoholic beverages are not served here, and there is no videoke. So you cannot sing “My Way” in Sinagtala, because the NPA rebels who once infested the area might just come back and shoot up the nearby Police detachment.
But you can console yourself with a cup of the excellent Batangas coffee grown here.
Farm administrator Dolet Magpantay says the coffee beans are mostly Robusta but may include Excelea, Barako and Arabica. “There are 10,000 cuttings around the mountainsides, most of them Robusta,” she informs travel buddy Sid Valencia and me. “We have sold 729 kilos of coffee beans to Nestlé, at P116 per kilo.”
The brand name of the product is Kafe Sinagtala, and it is attractively designed and packaged. It is available to visitors at P270 per kilo, but is not yet found in supermarkets. The farm, however, may go commercial.
“Six thousand cuttings were planted this year,” Magpantay says. “In three years bubunga na (will be ready for harvest). We have also harvested 2,000 lanzones.”
Two brief visits to Sinagtala have reinforced my view that Philippine coffee, specifically the Batangas blend—along with gourmet coffee like Roy Señeres’ Kape ni Amba—is among the finest in the world. And there is really no need to import the foreign brands, fine though these may also be.
Sinagtala has no e-mail address, and no brochure. Because construction is still under way, it is not in a hurry to publicize itself and to cope with a deluge of visitors. But the resort-retreat house has become known by word-of-mouth and Facebook accounts by drop-in visitors. The unspoken thought is that the owners want to attract only the right kind of tourists.