Bicolandia’s new luxury resort celebrates faith, food and family

GARDEN TO TABLE Trixie Odiamar personally plants trees in their property to create products for her gourmet line named after her mother, Maricar, and her wellness line named after the iconic Mt. Isarog, to honor her hometown. —Margaux Salcedo

We know Bicol for Mt. Mayon, the volcano renowned for its perfect cone. But to the north of Albay, where Mayon is, you will find another gorgeous volcano in the city of Naga: Mt. Isarog.

Mt. Isarog is in the heart of Camarines Sur and is the highest forested peak in Southern Luzon. Mt. Isarog National Park is rich in diverse flora and fauna, with over 1,300 known species of plants in its over 10,000 hectares, including Philippine deer and wild boars.

On my visit on Sept.11 to Naga for the Rite of Pagbado of Our Lady of Peñefrancia, I had the pleasure of staying at Isarog Highlands, for now open to friends of the Odiamar family but will hopefully open to the public in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Isarog Highlands is a family project of Roberto and Maricar Odiamar, with their children Karl, Trixie, Hero and Rocky. Trixie, their only daughter, has been especially hands-on in the development not only of the property but of products that are distinctly Bikolano and especially Isarog.

The property started out as a playground for Maricar’s love for nature, as she would plant trees and do landscaping. Her daughter Trixie inherited this love for nature and hands-on approach to gardening; upon her return to Bicol after her stint as a communications specialist at the United Nations in New York, she poured all her energy to honoring not only her parents but her hometown.

Soon, Isarog Highlands was born. It is a 12-hectare property that blends the luxuries of a five-star resort with the warmth of Bikolano hospitality and the stunning beauty of Mt. Isarog, which is both its backdrop and main attraction.

Maricar’s Gourmet Kitchen

To give visitors a taste of Isarog, Trixie developed Maricar’s Gourmet Kitchen, a line of delicacies made by their family. Bicol is known for its pili nuts, which Isarog Highlands grows in its garden. Maricar’s Gourmet Kitchen offers Premium Pili Nuts, noted as a superfood, with Himalayan Salt and Shallots or with Himalayan Salt and Chili Pepper.

She also makes homemade peanut butter—her mom’s favorite—in small batches upon order because she roasts the peanuts herself, and mixes in dark honey, chia seeds and Himalayan salt.

The line also includes sardines in olive oil, a tribute to her grandfather Rino, a fisherman from Ilocos, and her grandmother Jacobina, who comes from a coastal area in Bicol.

Isarog Beauty Botanics

However, Trixie’s real passion is in wellness products. A botanical nerd and chemistry enthusiast, she has developed her own line of soaps and lotion using pili oil, as both a tribute and promotion of the products and beauty of her hometown.

The line has three kinds of soap using pili: Rejuvenate, which also uses coconut and singkamas; Renew, which also uses papaya; and Recharge, which also uses akapulco and yerba buena or Philippine mint. She has also created a Pili Lotion that uses pili, sampaguita, coconut, cacao, shea, cica and almond. It has a gently musky fragrance and an effective lather that does not feel heavy at all! Seeing this line, it is amazing what she has done to fully utilize the pili nut!

Bikolano food

At Isarog Highlands, you will also get a taste of authentic homemade Bikolano food with ingredients right from the property. They serve natong or laing, which distinctively does not have pork; pasayan or shrimp; kinunot that uses shark’s meat and ginataang santol.

Trixie jokes that her parents complement each other because her mom takes care of the flora, with her green thumb, while her dad takes care of the fauna as he raises chickens. (The chicken they use for their tinola is from their farm.)

CENTENNIAL The 100th anniversary of the Canonical Coronation of Our Lady of Peñafrancia will take place on Sept. 20, with the reenactment to be led by Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Charles John Brown. —Contributed photo

Our Lady of Peñafrancia

But most of all, you will get a taste of their faith. The garden has a beautiful chapel in the middle of the garden whose glass walls allow you to see a life-sized image of the Risen Christ in the background. Beside the altar is an original crown of Our Lady of Peñefrancia herself, which the church entrusted to their family when the crown was replaced.

The Odiamar family sponsored the manto or the dress of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, whom locals lovingly refer to as ‘Ina’ (Mother), for the Centenary of the Canonical Coronation of her image. The manto was designed by legendary designer Avel Bacudio, who ensured that this manto honors the canonical manto of 1924.

It features a mirrored map of the Bicol region with Mt. Isarog below. In the middle is a Pili tree with 6 roots representing the six Bicol provinces — Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Catanduanes, Masbate, and Sorsogon, and seven branches for the seven Dioceses of the Bikol region – Caceres, Legazpi, Sorsogon, Masbate, Virac, Daet and Libmanan. The leaves represent the gathering of all devotees.

Endemic flowers of sampaguita, ylang ylang and blue jade vine, are also included in the manto to show Inâ’s grace and beauty. The stones that are arched toward one direction represent the voyadores’ dedication to serve our Ina. The six angels in the corners represent the devotion of each member of the Adviento-Odiamar family.

Naga is truly enthralling. Faith, food, family … you become both rejuvenated and overjoyed. That is the effect of Isarog … and certainly an effect of the love of Ina! Viva la Virgen!