Laid back afternoon in Lake Pandin, San Pablo, Laguna

San Pablo City in the Province of Laguna is a home of the "Seven Lakes" namely Lake Sampaloc, Lake Palakpakin, Lake Bunot, The twin lakes-Lake Pandin and Yambo, Lake Muhikap and Lake Calibato. The Seven Lakes provide not only leisure to the locals of San Pablo City but also livelihood for many years when tourism started to grow in the area.
After our whitewater rafting experience in Magdalena, Laguna without changing our wet clothes we proceeded to San Pablo City to visit the Lake Pandin and Yambo. From Magdalena Town Proper to San Pablo City it is only 15 minutes drive. If you are from Manila it is only 2 hours drive. Public transportation is also available but in our case we rented a service coaster.

Lake Pandin is said to be the most pristine water among the seven lakes. It has an area 20.5 hectares and a maximum depth of 63 meters. Rafting and entrance fee is P180 per head with complementary buko. 

It was already past 12 noon when we reached the parking lot or the jump-off point of Lake Pandin. From the parking lot, Lake Pandin is just 15 minutes walk away. If you don't want to walk there are motorbikes that are for hired. Most of us preferred to walk even under the scorching heat of the sun.

The bamboo raft can accommodate up to 20 persons but since we are 30 we were divided into two rafts. Bringing your own food is allowed but you can also pre-order lunch from the locals. All of us had brought our own packed lunch and since we were hungry already, we decided to eat our lunch first in the lake shore before sailing and dipping in to the inviting pristine water.

lunch time

while waiting the rafting to begin

After lunch, our bamboo rafting had begun.

the paddlers are mostly women wearing red sweatshirts as their uniform

when we reached the other side of the lake the 2 rafts were tied together

Wearing a life vest is required if you want to dip in to the water even if you are an athlete swimmer.

We were like Japanese koi fish swimming in the lake :D

The water was warm and cold. Upper layer is warm while the bottom is cold and sometimes there are parts that you can feel warm and cold at the bottom of the water.

We really had a nice laid back afternoon in Lake Pandin. The people are warmth and the serenity of the place is conserved. The only one lacking is a decent toilet where you can shower. They have changing rooms  one for women and one for men but the water used to flush the toilet is from the lake itself fetch by the locals. Lucky us that our host has a house in Nagcarlan where we took a bath before going back to Manila. I hope that the Local Government Unit of San Pablo City will address the lacking of descent toilet in the area so that more people would come and see the Lake Pandin. More tourists means more livelihood for the locals.

To reserved a bamboo raft for you and your group and pre-order lunch for another P180 per head you must contact Aling Siony first at 09299789565. She is the leader of the cooperative in Lake Pandin.