The Lakes of San Pablo City, Laguna - Pandin Lake

Pandin Lake

The next lake that I went to is the Pandin Lake, since the tricycle driver told me that it was the nearest lake to Bunot Lake.

Since Pandin Lake is a popular destination, a parking space is provided for the tourists. This parking space is my drop-off point. From here you need to trek a very challenging trail. On my way to the lake, I get lost (even with the help of a GPS) and ended up in a village. I then returned back to the parking lot and asked for some directions.

There are tourist guides in the area and most of them are kids that you can pay as low as Php 20.00. When I returned to the parking lot, one of the local men served as my guide as he said he will be also going to the lake. Aside from myself, there were two other tourists that followed us.

The trail at the lake at first was simple, but after passing the arrays of trees, comes the challenging part as it is an uphill trail. Aside from the trail is going up, there were also no trees around to give shade or breeze of air to cool your exhaustion. And the trail is also kind of steep. But once you reach the topmost of the trail, you can already see an overlooking of the lake.

the view of Pandin Lake while at the top of the trail

At the side of the lake you will already see big rafts waiting for passengers. The women of the village serve as the guide and boatmen for the rafts. They would welcome every tourist that came and offer the services of their raft and a packed lunch that can come along with the tour of the lake. The cost of the raft ride depends if you would also order a packed lunch, but I heard it’s around Php 360 for the tour with the lunch. 

the rafts getting ready for the passengers

the women of the town

the rafts sailing at Pandin Lake

You could also reach Yambo Lake by crossing the Lake Pandin. Since I was travelling alone, I did not take anymore the raft ride, so I was not able to visit Yambo Lake.

the empty rafts

the newly arrived tourists