12 Things To Do in Pandin Lake

The Lakwatchera in Pandin Lake
Photo by Aileen Macalintal

Look where my feet got me: Pandin Lake, San Pablo City, Laguna

 As my balikbayan friend said, the best trips are those unplanned--or more specifically, those with only little planning. One weekday, we decided to go Pandin Lake (my third time) in San Pablo City, Laguna since my balikbayan friend's French husband wants to see trees and lakes.

Being near Los Banos, there's really no need to prepare a lot for this trip. We just needed to contact Aling Siony (09299789565) to reserve a bamboo raft and order packed lunch for the group.

When we arrived in the lake after an hour and a half travel and hike (10 min), everything's set. It was just around 10am, and we planned to stay until 2pm. We never realized that aside from swimming in the lake, there's a lot of (crazy) things one can do while in Pandin Lake:

1. Swim like you never did before. When the bamboo raft was "parked" in the swimming area, what we did was to exercise our arms and lungs swimming from there to the grotto on the other side. We thought it's easy because it's near, but it's not easy and it's not near. It's fun though swimming with all our might for around 20 minutes in a 40-ft deep lake.

The Grotto. Below it there's a source of spring water.

Our swimming area. Visitors are required to wear
those bright orange life vests while in the lake.
It's 40 ft deep!

2. Ride on the coast guard boat. Since we were already tired swimming, we asked Kuya Ato, a barangay tanod who also acts as the coast guard, if we could ride in his boat going back to the bamboo raft. Good thing he said yes.

Kuya Ato, the coast guard

3. Swing on a tree branch and take a picture. In the tree where our raft was "parked", there's a branch hanging like a swing, and the lady rowers said that it can actually have two persons at the same time. It's frightening at first because it does not seem sturdy enough to even have one person on it. But there's nothing else to do but try it out, so try it out we did. Now, we have new profile pictures for FB swinging on this tree branch.

So greeeen. 
Photo: Ai Macalintal

4. Swing on a tree branch and take a plunge. After the kodak moments, it's time to swim again! So to add a little excitement, we dared each other to jump from the swing. Turns out it's the easiest dare we did.

Photos by Aileen Macalintal

5. Do the Nestea iced tea dive. Everyone's familiar with this--you dive with your back hitting the water first. It's more fun if you do it in groups, just like we did. And we did it over and over again. (My friend took a video of us doing this, but I don't have a copy as of now. Will post it soon.).

6. Do the real 'jump shot'. What I mean is, jump to the lake and take a photo. You can experiment on different poses. One of my friends did a superman pose. I did a runner's pose (they said I looked like running in the lake).

Mike's Superman pose
Photo by Ai Macalintal

Running (even) in the lake
Photo by Ai Macalintal

7. Do synchronize swimming, starting with the "elesi" swim. After we're done overcoming our fear jumping and diving to the lake, it's time to go serious in swimming, so we had a synchronized swimming session. Mike was the choreographer, and his first move is the "elesi" swim--we lie sideways then turn our body around. It makes me a bit dizzy, but it's a whole lot of fun.

8. Experiment on other ways to swim. Mike could not be stopped experimenting on the moves for our synchronized swimming. He "discovered" that we can turn around using only one of our hands in the water and moving it like a flag swaying in the wind. I also "discovered" that's it's easier to turn around if you start from the position of lying face down the water then turning clockwise. I could only do this twice or thrice because I really feel dizzy easily.

9.  Go fishing. We were not able to do this, but this can be done. Fishing equipment can be rented for P30 an hour. We saw a lot of fish in the lake, and it must be fun to try fishing in the lake. I'll do it next time, maybe.


10. Feed the fish. If fishing is not your thing, then feed the fish instead. While having our lunch, ayungin fish appeared in the waters. The lady rowers said we can feed them with rice. It's nice to see many fish almost jumping out of the water, outwitting other fish to get the food.

Feeding Frenzy
Photo by Ai Macalintal

11. See the twin lake, Yambo. This is a standard thing to do while in Pandin Lake. Its twin lake, Yambo is only 3-5min trek away. It's best to visit it before you swim in Pandin.

Trek up to see the twin lake.

Yambo Lake and Mt. Banahaw on the background
Photos by Ai Macalintal 

12. Row the bamboo raft. As if you're workout swimming and trekking are not enough, you can ask the lady rowers if they would allow you to help in rowing the boat. While at that, ask them why the rowers are women and not men.

A Lady Rower

I told my friends that Pandin Lake may be my favorite getaway since it's near LB, it's cheap (P180 for the bamboo raft and another P180 for packed lunch), and it's so much fun swimming in the fresh water. I never thought there are so many crazy things one can do while in Pandin Lake, or maybe because I was with my crazy friends (A word of caution though for future visitors: don't be too noisy since there are other visitors as well.).

The Crazy Gang

How to get there:

From Manila:
1. Ride a bus going to Lucena or Batangas. Get down in San Pablo City.
2. Ride a tricycle to go to the city proper. Ask the driver to bring you to 7-11 where the jeepneys to ILOG that will pass by the way to Pandin Lake are parked.
3. Ask the jeepney driver to drop you off to Pandin Lake. Somebody's waiting there to guide you through the short hike going to the lake (that is, if you made reservations earlier).