Mitra's Ranch --- refreshing hilltop ranch.

Just few minutes walk, about 5 – 8 minutes (on a well concrete road) from Bakers Hill is another attraction called Mitra’s Ranch.   And as the name suggests, it’s a ranch named after the owner (or former?) Ramon "Monching" Villarosa Mitra Jr.,  a prominent Filipino statesman, diplomat, and a renowned pro-democracy activist. (Courtesy: Wikipedia).

It’s a nice landscaped ranch with the original pyramid-shaped house of the former senator with several horses and ponies available for riding for a fee of course.  The down  rolling hill down to the zipline is a nice grassy area where you can sit and relax.  Yes, there’s a zipline where you can glide down the valley. 

The place is nestled on top of the hill and commands an invigorating views of the mountains, the planes, the ocean from a good distance and it’s green everywhere.  The air is a bit colder and refreshing.

Like the neighboring Baker’s Hill, entry at Mitra’s Ranch (also called Sta. Monica Ranch) is free.

To reach the place, you can book the “City Tour” that cost 600 pesos including several stops of the highlights of the city which includes the crocodile farm, baker’s hill, cathedral, etc.

Or you can always hail those notorious tricycles.  If you’re on your adventurous element, you can combine visits to both Baker’s Hill and Mitra’s Ranch on your own by tricycle stopping first at Baker’s Hill and walking your way to Mitra’s Ranch and taking a tricycle back to where you’re staying.