Wednesday, October 01, 2008 ‘Swim’ destination By Jenara Regis Newman
IT was a weekday when we made a long overdue visit at Villa Teresita: one pool was occupied by a whole family.
It is a resort that is helping make Talisay once again a “swim” destination, Talisay being once the place of choice to go to for a swim: with water abundant in the place, there were many swimming pools in the area.
Villa Teresita is owned by Pablito and Teresita Santos who came to Cebu from Bulacan to do business.
At first, they engaged in fish trading and settled in Pasil. But Pablito eventually found their place too cramped and too noisy, so he looked for a more serene place, with more room.
He found it in Biasong (Talisay) where he built a house and eventually a swimming pool. This was the start of Villa Teresita which opened its pool to the public in 1998.
Since then it has grown to six swimming pools, plus accommodations: seven air-conditioned superior rooms, nine economy rooms, three family rooms, three dormitory rooms and two non air-con rooms.
For day use, there are 40 cottages. The resort four function rooms and it also accepts in-house catering for weddings, birthdays and other parties.
For the singing enthusiast, there are four sing-along units. And just recently, the Villa opened a dive shop and purchased two dive boats for the scuba divers.
Santos’ daughter Malou del Rosario manages the place which, she says, is still expanding another pool (in Villa Teresita, the pools always come in two’s—with one for children’s use) plus 20 more rooms as the place has attracted both tourists and locals alike.
Even Koreans book there for months. Assistant Suzanne Cerna has learned to deal with them, to discipline them so she has no “horror” stories to tell about them.
The place is always fully packed on Saturday nights when guests can stay up to 5 a.m. for drinking or singing or just shooting the breeze. Swimming is only up to midnight. Disco starts at 9 p.m.
The “star” of the Villa Teresita pool overlooks Talisay Sea and has a 35-foot water slide which operates only on Saturdays and Sundays. Try it, if you dare!
