SUBIC BAY FREEPORT -The latest tourism attraction Mother Nature was busy creating for 200 years was finally unveiled here last week when Subic's Tree Top Adventure (TTA) opened its facilities to the public.

The new crowd-drawer offers breathtaking views of Subic's lush tropical rainforests, with platforms perched on giant trees 10-100 meters above the ground, as well as motorized rides that zip along suspended cables 140-220 feet long.

"This facility is 200 years in the making. The engineering involved in creating these giant trees was done by Mother Nature herself," pointed out Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) administrator Armand Arreza said during the TTA inauguration on Thursday.

"If tourists would come looking for some adventure, Subic is ready and raring to give them one," he said.

TTA owner and operator Mario Montejo said the P11-million facility offers three basic adventure tours: the Treetop Adventure, where visitors can traverse suspension bridges or take motorized cable rides; the Trekking Adventure, which allows visitors to discover the marvels of the rainforest's flora and fauna at the ground level; and the Ultimate Adventure, which allows the exhilarating experience of soaring bird-like through the forest canopy.

Then for adventurers who prefer a taste of the extreme, Montejo said there is the "Tree-Drop Adventure" where one could rappel down the side of a 60-foot tree in different styles - "the conventional, the spider style, and the daring Australian style, which is headfirst."

Arreza said the tree-top adventure facility offers a new perspective in adventure tourism, which is the SBMA's latest thrust to attract more visitors to Subic.

"After giving you experiences like swimming with whales, close encounters with tigers, and undersea wreck diving, we give you another ultimate thrill - the tree-top adventure," Arreza added.

Montejo said there are a lot of canopy walks in other countries, but the one here in Subic is unique because of the motorized cable lines.

"We wanted to make it safe for our customers, so aside from the safety gears and harnesses, we decided to make everything motorized to ensure people would get from one point of the trail to another," he said

After taking the bird's eye view at the canopy level, he recommends the one-and-a-half hour walk through the wilderness of Subic's renowned virgin rainforest.

He added that local Aetas offer demonstrations of jungle survival, too - right in the middle of the forest.

Pointing out the irregular shape of the platforms perched on trees, Montejo said the structures "were made to adapt to the presence of the trees."

No primary tree was cut down, he said. And for the bridges and platforms, a clamp device using rubber pads, patent pending, was invented "so no intrusions were made into the tree trunks."

Meanwhile, Tourism undersecretary Oscar Palabyab noted during the Tree Top Adventure inauguration the improved accessibility of Subic through the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), which he said is a plus factor to Subic tourism.

"The SCTEx has brought nature to civilization," Palabyab said. "From Manila, it would only take an hour and a half to get into the heart of this tropical forest," he said.

"We're happy that we now have this kind of adventure tourism to market, and we hope the example of Tree Top Adventure could be replicated throughout the country," he said. (30)