DEVELOPERS such as SM Land are building a market among holiday makers lured by the enduring attractions of sun, sea, and mountain.

Pico de Loro, the first of many coves of Hamilo Coast, is conceived as an exclusive, low-impact condo haven that will co-exist with Batangas' rich biodiversity.

Although most of the buyers are city dwellers and entrepreneurs in their 40s and 50s with growing children, Pico de Loro has also attracted active young families and nature seekers.

This community offers condominiums clustering totaling 1,200 units, and a beach and country club that surrounds a lagoon. There are various hiking trails capped by a view decks.

The condo's offerings range from P4 million for a 45-square meter one-bedroom unit to P17 million for a 155-square meter three-bedroom unit, with more special types such as ground floor garden units, bi-level units, and penthouse units. With that investment, inhabitants can wake up in the morning to enjoy the views of the sea and mountain. A unit owner only has to activate his or her club membership to enjoy the facilities and amenities of the beach and country club.

The condo units feature passive cooling from the floor-to-ceiling glass doors leading to the balcony, to the glass louver windows on the hallway side. In the loft units, the ceiling height in the living room area is a little more than six meters in height. The finishes make use of practical materials that require minimal maintenance such as homogenous tiles for the entire flooring, laminate surface wooden doors, acrylic counter tops, and tanguile planks for the stair treads in the bi-level units. The units are fully equipped with emergency power and automatic fire sprinkler.

Josefino Lucas, project head of Hamilo Coast, says, "The water level may drop in the summer so we recycle. In the buildings, the waters used in the toilet facilities are processed and used for irrigation or flushing of toilets so you recapture what you use."

Cooling element

The lagoon will serve as a cooling element and a place for recreation such as canoeing. It will be surrounded by a promenade, where people can walk from the condo all the way down to the beach club. The beachfront experience is composed of a sprawling lawn that provides pockets of privacy, and an active sand area for beach sports such as volleyball. A spectator mound is designed for concerts and weddings. There is a children's zone with climbing structures and a pool. In a nearby alcove, a more private beach area will be secluded from the main beach front.

The Pico de Loro Beach Club has soft launched last February, and the Country Club component is targeted for completion by yearend, providing facilities for racquet sports, bowling lanes, basketball and a gym. An individual club share is priced at a half million pesos while a corporate club share is priced at 850,000 pesos. The price has already increased considerably since Pico de Loro Cove's launch in 2007, due to the burgeoning development of the project. A 140-room hotel is also on the rise for overnight stays of club members and their guests.

Sporting activities are professionally developed and will be supervised by trained staff. Initially, members can enjoy trekking, ziplines to the view decks, biking trails, scuba diving, snorkeling and kayaking. Eventually, intimate parties can be organized at the coves.

Culinary fare

The Beach Club has given members and guests a preview of the Country Club's offerings. The club has surprised the guests with the Sun Coral Café's culinary offerings, by assistant executive chef Romano Catolico. He started in Hyatt Baguio and Hotel Intercontinental and was a pioneer in Billy King's Truffles and Le Soufflé and Top of the Citi.

The original cuisine boasted farm-to-plate style comfort food capitalizing on local ingredients such as beef steak Tagalog with a reduced sauce, and beef adobado prepared from Batangas beef cooked for 24 hours in a slow fire-all of which were plated artistically. Sun Coral Café is currently transitioning into a more international offering, to serve Mediterranean and California cuisine.

A best seller is the seafood trio of grilled mahi, squid and prawns, mixed with Indian spices and tempered by cream and yogurt. The menu is evolving into pastas and pizzas for families. There are also special dishes for discriminating clientele.

Chef Catolico serves a mixed green salad with roasted prawns for starters, followed by pumpkin soup. The steamed, braided dory fillet was drenched in a creamy caper sauce. The main course was a diet-busting seared beef roulade, stuffed with onions, gherkins, spiked with brandy, red wine and demiglacé over angel hair pasta.

The dessert was a light panna cotta with chocolate sauce and shavings.

All that was just a foretaste of what Pico de Loro has to offer. Marge C. Enriquez