awesome!

a hill, by itself, is unremarkable. who has not seen this mound of earth? but place 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills of about the same size, spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres and you got an incredible site. no wonder the chocolate hills are famous. add all the other attractions in bohol and you got a tourism paradise, making it the perfect destination for the devcomm division summer getaway. welcome to bohol!

i have been in bohol twice before. the first time was the tour around bohol: panglao, loboc river, chocolate hills, the whole package. was part of a workshop. sadly, i dont have any of the pictures anymore. i have no idea where they went. an disadvantage of digital photos. lesson: print your photos!

second time was in guindulman in the southern part to make a documentary on their marine sanctuary. beautiful place… also a must-visit.

anyway, back to the trip. (NOTE: more photos here)

Bohol Bee Farm

while the photo does not show even a single bee, this was in fact shown in the bee farm. we wandered off in another direction and ended up in the sea. after, we sampled their food at the restaurant. their homemade ice cream is buzzworthy. the ube fries with latik was also delicious.

we had a tight schedule so those of us who spent the time at the seaside were not able to pose with the bees. a bee did land on me when we arrived so at least i had that interaction. :p

Blood compact shrine

they drank blood to seal their new-found friendship – and no they weren’t vampires. this  shrine in tagbilaran city commemorates the first treaty of friendship between the Filipino and Spanish people – sealed by a blood compact between Rajah Sikatuna nd Miguel de Legazpi in 1565.

the real site of the sandugo, however, is in the town of laoy. we actually passed people in costume reliving the event.

Baclayon church

(information from http://www.byahilo.com/2009/03/16/exploring-bohols-baclayon-church/)

The Church of Baclayon is officially known as the Church of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception. It is said the this church is the second oldest in the Phillippines, second only to the San Agustin in Intramuros Manila.

Baclayon Church is one of the best preserved Jesuit Churches in the Philippines. Just like the church in Loboc, this one was also made using coral stones that have been quarried from the sea. But what is interesting in Baclayon is that they used thousands or even millions of egg whites to cement the coral stones together.

Another unique feature of the Baclayon church is its very large belfry. The bell tower was built in a cubical form unlike the usual cylindrical or octagonal shape.

Loboc river cruise

many (or most probably, few) of you might have heard of the loboc river from the movie ‘Panaghuy sa Suba’ a few years back. dont know anything about the movie besides that so lets talk about the cruise.

the photo shows one of the floating restaurants. this was taken by carlito bibal (thanks kuya lits). the cruise from the pier to the waterfall and back takes about 45 minutes.  enjoy food, music, and nature. loved the stop at a raft with the local performers welcoming us with song and dance.  its a livelihood program so make sure to give them a tip.

Tarsier

Say ‘tarsier’ and people immediately think of Bohol. we also have them in leyte (among other places) but only in the wild. the only hope of seeing them is by holding a stakeout at night as they are nocturnal creatures. so, bohol would be your best bet of posing with these tiny primates – although they are now trying to control this.

fun fact: the philippine tarsier can jump the equivalent of a basketball court in humans ( i do hope i remembered correctly and this is a fact and not a fallacy.)

Balicasag Marine sanctuary

my personal favorite. waking up at 4 am paid off as we saw a pod of dolphins. although we were able to see them closer at around 9 so maybe waking up too early wasn’t really necessary. hehehe. but still, awesome!

next, we went swimming with the fishes in the marine sanctuary nearby. they even ate bread off our hands (see photo). the sanctuary was beautiful. was damaged at parts (from before it was a protected area: dynamite, cyanide, and muro ami fishing) but is recovering.

the guide said something about a turtle with seven colors in its shell (if i heard right). would love to see that next time. i do hope i can go scuba diving here someday.

hinagdanan caves

nothing beats swimming in bat excrement. hehehe.

the water was cool albeit weird-smelling. also treated to daredevil dives from some of the locals. you think that they would hit the rocks but amazingly, they don’t. took a while before i jumped from the highest point since the water looked really shallow from my vantage point. my feet touched bottom but no damage.

tourist tip: the souvenir t-shirts are cheapest at the shops here.

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visit awesome bohol (their words)! more photos here.