Exploring the Countryside

Chocolate Hills. Loboc River. Tarsier Sanctuary.
Three of the many sites to visit when in the countryside - Bohol, to be exact. For 2 months and 18 days, it was all prepping for the grand 2 days and 2 nights vacay to Bohol. I may say, everything was worth it. It was an almost sleepless trip for us- cousins Che and Tere, adopted cousin Shirl and me- for we booked the earliest flight to Cebu for an early connecting ferry trip to Tagbilaran City. With the not-so-straight-from-the-bed-look, the four of us met at T3 for the very early flight.
Whew! What a way to start your vacay!

Through Tatsky, our contact from PEx (you gotta love connecting through this forum for all travel needs), we explored the province - visiting historical, nature-related and religious sites - along with the rest of bakasyunitas who happened to have the same route as ours. We learned about it when we reached... The Sandugo/Blood Compact Site. With the number of people standing in front of the large monument of the Spaniards and the Datus, one might think that there is another blood compact happening on the ginormous table. Pinoys, Europeans, North Americans, East Asians converged in the first stop of the day tour. I even managed to act like I was with the Japanese group just to listen to the guide explain everything in Nihonggo. (Of course, I didn't understand a thing :D)

Ryan, our driver, then took us to Baclayon Church - the oldest in the province. It has a nondescript structure. With the numerous old churches in Bohol, it just looked like one of the oldies...until you are actually inside the Church. The old pulpit, the altar, the walls...the site from the inside was jaw dropping. And the sunlight from passing through the stained glass windows gave a different feel of the church. Rain started pouring (as usual, it rained on my trip!) so we decided to visit its museum. The Baclayon Museum, they say, is a must if one is in the vicinity. We took in all the religious and historical info that we can get by listening to the tourguide (nakisama lang kami, actually) explaining the candelabras and aparadors and Mass books. We "overtook" the group when the guide started explaining the donation history of the cabinets that stored the artifacts. Better read the notes pasted on each artifact, we thought. That way, we can save a lot of time and visit more places. We were hungry by the time we left the church so we headed to the Loboc River for the cruise, lunch buffet and singing. The rain stopped when we reached the river. We were so excited for the cruise (excited na rin for the lunch)...a novelty for the four us and with the rest of our ka-cruise, I guess. While eating sinugba, pusit, chicken and native veggies, our trip along the river started. The resident singer also started belting out karaoke staples that made us feel sleepy after his first set. There was a stopover in a makeshift stage to make way for Loboc natives performing for everyone on board. Every other person was scrambling to take a pic or two of the performers while the 4 of us were busying ourselves taking photos of..ourselves! Hah! We got all the views of the river covered.

As we headed back north, our entertainer began singing upbeat songs. And then, the rain poured. Not the taliti type, but the big fat drops of water accompanied by wind to wet us all. And then, someone at our next table began doing Laida's raindance (with matching bending of his left leg!) in the tune of Jason Mraz's I'm Yours. It was hilarious since the guy looked like a siga na me pagkacomedian. Hmm, I think he didn't dance enough to make it stop. We were like wet tarsiers when we reached our next stop - the tarsier sanctuary. We can't contain our excitement seeing the tiny creatures sleeping. We, the wet ones, didn't mind the rain as long as we get to see the nocturnal animals perched on the shrubs. So tiny and peaceful. We were so respectful of their nappy time that we kept reminding ourselves - No Flash, Please. From a distance, they are so cute yet when you look at them closely - they look like the a cross between Gollum and an Ewok that hangs for dear life like a koala.

The next site we visited was nothing new to me - a plantation that is packaged as Man-made forest. What's amazing with the sight, though, was the feel that the trees were closing in on you. How cool is that? We made our customary stop and photo-ops and "assigned" Ryan to take a "jump" photo of the four of us. We realized that it wasn't easy to do that shot. Timing was not there, definitely. In short, we were out of breath without a decent jump shot. We were then brought to the hanging bridge. Nothing stupendous - it was just a hanging bridge on top of a river. At the end of the bridge is Buko King, if you wanna see him peel husk from the buko. Che's one goal is to cross a hanging bridge...and what a better way to do it but in Bohol! It was a piece of cake, I believe. She reached the end in no time...no screaming or stopping in any point of the structure. Shirl rewarded us with banana-cue! As in the real banana barbied on a bamboo stick, slathered with margarine and sprinkled with sugar. And so, off we went to Bohol's must see.

Chocolate Hills, here we come! After an hour and 30 minutes trip, we reached our ultimate destination. It was a second time for me so I actually know what the hills look like. Giant Kisses, anyone? It was a steep climb to the viewing deck. Make that, steep and Whiteflower-scented climb to the top (maybe it was the scent of the ahjumma and ahjussi we met along the way). We again saw our fellow turistas posing and smiling and posing again. Some were pointing, some were kissing on some imaginary object...which I believed are the hills. Some even had a long broomstick which one can ride on ala Harry Potter on his nimbus. Kunyari they were flying on top of the hills. Hmm, what about a bike para E.T. naman ang dating?

Stitch in Chocolate Hills

We were so tired after the descent from the view deck that we slept like logs while we were on our way to the Python. We didn't look at the python, we were there to buy the cheapest Peanut Kisses being sold in the province! Food trumps python, anytime! Last stop before proceeding to Panglao was the Hinagdanan Cave. It was already dark...and the cave was also dark...and wet and slippery. Good thing there were lamps to allow us to see stalagmites and the large pool like balon. If one needs to buy lots of souvenirs, this is the place to be. Cheapo thingies for the cheapskate tourists.

The four of us inside Hinagdanan Cave

It was almost dark when we reached Panglao Island. The sea had receded and the sun had set. Vacationers and weekenders are still taking their sweet time as vacay time for them is about to end. But not for us, though. It was just the beginning.