DAYS 6 AND 7 - BOHOL

(editor's note: I sincerely apologize for the lack of posts here; it's been hectic lately. Today I'll post our first two days in Bohol, which I thought were the best. Also, because it's late at night here and we're leaving early tomorrow morning, this will probably be my last post. Don't worry though: we'll have lots of pictures and videos and pasalubongs for you when we return! See you all soon!)

Our flight was at 8am with Cebu Pacific, and we were told that this terminal would not be as pretty and organized as PAL. We are travelling today with Tito Abe, Tita Dolly, and their 3 boys – Yagi, CJ and Bem (who are now in their 20’s but were little kids when we left). Sarah is flying later to join us in the afternoon after work. We checked in our baggage, then headed to the gate, but not before paying the terminal fees. What’s up with the terminal fees? I am surprised that they charge these (they were P200 per person) and didn’t give us warning that we had to pay until we reached the boarding gate. It was the same experience before with our trip to Bicol. It’s kind of disappointing to realize that your cash allotment for the trip has to be reduced by the terminal fee. I would have liked to know in advance that I needed to pay this. Of course, since this is our second trip, I knew better and was better prepared. I heard the international fees were a horrendous P800 per person. Oh well, I guess it’s not so bad after you convert it into dollars. Money here is so quick to spend! I started with P10000 and felt as if I was carrying my entire bank account with me. I realized quickly that the 10000 would be spent in no time, when a single bottle of water was almost P20 and a meal for 5 at McDonalds was about P800!

Cebu Pacific didn’t publish the gates until the plane was ready to board, so all the passengers were gathered in a central waiting area. We didn’t mind it, especially since the 3 Olaguera boys were keeping us entertained with their funny antics. When they called us to board, we were led to the plane, and I was glad that they were boarding from the front and back which facilitated the boarding quickly. The plane was quite new, and it was in much better condition that the Air Phil plane we were in 3 days ago. We quickly found our seats and shortly after, the plane took off. When we were at cruising altitude, the flight attendants got on the PA and started playing a game with the passengers. They asked 3 questions, and whoever answered them correctly got a Cebu Pacific pouch. The 3 Olaguera boys participated in the games with excitement, causing most of the passengers close to us, plus the attendants themselves, to laugh during the game. CJ won a prize, and shortly after the game, they wheeled a cart through the aisle and started selling Cebu Pacific merchandise. It’s definitely a more profitable choice than serving free drinks for such a short flight. Landing in Tagbilaran was pretty smooth, and shortly after deplaning, we were on our way to the resorts. Luckily, our resorts are right next to each other, and after dropping our bags, we joined the rest of the crew for lunch.

(ugh, I really wanted to post pictures, but the server isn't cooperating. I'm really sorry guys, I guess you'll have to wait until we get back to see them! =[ )

I don’t know where to begin talking about Bohol - The island is so breathtakingly beautiful and the resort is definitely amazing! The pictures that we saw while researching different places to stay did not do justice to the place. We stayed at the Amorita resort, where we were welcomed with a “gulaman and sago” drink and a cold towel. The Olagueras stayed at the Alona Tropical Resort next door which had the best beach front in the whole stretch. They even had beach side cottages that were most convenient to beach-loving guests. The distance between these 2 resorts was a 23 staircase up the cliff side for the entrance to Amorita. The beach had white sand – not powdery white, but beautiful nonetheless, and because we came in the summer, we were told that unfortunately, it was a time when the “habagat” winds swept more seaweed and moss onto the beach. But they constantly cleaned the shore, so even with those, it was still very enjoyable. The water was warm, the beach was not crowded – as a matter of fact, most times, apart from some foreigners sunbathing, we were the only ones there. Aside from the beach, Amorita had a very inviting pool, and excellent staff who served all our needs. We sat by the beach all afternoon, eating some freshly sliced mangoes and watermelon and drinking beer (not all of us of course) while talking and enjoying each other’s company. When the sun came down, we moved to the pool, and then had dinner in one of the beach side restaurants, where they had fresh seafood grilled to order (I felt we ate too much seafood on our side trip. All throughout Bohol all they ate was seafood, and it looked so delicous. This was one of the times when I absolutely loathed being allergic. It wasn't that bad though, because Oliver can't eat seafood either, so I wasn't alone). The first day had sunshine perfect for the beach - perfect day, perfect night – tomorrow we’re off to the country side tour!

DAY 7
COUNTRYSIDE TOUR

Today we are headed to a tour to see the chocolate hills, the famous tarsiers and have lunch at a Loboc River Cruise. We rented a van with a driver for the day (P3500) and he took us to all the tourist places. Tours are easy to arrange with the resorts, and need only a day of advance notice. We headed off at 9am, after breakfast – which by the way, was a buffet spread of cereal, diff kinds of bread, chicken relleno, tocino, garlic fried rice, an omelet, pancake and french toast station all made to order – and all included in our accommodation package! The only drawback was we couldn’t eat too much because we would be gone all day, and weren’t sure about the bathroom situation where we were going. Also, Claire and Oliver weren’t feeling well from either dehydration or the food from the night before so both were nervous about eating too much.

Our first stop was chocolate hills – about 1.5 hours from our resorts. We passed by a man-made forest on our way there – a stretch of the road where trees were planted and almost completely covered the sky that it turned dark while we passed through. We took some pictures – while saying “tabi tabi po” (signaling our apologies to whatever mythical creatures we were disturbing along the way).

To be honest, we expected chocolate hills to be a simple stop, because we were thinking: how interesting could it be? A bunch of hills that turned brown and looked like chocolate ? ok! But what we found was fascinating! There was a viewing deck up a 213 step staircase (Oliver and I counted), and the view was just amazing! There were dozens of these hills and it was very pretty to look at from above. We took really interesting pictures – most encouraged by the locals making a living from shooting some creative pictures. They were selling them at P100 each, so it was a good price to pay (They would take them on your camera - but to print them right on the spot cost P100.)

Next stop, Loboc River cruise. But first, we found a butterfly farm along the way, and since we missed the opportunity to see one in Bicol, we stopped. It was a quick 15 minute tour, and the tour guide was very informative, giving us facts about butterflies and moths, and at the end of the tour, we had a chance to see butterflies and touched them – which delighted Rachel a lot!

It was raining heavily on our to Loboc River, but we made it just in time for the 1:00pm ride. Lunch was served at the boat – pancit, adobo, grilled fish, seaweed salad, pork bbq and for dessert – suman and fresh fruit. There was a live singer on board and we enjoyed singing along with him (it’s hard to stop this family from singing!) as he sang Don McLean, Rupert Holmes and a Korean song for the Korean group that joined our tour (of course we couldn’t sing along to that one J) (When my mom types a smiley face into Microsoft Word and I copy it here it comes out as a J. Unrelated, but when she types a sad face it comes out as an L.)

The boat started to move along the river, and while moving, we saw local boys, swinging like Tarzan from tree vines, jumping in the water then as the boat passed, tried to climb on. The rain had stopped, and after a few minutes, the boat parallel parked along a stationary raft where a group of locals were dressed in (neon) green, seated in a semi-circle formation and ready to perform with their ukeleles. As soon as the boat stopped, they all bowed and said “Good Morning visitors” and started singing a song. A dance routine followed, and the group performed with much gusto, it was such a nice treat! The guests were allowed to go down the boat (I don't know if you were allowed to run down, but you guys did it anyway, and we laughed.) and join the performers, so Oliver, Renne, Sarah and I joined in the singing, dancing and the “tinikling” portion. That was a lot of fun and totally entertaining! After the performance, the boat headed back to where it started and the singer on board changed his repertoire to Yoyoy Villame songs about the Philippines! Very charming – complete with the Visayan accent!

Next we stopped to see the famous tarsiers. I must say, this was totally unexpected. The place was a tiny roadside stop, in an area where there were probably less than 10 big potted plants. And after entering the place we didn’t realize that the tarsiers were actually resting on the branches of these plants. They were so cute! They were so tiny! Probably the same size as a small chick. We were not allowed to touch them or be noisy, as they sleep during daylight. We were also not allowed to use the flashes on the cameras, as these would bother them as well (They have ginormous eyes! It's like, ears are to a chihuahua what eyes are to a tarsier). We found a few that were awake, and took pictures of these marvelous primates. The guy watching the area gave us some crickets on sticks to feed them, and it was fascinating watching them grab the crickets with their hands and eat them (They hold the crickets like hamburgers and take huge bites out of them. Head first. It's so cute!). After some of the visitors had left and we were the only ones there, the guy let us hold one of them. Of course all of us took the time to take our pics taken with the tarsier. Some held them with their hands and some put them on their shoulders. The guy said that at night, you can’t hold them because they move quickly and jump from one place to another.

We made one last stop to Baklayon (Oliver took advantage of the hiilarious pun) church before heading back to the resort. There were 7 stops for the tour, but we skipped 2 in favor of going back sooner to have some time to dip in the beach or pool. Besides, we were discouraged from going to the Hinagdanan caves because the locals said it wasn’t as nice as it used to be, and the Blood compact site was not really interesting for anyone of us, so instead of these 2 stops, we headed to a souvenir shop area and spent the last hour there. Back at our resorts, we dipped in the pool/beach for a couple of hours before heading for dinner. The restaurant manager (really funny guy named Rolley) prepared a special table by the cliff side exclusively for us, and we enjoyed a very special night of dinner with a great view of the beach and under the shimmer of a full moon. Tomorrow, we have an early day to take a boat ride to go dolphin watching. (I can tell you now, because it's over, that this trip would not be fruitful.)