Bohol, day 2

The Countryside Tour

The rest of day one was just driving to the Bohol Bee Farm, having a sumptuous organic dinner, deciding on the next day's activities (dolphin watching and going to the beach were scrapped thanks to the typhoon causing scary waves at sea) and then getting some rest.

The next morning we were picked up by Mr. Giovanni in a silver Toyota Vios. The car had race-car type upholstering, and as soon as we were on the main road, we knew why. The driver did not waste a second on the road, pushing 95 kph and overtaking some vehicle every ten seconds. We didn't mind, since at that point every extra minute counts given that we've already spent a day of our vacation flying around the country. But Mr. Giovanni was a noticeably careful driver, despite his need for speed.

The first stop was at the Blood Compact Shrine, where a life-size brass sculpture stood depicting the event when Datu Sikatuna forged a pact of friendship with Don Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, a Spanish Conquestador representing the King of Spain, back in 1565. After taking some pictures, we took off to see the tarsiers in Loboc.

They're so cute! Up close, the tarsiers are like a cross between a mouse, a monkey, and E.T. (look at those fingers!). One of the caretakers took us to a secluded part of the mini-forest so we could take pictures with the the tarsiers "in secret". This "secret area" also happened to have a box to the side clearly marked as "donation box". Hehe.

Then off we were to the Chocolate Hills.

We had to climb a total of 214 concrete steps in order to get to the viewing deck, which gave a breathtaking view of the hills. Little did we know that we were actually on one of the 1,247 hills. There are a few theories on how the hills were formed, but the one on the plaque on the site states,

The unique land form known as the Chocolate Hills of Bohol was formed ages ago by the uplift of coral deposits and the action of rain water and erosion.

After that we dropped by the man-made forest and the hanging bridge (photos later), then went straight to the Loboc river for a lunch cruise. We were the first to arrive at our boat so we got the front seats for viewing the river. The locals said the river is usually dark green, but at the time it was muddy brown since the recent storm had disturbed the riverbed. The food wasn't so great, in fact the best part for me was the limited amount of coke (230 ml?). I think what we really paid for was the cruise, the accompanying serenade from a talented guitar man, and the song and dance presentation from boholano kids at the turn of the journey. Also thanks to the storm, we could not complete the usual route of the cruise because of strong currents. But overall it was a fairly pleasant experience.

We then went to one of the oldest churches in Asia (sadly I cannot recall the name), which had a museum but was closed at the time. After a while, we went to buy stuff at the souvenir shop recommended by Mr. Giovanni. The prices there were fairly cheap compared to the ones along the Loboc river.

And that pretty much sums up our Bohol experience. :)