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Published: August 6th 2007
What The Hell Is That?
The endangered Tarsier on Bohol Is.We arrived in a country where vegetarians would starve, cash registers are used instead of a drawer or pocket, and we haven’t learned a word of the local language because English is widely spoken. The country side is lush, shades of deep green, and volcanos reach the clouds. Groves of palm trees spread inland and ripe coconuts litter the ground while the coastline is dotted with sandy beaches or mangrove trees spreading their roots into the clear aqua blue water. The natural beauty is simply stunning.
Welcome to the Philippines. We made our way, in one very long day, from Yangon, Myanmar to Manila, Philippines via Bangkok. After two short days in Manila, mostly spent catching up on sleep, we headed south on an overnight bus to the small coastal town of Donsol. Ten years ago Donsol was a sleepy fishing village until word got out that whale sharks visited the waters just off shore feeding off the plankton-rich water for a few months a year.
What’s the Biggest Shark in the Sea?
With a special guide, three other “shark spotters” and a boatman we headed just ten minutes off shore on an outrigger
boat for the morning. Sitting on a bamboo pole hanging over the water with our snorkle on we eagerly anticipated the signal from our guide - GO! - off the boat, swimming frantically towards a big shadow. Moments later, appearing from the depths a whale shark would swim directly towards us its wide mouth slightly ajar filling with water and sifting for plankton. Its dorsal fin was just two inches below the surface, sometimes breaking through. We’d swim beside the shark just arms length away from the massive beast. Its girth was wider than outstretched arms, 13m long, and its tail fin about a meter and a half.
After the amazement of just how huge this gentle giant is, you realize how beautiful yet simple its markings are: light grey horizontal stripes and silver dots against a dark grey body. Skin diving, we could find ten inch fish attached to its fins and pure white belly. Free loaders. For 15 minutes we’d swim along side the shark until it decided that more food was deeper in the sea and it would start a slow decent until no longer visible.
In three hours, we swam with six different whale
Sunset
Every night the sky puts on an amazing show! sharks and was equally amazing each time.
We left Donsol quite quickly after seeing the whale sharks (a half hour later we were showered, packed and riding away in a “tricycle”, a motorbike with sidecar attached) heading to the boat dock to catch the first of three ferries, including an overnight one. All went smoothly except having to get a bit angry to get a ticket for the overnight boat. Employees said it was full, but, mysteriously, some beds were available for other passengers behind us in the line. After teaming up with another angry Swiss, we ended up with one bed between Jarrod and I. Once on board, an old lady with an extra reclining chair felt sorry for Jarrod sleeping on a sheet of plywood on the floor and lent the chair to him for the night. The Philippino people really are quite lovely.
On the third ferry we met an American/Philippino man who took us under his wing and treated us to lunch and a free hotel room for the night. He was nice, but we’d had enough of his election stories and were ready to move on by the morning.
We arrived at
Cutest Thing You Ever Saw
On a body size scale their eyes are 150 times as large as ours! Alona Beach on Panglao Island by 9am and searched until noon for a room under $20. Most accommodation was full of Philippino tourists (it’s their summer holidays) unless you wanted to pay closer to $50 a night. Finally we settled on a barrack style concrete block but the sheets were clean and the fan worked.
The following day we rented a motorbike and went to the nearby island of Bohol to catch a glimpse of the cute and cuddly tarsiers and views of the famed Chocolate Hills. After a quick meal of sausage and egg McMuffin (yes, McDonalds or the Philippines version, Jolliebee’s, is one of the cheapest meals we can find) we headed along the coast passing kids playing in the water jumping off of mangrove roots and then headed inland to a tarsier sanctuary.
What’s got Eyes 150 Times Bigger than a Human in Relation to Body Size?
They date back 45 million years, nocturnal insect hunters and can jump to another branch 3m away. They fit in the palm of your hand, have human-like hands and fingernails and have eyes that make them look perpetually freaked out, yet they are soooo cute!
Chocolate Hills
Carol at the chocolate Hills, Bohol They are the Tarsier.
There are tourist shops with caged tarsiers, but since they are quite emotional, some known to cause bodily harm or commit suicide if kept in captivity, we opted to visit them at a sanctuary where they are free to roam in the trees. Each morning, sanctuary employees search the trees for the tarsier’s day-time resting spots and then lead you around to see them gripping a thin branch. Tarsiers stay in the same spot all day, until they hunt again at night fall. They barely move, only twisting their head (which can turn almost 360 degrees) and moving their ears to new sounds. After making a healthy donation so the sanctuary can keep up the good work, we rode further inland towards the Chocolate Hills.
From atop one of the tallest hills, a sea of 1268 symmetrical greenish brown humps rise up and spread out as far as the eye can see. During the dry season, like now, the shrubbery on the hills take on brown colour, hence the name “chocolate hills.” At the top there were many enterprising tourist shops selling shell necklaces, woven palm frond bags, and stuffed tarsier toys… yet no
Diving At Balicasag Island
Back in the water! The diving here is fantastic! one was selling CHOCOLATE! Which I think would have been the obvious, tastiest souvenir… Hershey’s Kisses would be ideal because they’re practically the same shape!
What Lives 30m Under the Sea?
Four day dives and a night dive later, we’ve seen plenty of creatures that live 30m under the water. For two days we completed our Advanced Open Water divers course which now gives us the ability to do deeper (previously 18m max) and more varied dives. Around most of the islands here are walls that drop off, seemingly to infinity, that are fully covered in coral, little crawly creatures and schools of big fish so thick they make a wall of sparkling silver. During the day, the reef was home to florescent blue, pink, yellow and purple fish nibbling algae off of red, orange or green coral. A turtle swam by, countless clown fish protected their anemonies, and eels peeked out of holes. A highlight for me was seeing my first blowfish that ballooned up when picked up and then shrunk back down to size.
At 30m underwater nitrogen narcosis can develop and to test your wits we preformed a simple mathematical equation. Underwater
48x8=296 (because 8x8=56 and 8x4=24 plus 5)
I proudly answered the question thinking it was easy. So proud, in fact, I followed it by drawing a happy face. Clearly I was a little loopy! Jarrod, on the other hand, answered his mathematical question not only quickly, but accurately. Show-off.
At night, orange fish, and only orange fish, seemed to rule the waters. Blood red urchins the size of small soccer ball appeared and I wondered, “Where could something so big hide during the day?” Coral crabs which looked like something that could be in a 1980s horror movie crawled along and other crustaceans also came out to feed. It was harder to find creatures with only a beam from our flashlight, but the ones we did see were definitely different than during the day.
What has Feathers and Can Make a Poor Man Rich?
Sunday afternoon we were back at the dive shop and our dive guide, Ramone, was in a hurry - he was off to the weekly cock fights and invited us along. Normally, cock fights wouldn’t be high on my priority list but we went along as a cultural experience. And
Feathers of Fury!
Yes there are two of them. to think I used to be a vegetarian! Cock fighting is rampant throughout the Philippines. The birds are crowing at all hours, tethered to trees along side the road. Nearly everyone has chickens, therefore, anyone can participate and, best of all, because cock fighting can make a poor man rich.
In the 1800s when cock fighting started to gain popularity. The Catholic church was a bit dismayed that more money went to betting on fights than into their donations boxes. The church decided it was not something they could simply ban and instead laid down some ground rules. Fights were only to be held after Sunday mass and before sundown. Thus, at 4:30pm we set out to the local arena where a large crowd of men had already filled the stands. Outside the ring cock owners decided who would fight who before entering the ring. Once in the ring, the owner of the under dog cock put on a show: holding out their rooster for all to see, shoving the birds close together to show its aggression. They’d put the bird down on the ground and it would peck, mystified, at the string anchoring a three inch blade to
Pangloa Arena
Our dive instructor took us out to see the cockfights and make a little money! it’s left leg. “What’s this?”…peck peck…”What’s this?”….peck peck…
While this was going on the crowd erupted with bets being called out, people trying to get their money in before the fight began. Just as quickly as the noise started it stopped when the ring master grabbed the birds, one in each hand and dropped them two feet apart, beak to beak. Some fights were quick, a severe, deep cut while others lasted a minute or two with the cocks jumping at each other feet facing forward in a frenzy of flapping wings and feathers. All in all it was an interesting experience and Ramone went home happy making 600 pesos (about $13CDN).
Next Stop: Siquijor Island for some more beach time and diving and who knows what else!
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mike
non-member comment
GR8 blog!
good to hear you're having a good time in the islands..keep up the blog.