Bohol - Bahlasan og Loboc areas - all new experiences

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After saying goodbye to my dad and Claus, Stefanie and I went to the island Bohol further south. The trip took us back to Cebu where we took a ferry to Bohol.
Arriving at the port in Bohol we had to get to the city of Carmen, but a taxidriver told us that the last bus had already left and that he could drive us for 1500 pesos. We did not really believe him and to our luck we found out that we could still catch a bus which only costs 50 pesos. They do try to scam you so be aware and look into things yourself.

In Carmen we got a lot of offers from motorbike taxis, but when they told us that is was only about 3 km to Bahlasan we decided to walk. After a long walk we asked some locals how far away the hotel was, they said 3 km again and then we decided to take the next bus which only cost 10 pesos and it was worth it, since there still was a pretty long way upthere, probably no matter how far we made it they would keep saying 3 kms.

We got a bungalow for 500 pesos which was very nice. We ordered some food from the hotel lady which was very good. We went for a quick swim in the pool and then showered by the pool, since there was no shower in our room. We went out to find some mosquito spray, but there were no real shops around, we really had arrived at the countryside. So we decided to go to bed early.

The next morning the alarm woke us up at 5 in the morning. We walked with our headlights towards the famous chocolate hills, which took about ½ an hour. We made it at sunrise, but unfortunately there was some clouds and fog so we did not see it at it's best - still very stunning and very worth it though.

It was a very beautiful area, not like anything we had ever seen before. We stayed there for some time, taking pictures and enjoying the view.

Then we went back to our bungalow and packed all of our stuff and took the bus to Loboc which only cost 20 pesos. The driver forgot to tells us that we had to get off when we drove past Nuts Huts resort so we ended up in Loboc town. We had to give 150 pesos to get back to Nuts Huts, which was waaaay too much, but it was by boat on the river and a really beautiful trip so it is excused.

When we arrived we had to walk up what felt like 1000 steps where there was a restaurant and we got some breakfast. Many tourists here (compared to the other places where there almost weren't any), and also some Danish people, nice to meet other backpackers and get inspiration for the travels.

We decided to take a bus to the Tarsier Sanctuary by motorbike and bus, all in all only 50 pesos. The tarsiers are nocturnal animals, and very small and very very hard to find. It is an endangered species because the locals catch them and show them to tourists which ends up stressing the small animals and therefore they do not usually live very long. But at the sanctuary they worked really hard on saving the species and they showed us three or four different ones. They were very cute and funny looking but you could also tell that they are quite fragile. It's the smallest primate in the world.

We waited a long time for a bus back but we had company this time, a Danish guy called Theis, he lived at Nuts Huts too. We ate at Nuts Huts and then went to bed early in our small dorm room with all of the peaceful jungle sounds just outside our room.

The next morning we cleaned up at bit in our room and organized our backpacks and then we went up the endless stairs for breakfast. We enjoyed the view up there for quite some time. When we went back down we counted the steps and there were almost 300 of them.. No wonder we get so tired and hungry everytime we go up there, I bet its their sales strategy!

We walked to a village just outside Loboc, which was a good walk on about 8 km. We wanted to see the cock fight, but we were two hours early. After some time waiting, being greatly entertained by some small local kids the fights began. Stefanie only saw maybe two fights, and I only saw about 4-5 of them. It was very brutal and non of us wanted to place any bets to support it, but we wanted to see how it was since it is such a big part of their lives there. They first by hold them in front of each other and letting one bite the other a number of times and then changing back. They had knives on their legs to make it even bloodier. When one of them were almost dead the fight was over and a "doctor" in the back sowed the loser back together, so he would probably be in a fight very soon again.

We had to take two jeepneys (local busses are jeeps turned into busses) in order to get back to Nuts Huts but we only had to pay 28 pesos all in all.

After that we walked to a ranch 300 meters further up the mountain where we could go horseback riding, which cost 400 pesos. He said that because they were western horses they did not use helmets, but since I insisted that we would still get hurt if we fell of, he found some helmest, I think his kids used them when they went bicycling and they were not pretty at all.
The tour was really beautiful, we passed a water buffalo that bathed in the mud and saw the stunning view from the top of a hill where you could see most of Bohol Island. My horse was really nice, but Stefanies apparantly had some mental problems and galloped through bushes and was pretty much out of control. It was very funny though, galloping around the hills in the beautiful sorroundings but maybe less for poor Stefanie.

For dinner we tried a curry burger which was really good! We had a beer, but Stefanie only managed to drink one zip, but at least she tried - I am trying to train her. We talked a little with Rita who owned the place and she was very sweet and helpful and she gave us a lot of good tips for our travels.

We had company by a couple of gekkos that night, apparantly one of them had decided to live behind our bathroom mirror. Early to sleep since we had to move on again the next day.

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