A day of Wildlife, Nature and Adrenaline

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Our time on the island of Bohol, the 10^thlargest in the Philippines, was short but ever so sweet and we had a fantastic adventure filled day which will stay with us for a long time. We had a bit of a drama getting here though…First the Banka boat, which was to take us from Malapascua back to Maya on the mainland, was moored about 100 metres away from the shore, so instead of getting straight on it, we had to pile into a small rowing boat with 10 other people to get to it first, and we had to pay extra for the privilege. Then everyone had to half climb/jump over on to the boat, then luggage was passed up, so all this took a while. When we eventually reached Maya, the boat docked again about 100 metres from the shore, so once again everyone was sandwiched into a small paddle boat, along with all the bags, and taken to the shore – the boatmen tried to charge us for this too but we said no, as we had already paid for the big boat and the first small boat and we weren’t paying again. Then the bus took an age to leave, and the driver crawled for the first hour, picking people up and then making some longer-than-necessary stops along the way, so even though we had given ourselves over 6 hours to make the journey (which should only take 4-5 hours) and catch the 3.30pm ferry to Bohol, we somehow missed it and ended up having to wait 3 hours at Cebu City port until 6.30pm for the next one! We filled our time in a local BBQ place and had some yummy food so it wasn’t too bad in the end, just a bit annoying. The price of the ferry also seemed quite high – 520 Peso’s each for the 2 hour journey – but we didn’t have a choice as it was the last one of the day going and we didn’t want to stay in Cebu again.



We had been deliberating over how to spend our time on Bohol and which area to stay in, and by the time we reached the island we still hadn’t decided, but the choice was taken out of our hands in a way as we arrived later than planned, which was probably a good thing in the end. As soon as we exited the ferry terminal at Tagbilaran we started speaking with a driver and had soon arranged an itinerary for the next day which would enable us to see everything we wanted to on the island by car, so decided it would be more convenient to just stay in the town for the night and get an early start the next morning. Even though we were contemplating staying at the recommended Nuts Huts in Loboc, this just worked out better for us and the driver dropped us to a small hotel in town where we got a room, popped out for a bite to eat at a local chicken place (one of the only places open but it was really good!) and went to bed, excited for the next day.



An early start prevailed and by 7am we were in the car and on our way to the first destination of the day, Danao Adventure Park, located about 2 hours away deep in the jungle in Bohol interior. The scenery along the way was spectacular (even if the roads weren’t) and once again we couldn’t believe how undeveloped this country was – we are loving travelling here! The main reason for visiting Danao was so that we could try out some of the adrenaline activities such as the ‘Suislide’, where you are ziplined along a 400 metre long cable suspended high up in the air over deep ravines, like Superman. We had planned to do this together as you can go tandem, but once I saw how high it was, I had visions of the cable snapping and vertigo got the better of me and sadly I chickened out. However Scott still did it on his own, and said it was really fun with great views and not even that scary, so maybe I should have been brave and done it after all! After that he was after more adrenaline so before he could change his mind, he decided to conquer ‘The Plunge’ – a 75 metre freefall bungee swing which would propel him across 200 metres into the gorge, the deepest in the world. You couldn’t pay me to do this but he had his mind set on doing it and before I knew it he was being strapped up and tied in and was walking down the platform suspended in the air to do it. He did look a bit nervous at this point bless him (I was feeling a bit sick just from watching, along with a few other people too), especially when he was lowered slowly inch by inch off the platform at the beginning, then the guy said 3,2,1, bungee, let go of the safety cord, the rope went slack and he just dropped! His screams could be heard for miles I’m sure but once the initial shock was over and he was swinging through the air like Tarzan with the jungle and river below him, he loved it and was giving everyone a thumbs up and ‘wooing’, and we were all clapping - as soon as he was back on land he said he wanted to do it again! I was really proud of him and got a great video of the whole thing – what an experience.



After the morning’s activities we were off towards the more relaxed Chocolate Hills, a set of several iconic hills which protrude out of the ground and span for miles and are either green or brown depending on the time of year. It was raining when we got there but soon stopped and the sun came out so we hiked to the top of the view point and were really impressed with what we saw – we thought they were very surreal looking and looked like green lumps instead of hills but were nice to see and it was something we had been looking forward to seeing for a while so another sight ticked off. After some lunch the driver asked if we wanted to stop off at a Butterfly Conservation Centre, which we weren’t too fussed about but agreed and it turned out to be great! We got a tour of the circle of life of butterflies and got to see some very rare species in the centre, some of which were huge and others were really colourful, we even got pictures of us looking like we had butterfly wings which was cool and we enjoyed our time there. Then it was onto the place we were most excited about, The Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary. Now there are two of these kind of places on the island, one near Loboc (close to the Choc Hills & Butterflies), which is said to be quite busy and not very natural, and the other one which we went to which is more authentic, near the small town of Corella. Tarsier’s are an endangered species and are one of the world’s smallest primates. They look a bit like monkeys, with huge eyes 150 times bigger than a human’s in relation to its body size. We paid the 50 Peso entry fee and walked with a guide into a jungle type area where the Tarsiers here are kept – it’s an open air forest-like environment which best replicates their natural one, and they are hidden amongst trees and plants. You cannot touch them as it drastically decreases their life span and they are very sensitive to noise so we had to be extra quiet. At first we couldn’t even see them, but luckily the guide knew where they were and started to point them out to us. We were amazed at how small they are, really tiny! They could easily fit in the palm of your hand, and while they are very cute looking they can turn their heads almost 360 degrees and their eyes are huge so they can look a bit freaky too. We have never seen anything like them before and we were lucky enough to see 6 of them all within about 20 minutes which was amazing, as we will probably never see one again – a real highlight of the trip for us. This was a great experience and we would recommend this sanctuary over the other one as it is attempting to ensure the survival of the Tarsier by breeding these creatures and releasing them back into the wild eventually.

By this point it was late afternoon and we had seen everything we wanted to see, so asked the driver to head back and drop us off on Alona Beach on Pangalao island, attached to Bohol by a small bridge. We had decided to spend a couple of days here so Scott could dive and we could see what the hype was about, as Alona beach gets good reviews, but also because the cheap ferry to our next destination wasn’t for another 2 days and we didn’t want to fork out more than we needed to. After driving around the area for 30 minutes trying to find accommodation, we gave up. Everywhere was full, maybe because it was the start of Chinese New Year that day, but also we just didn’t get a good feel for the place and felt our time would be better spent elsewhere, so made a quick decision to move on that night. This meant we had to rush back to the port to catch the last ferry of the day, and also meant we would have to pay the inflated ticket price which we were annoyed about, but in the end we had saved ourselves at least 2 days and with just 21 days to explore this incredible country we have to make sure we spend each one somewhere we really want to be. Even though we only had one full day on Bohol, we loved it and saw so much – a car and driver was a great way to see the island (although you could also hire a motorbike) and we had a brilliant day with more fab experiences. At heart we are beach bums though, so we couldn’t wait to get back to a beach!



S&V's Travel Info & Tips:

General Info: Approx 65 Peso's to £1.

Transportation: From Cebu City we took an Ocean Jet ferry (2 hours) to Tagbilaran on Bohol, it was fairly expensive at 520 Peso's pp. Our private car and driver for the day cost 2,500 Peso's and we had him from 7am-5pm. If you are not going to Danao this shouldn't cost more than 2,000 Peso's.


Food: We had some nice chicken and rice in a local place in Tagbilaran when we arrived - it was late and everywhere else was closed.

Accomodation: We got a room at Nisa Traveller's Hotel in town for 700 Peso's-probably a bit expensive for what it was but had hot showers and included breakfast, plus was in town. There didn't appear to be much else around.


Other observations:

x) People continue to be friendly and helpful here and are so polite.


xx) The air-con on the ferry was freezing!

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Comments

[littlewing]

Lovely blog
Glad to hear there is some good conservation work going on with Tarsiers..special arent they :) enjoy your trip!

[TinNiE]

glad you're having fun :) you'll love the beaches! safe travels. x