September 5-7

---

September 5th - Exploring Bohol - Dia 76
Before leaving Bohol I wanted to explore the island with friends. I had made a local Philippine friend named Rachel which was willing to show me around. With two other friends we grabbed our motorbikes and headed off.
Our first stop was a conservation center for the smallest primates in the world, Tarsier. I thought it was going to be hard to find them but the guide already knew exactly were they where. Being nocturnal they are inactive during the day. Making it even more easy to take a picture since they just stood hugging the trees. Cutest little primates which are endangered due to the loss of habitat from all the palm tree plantations.
After, Rachel didnt seemed to have payed attention and we left behind the road towards some waterfalls she wanted to show us. With the road too far to head back we changed the plans to no plans and kept on going. Through beautiful palm tree vegetations and rice plantations. I was happy to just motorbike through the island. The views and the sun hitting my back felt amazing.
Soon enough Rachel, being on the back sit of my motorbike, shouted excitedly and told me to stop. On the side of the street there seemed to be a trail leading to a river which she sayed had a beautiful waterfall she had forgotten about. ?
We head down and were welcomed by a beautiful green river and small waterfall. Completely emptied apart from a local fisherman standing on top of the waterfall with a huge bamboo fishing rod. A soothing scenery.
We stayed around the waterfalls for a while. There was a cool rope swing and a I tried a good looking water slide going down the waterfall. What an experience! Straightening your body you  felt as the current picked up and shooted you down the waterfall. Plunging into the water and being pushed back and forth under the water for a while before surfacing far away. Never fight the current ?
After we decided to head over to the famous Chocolate Hills. To get there we passed through a beautiful dense "man made forest", being called like that. Gorgeous to ride the bike through it since all the big trees arched inwards towards the street.
The scenery changed and the Chocolate Hills started to be seen. Till the eye can see you have rounded monolitical hills covered by long green grass. To enjoy the view you had to hike up one of the hills. One of the hills was specially for tourists and it had a viewing platform at the top. With Rachel as a guide we found ourselves hiking a different hill to enjoy the views alone ?.
We head back the way we came from. To make the ride back shorter we did a final stop to a waterfall. Amazingly we also did not find any tourists in this waterfall. There was a cool little cave on the side of the waterfall. With my phone as a flashlight I walked into the small cavern. Going deeper I found myself in a small chamber with cool stalactite formations. And around the corner I could see a ray of daylight. AHA! An exit point ?. Unfortunately after checking it I decided not to go for it. Water went through it and my phone was going to get wet ?
With not to much light left to jumped back in our motorbikes and head back to our Hostel. What a day,! happy that I managed to explore the island before leaving.

September 6th - Siargao! - Dia 77
Time for a new adventure I got on a plane towards Siargao. Known as the best place for surfing in the Philippines. I was excited to improve my surfing. I did not know what to expect in Siargao. I had been told it was full with tourists, was a party town and was going to be over-crowded due to an upcoming surfing competition. I was still excited. So I had a picture of it being similar in size to Bohol. Oh was I wrong...
In the flight to Siargao I was treated by some unreal aerial views of the Philippines. Some amazing oceanic colors and tropical islands.
As the plane landed in the only domestic Airport and we got off the plane I realized this was nothing like Bohol. Seemed to be as if I was in the airport of Fort St John, Canada again. A really small and empty space. I had been wrong in assuming it was going to be a big touristy island. The only option out of the airport was taking a white van to the town of General Luna. Me and two other cute Australian girls took the ride. We were all super excited and just couldn't believe how non touristy and remote the place felt. Loved it. We were taken through a narrow road between small filpine communities living under a forest of palm trees! ??
As we entered the small town of General Luna it became more touristy with the inclusion of restaurants, hostels and surf shops next to the main road. Siargao is becomjng more busy as the years go by. Many foreigners are coming to live here while opening a small business to keep some cash inflow. I was lucky to have visited Siargao before it blows up and looses the sensation of the rural philipine life style.
Dropped off in the Hostel I met a Spanish guy named Carlos who was also just arriving. I knew I was going to become close friends with him.
We left the Hostel to explore the little town before night. With our first steps out into the street we saw two street dogs fighting extremely aggressively. As we walked away we then saw a small puppy being recently runned over by a motorbike. He was still twitching.. such a graphic scene ?. Siargao➡️ the lands of the dogs.
Siargao is a paradise in the Philippines. I enjoyed how you have a small touristy zone but in less then 5 minutes you are in a rural area. Hopefully it stays like that.
For the rest of the evening I managed to rent a motorbike with gears. No more scooters for me ?. I was renting it for around 7 canadian dollars a day.. Cheaaap
Carlos and I met a couple of more Spanish people who where staying in the Hostel and joined them for dinner. We went to a Spanish restaurant... For your information I don't know exactly why but Siargao is filled with people from Spain. ? I ate a nice dinner accompanied by a beer and chatted with new friends.
To end the night well we decided to go partying. First place I visit while traveling, which has proper partying. It was a really good night out. Free entrance to listen to an extremely good electro DJ. It felt good to be living the island life ?

September 7th- Siargao Day 1 - Dia 78
Starting the day early regardless of having gone out last night I had breakfast and prepared to ride my motorbike around the island. I had not rented a surf board yet so I wanted to take spend my first day exploring ?
About to leave I saw two friends I had made last night, eating breakfast, a local Filipino and a German guy named  Albert and Dominic. Deciding to better explore the island with friends I joined them. Later being  joined by an Asian girl and another German guy we had a solid group of 5. Before leaving though they all had to rent motorbikes, which ended up taking forever. The consequences of traveling with friends I realized jajaja.... You have you know how to wait. But I was in no hurry and cool with it ☺️
All of us with a bike we zoomed off into the northern section of the island. Our objective of the day was visit some rock pools which form with low tide. Riding with 4 other friends in motorbike was such a wonderful experience. We shared the excitement as we passed some extremely beautiful palm sceneries and rural villages. Honking all at the same time, shouting at each other and goofing around with the motorbikes. We passed through a viewing point where you could see a forest of just palm trees. It was a natural forest, not man made...which made it even more special. Palm tree, after Palm tree nothing else, I had never seen something like that before. Another memorable memory was motorbiking through a small rural village living next to a salt river. They lived on little bamboo houses on top of the water. And the kids around that area where so nice and excited to see you. Every group of kids you passed by waved and sayed hi to you enthusiasticly ?.
Riding on we finally arrived at the beach. Confused at first because we could not see anything like the pictures we had seen online. Don't get me wrong, the white sandy beach was beautiful but we where looking for some more action then laying on the sand ?. After a couple of minutes of looking around we realized the rock pools where at the farthest side of the bay. It looked a bit different since it was actually high tide right now so everything was covered with water. You couldn't actually see any pools ?
Not letting this small natural occurrence ruin our experience we went over to explore the coraled area. Supposedly you had some rock formations you could jump from...
Not finding a way towards the far rock formations, which we thought you could climb and jump off we decided to swim for it. Well I was the only one with shoes so I jumped in the water and swam towards the rock formations. Crystal clear water, seeing your hand and arms with the clearest detail while you swam. Life is awesome!
Noticing how the rock around the area was extremely sharp I told my friends to bring their sandles. Not about to jump in the water they actually managed to find some hidden stairs going into the forest and staying close to the shore, leading to where I was floating. ? So in no time they where next to me and we where trying out the jumps around the rock formations. So fun! We where trying all types of styled jumps into the ocean. The biggest one we found was around 4 meters tall. ? Good times
Exhausted we left and now enjoyed the beach nearby. Sitting down on a table overlooking the sea. We ordered something to eat and drank a cold refreshing beer. Ahhhh
With night arriving in a couple of hours we left and headed back home. Being still equally impressed by the landscapes we passed by. Deciding to do a quick pit stop at a house which we saw were training there roosters to fight. One of the main weekend activities in the island are Rooster fights. To train the roosters they make them fight without knives attached to their claws. We saw two man on the side of the street fighting their roosters. Quite the experience. They each carry their own rooster petting them lovingly and then throw them violently out in front of them at the same time. Once the rooster lands on the floor it immediately starts fighting.
Back in the road we made it home with light.
Deciding to meet up later to go out partying the group parted ways.
My idea was to take a nap but once I arrived to the Hostel I asked Carlos if he wanted to go for a run. We went for an amazing night run. I felt really good and thought about the hard times when I had my knee injury. Good thing I left that behind 😊 One of the best parts about running  in Siargao were the stars. You could see all of them as if you where camping away from the city.  ⭐⭐

---