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Published: December 15th 2010
Where to start?? We had a very adventurous day indeed. Woke up to a beautiful sunrise, another great meal here at Amorita and then we met our guide, Tatsky. Tatsky greeted us in a nice Toyota Innova which is like a 4-door minivan but smaller and we set out. Our itinerary was to include a visit to the Chocolate Hills, a butterfly farm, a special cave, checking out the largest Philippine python in captivity, hop on a "Floating Resto"--or restaurant boat--for lunch, see Tarsiers and alot more.
Before I begin, a little backround on the island of Bohol. Bohol is a large island south of Manila with a land area of about 1590 sq miles and a population of about 1.2 million people. The capital is Tagbilaran City. The main industries are farming, fishing and agriculture but the island also supports mining for limestone and manganese and, of course, tourism. The Philippines, with its many different islands has many different language dialects. Bohol is in the Visayan region of the Philippines and Visayan is a dialect unto itself, but here they also speak Boholano. Maria and Auntie Chi can communicate in Tagalog, which is the major dialect in Manila. Everyone
Climbing Stairs
Maria, with Joseph in the background, climbing the 214 steps to the viewing area for the Chocolate Hillsis helpful and friendly and for the most part, can speak and understand some English.
Chocolate Hills This is one of Bohol's main tourist attractions. We climbed 214 steps to get to the viewing deck. Though my pictures depict green hills, during the spring and summer when the rain lessens, the 1,776 individual hills turn brown and do indeed look like chocolate hills. These hills were formed by erosion of limestone and coral deposits that were once under water but now form a cool geographical site.
Butterfly Conservation Center This stop was one of our favorites today. A very knowledgeable guide walked us through an interactive tour of the Simply Butterfly Conservation Center. We got to see a butterfly make it's first flight after hatching from its chrysalis, learned the differences between a butterfly and a moth, saw an Atlas butterfly (which is as big as my hand) and got alot of hands-on with the butterflies in the exhibit. Erin held caterpillars and all 3 kids got to hold a variety of butterflies. Some smelled like chocolate and some even smelled like caramel! We even learned about androgenous butterflies, very curious because one wing is female and one
Chocolate Hills 1
I've totally lost my sense of direction here, but these little hills stretch out for as long as my eye could see in every direction; 1,776 of them in all. is male. In the butterfly world, the female is dominant and has the big colorful wings while the males are usually smaller with more nondescript coloring. Though they possess both male and female organs, they cannot reproduce.
Man-Made Forest We drove through this area that was planted about 60 years ago with seedling mahogany trees...we even stood in the middle of the road, hoping not to get run over by the tricycles and trucks, to take some action shot photos with Erin, Jack and I jumping while Tatsky clicked away.
River Cruise Probably the most "touristy" thing we did was hop on the Riverwatch Floating Restaurant. They laid out a nice 'all-you-can-eat-before-the-food-runs-out' buffet and we went on a 90 minute cruise of the Loboc River with a stop to watch some local dancers and take in the lush greenery of the hillsides. Food was good and they had a musician on board that sang some cool tunes. He even broke out with "the Love Boat" theme!
Tarsiers The worlds smallest primate. These little guys and gals were discovered here about 25 years ago! They are a part of the Monkey family, are nocturnal, will fit in the
Chocolate Hills 2
Same location, different direction palm of my hand and can only be found here on Bohol. In the wild they can only be found in the virgin forest. My pictures are from one of 3 licensed sanctuaries that are charged with preserving and promoting the species. We also got to see a Flying Lemur who was eating a midnight snack (also nocturnal) and cuddling its new-born offspring in its pouch.
One Giant Python Back to large things is the world's largest Philippine Python. This snake is cool...and I am not a snake/iguana guy. He was found about 8-10 years ago, weighed about 50 lbs and was 12' long. Now he is about 18 years old, weighs about 500 lbs and is close to 20'. He eats a pig or 2 goats each month and he's still growing. Experts say this one could live well past 80 years of age of age.
Hinagdanan Cave in Bohol Maria, Erin, Jack, myself and even Auntie Chi (hip replacement and all) made our way down some very steep and slippery steps to a nearby cave for some photos. The kids were a little bummed out because they didn't bring thier swimsuits. There is a brackish (seawater
Jack the Butterfly Boy
These 2 butterfiles literally emerged from their chrysalis earlier this day. The one on the right flew off instead of going back to its chrysalis to let its wings dry. How many times do you get to see that? and freshwater mixed) water pond in this cave and there were some other people jumping in and swimming. Call me crazy, but I'd rather let my kids into the cage of some strange giant python than let them go swimming in a pond where I can't see where the water is going or coming from...muchless where the bottom is. So its a good thing they didnt have swimsuits. Joseph was non-plussed by the spectre of caving so he just hung with Tatsky in the car with the A/C on.
On the way back to Amorita, we stopped at Bohol's oldest church, Baclayon Church. Built in 1595, it is still holding weekly mass. We also stopped at the spot commemorating the "blood compact" between the Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and the tribal leader of Bohol at the time, Datu Sikatuna. In 1565 Legazpi came to Bohol in search of Gold and spices, convinced Sikatuna that he was Spanish (not Portuguese) and was a friendly. The island still celebrates the blood compact each year.
Back to the hotel at 4:30pm for some swimming, another delicious dinner and some blogging. Jack has fallen asleep on the couch in the
Erin the Butterfly Girl
This one flew off once it figured out there was no pollen to be found on her hat restaurant where this PC is located. I'm going to have to carrry him back to the room...he's not getting any lighter and I'm not getting any stronger. And I just closed the tab.
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Itchie
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Thank You!
This is awesome Sean and gang! Thank you for sharing your adventures! Looks like so much fun for everyone. Safe travels and Merry Christmas! Itchie and the Popes