Bohol Trip

Bohol Trip

First the bad news, Tita has gotten the news that she is supposed to return to the UAE for work on 19 August 2010!!! The good news is she has a job that pays almost as much as mine and that is great news as I will most likely follow in her footsteps next year when my job at the University expires.

Day 1
This change in departure dates prompted us to hope on the next boat to Bohol as we wanted to see it before we left. We hopped the fast boat (truly a fast boat not like the one over to Camotes) and landed in Tagbilaran the capitol city of Bohol at 2:30 pm on Friday. We decided to take a trike for the journey over to Panglao Island. Panglao is promoted as having the best white sand beaches in the area and is also well known for its wonderful diving spots. A trike is just a 125 motorcycle with a huge side car on it so it really does not travel that fast and it belches a lot of exhaust. Anyway we made it over to the Alona beach, which is supposed to be one of the best beaches and started looking for a hotel as we had not made reservations. 30 minutes later we found a nice place that was close to the beach at a reasonable rate. 

After settling in we headed down to the beach for a late lunch / early dinner. The beach itself was pretty overrun with resorts and restaurants creeping up to the beach front. We ordered dinner and waited, and waited and waited. It turns out that on Bohol they make your food as you order it. This is supposed to mean that each dish you order is freshly prepared, not like in the west where food is prepared and sits waiting for you. I personally could not tell the difference, but it did give me time to drink a few before the food arrived and it did give the kids a chance to play on the beach.

Day 2 Island Tour
We got a great tour guide to take us to all the sites on the islands and he even took us to some of the places that are not on the one day tour.

Blood Compact

This spot was a required stop on the tour but I would have given it a miss if I had a choice. It is the site of a monument to the friendship between the local chief and the 5th Spanish expedition to the Philippines on May 10, 1565. One thing I found interesting was how most of the Filipinos were hostile to the Spanish explorers of that time. Read more if you like at http://www.bohol-philippines.com/blood-compact-site.html

Baclayon Church and Museum

“The Baclayon Church is the second oldest stone church in the Philippines. Constructed in 1595 by the Jesuit priests, it is still intact and houses important relics and images reminiscent of the historic Roman Catholic religion in the country. Among those displayed in the church museum are: crystal chandelier, silver tabernacle, altar with carvings inlaid with gold, life-size statues and more.“ http://www.hawaii.edu/cps/baclayon.html

I really did not enjoy the museum that much as you could not take photos and the first part of the museum was filled with old stuff like typewriters, cameras, etc. that were not a part of church tradition. As far as the rest it was nice to see the old religious items but I am not a big museum goer and nether is the rest of the family. The church was nice and I even made the kids pray.

Prony Python Park

Now this part of our tour was on the off beaten path and was one of the cool things that we did. I liked it for several reasons first there were not tons of other tourists there. Second they let you go in the cage and hang out with the animals. I am sure PETA would say something about it but I had a blast and most of the animals seemed fine with us visiting. I have to say it was hard to imagine that 550 pound snake (250 KG) moving around but I am sure when it is hungry it strikes. The owners said that in the wild it would take 40 years for the snake to get this large but as they feed it a lot it got bigger fast. 

As you can see they had a monkey that enjoyed playing with us as well.

Philippine Tarsier

“The Philippine Tarsier is a tiny animal; it measures only about 85 to 160 millimetres (3.35 to 6.30 in) in height, making it one of the smallest primates.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Tarsier

These things are cute beyond words and they are plentiful in Bohol. On the third day Andrew got to feed one of them.

Manmade Forest

I guess this was a reforestation project of the local mayor or something about 20-30 years ago. He got the students in the area to replant the barren hills with mahogany trees. My question is will they harvest this wood?

Loboc River Cruise

We were all but forced to do this part of the cruise and in theory you take the large floating dining area boat up to the waterfalls. In reality the waterfalls are about 3 feet high. We did the “supreme” dining boat, the food was not that good but you had a lot of space so were not crowed like the other boats and the music was actually good.

Chocolate Hills

"The Chocolate Hills are cone-shaped hills made of grass-covered limestone. During the dry season the grass-covered hills dry up and turn chocolate brown. This transforms the area into seemingly endless rows of "chocolate kisses".  The Chocolate Hills are made by a combination of the dissolution of limestones by rainfall, surface water, and groundwater and their erosion by rivers and streams after they had been uplifted above sea level and fractured by tectonic processes.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_Hills#Description

The walk up to the observation deck was 214 steeps I thought I was going to lose Tita on the journey up!! The driver we had tried to get us out of paying for our visit to the observation deck as he thought it was a rip off. He drove up and we got out of the car and then he drove away before they could charge us entrance- for some reason they followed him instead of us. We almost got away with his plan but Andrew and I had gone to the bathroom so when he came back he had to wait and we got busted!!! No big deal.

We also found this huge roach err I mean beetle hanging on a trash can. After a few snaps some Chinese kids started playing with him aggressively. After they took off for a bit I picked him up and set him free, that was freaky having this huge beetle crawling on me.

Simply Butterflies

I have to say that educationally this was the best place I have been. They have a real well trained staff that is knowledgeable about butterflies and moths. They have an active breeding program and release some of the butterflies into the wild. They even sell live butterflies for release at weddings. All in all it was a wonderful educational experience.

We found out that most butterflies feed in the morning so they were pretty inactive when we went to see them in the afternoon. But the best butterfly enclosure we went was in Palawan Philippines in 2006 as the number of butterflies in the enclosure was the highest and we happened to visit in the morning so the butterflies were quite active.

Hanging Bridge

This was nice walk above the river. The bridge’s main suspension cables were steel nut the walkway was made out of bamboo. It was kind of creaky at several spots. And then we had a bus load of Korean Students show up. We got across the river before they got on and waited until most had gone back before we went back but we were on the bridge with a few of them and they were kind enough to take a picture of the whole family!

Hilltop Cottages

The walk up from the entrance to the cottages is 105 steps and let me tell you we made the journey a few too many times in the night that we stayed there. Why? Well the pool is at the bottom of the resort. And the kids love to swim so we made the journey several times.

Day 3
Bohol Horse Ridding

I had to take the whole family out for a horse ride.

The horses were very tame and the kids and Tita had a guide for their horses. As I had ridden before I was a lone just man and his trusty stead. OK jokes aside the horse knew what it was doing and needed only a few reminders of the path.

Bohol Loboc Eco-Adventure

“The zip line which is the second to Loboc Eco-Adventure Tour crosses a 520-meter distance, giving tourists a perfect bird's eye view of the river and its river banks. The Busay falls at the upper end of the famous Loboc River Cruise is captured with a full overview when one takes the zipline or the cable car. The cable car traverses a distance of 420 meters. Both activities assure tourists of the best scenery at a height of between 100 to 120 meters over the river.”

The kids and I took the zip line over and the cable care back all in all a great ride. But not as nerve racking as I thought it would be.

The boat home

Return to Camiguin

Before the Return

We found DON!!! It turns out that part of my father’s remains (he was cremated) have been in residence here in Talisay, Cebu (at my wife’s house) since God knows when. I am not sure if we left hi here in 2008 when we last came to town or in 2006 shortly after his passing. The good news was I was able to bring him on the trip and scatter some of his remains on Camiguin and in the ocean.

Return to Camiguin

For a larger image go to http://www.piepenbrock.nl/camiguin.html

Well in a sense my whole “adult” life revolves around Camiguin as it was the places that I severed as a  Peace Corps volunteer (1995-97) and because of this placement in a Cebuano speaking area as a Water and Sanitation volunteer a certain Cristita (Tita) Labis was assigned to be the teacher of my group. As you know this lead to Tita teaching my group Cebuano for 4 hours a day, which led to my falling in love with her and after some time her falling in love with me. Andrew spent the first year of his life on Camiguin and I began to become an adult on Camiguin. BEGAN hardly finished becoming an adult, hope I never will.

In the two years that we ended up living on Camiguin we bought a small plot of land. I do not know what possessed me to buy the land I just knew at the time it was “cheap” and I had some money I “borrowed” off my credit card. In the end we have a lot of about 10,764 square feet (1/4 an acre) of land a bit uphill from the main road. Granted there is no access road to our land so it is not really a sellable lot. In my mind at the time I was going to buy land so that I could connect my lot to a road. I still have this plan in my mind. BUT I am also hopeful that one of the other lots that are locked in next to me will do the same thing and I will be saved the grief of dealing with all that paperwork. Who knows in 20 years it might happen.

Sleeping on the trip over- Boat ride took 11 hours!!

Originally I had bought the land with the idea that I would sell it when Andrew went to college. In that respect we planted some trees on the lot mostly mahogany and they are doing fine in cat they have stated giving off seeds themselves and are starting a second generation of mahogany trees.

So our trip down to Camiguin was to check on the land we bought 14 years ago. We had visited Camiguin in 2004 and the farmer who lived uphill from us had planted on my land so I had to rip out all the plants. Because of this we had a local friend plant the mahogany trees on the lot. We went back again in 2006 just to pay taxes on the land. In 2006 we spent some time with my host family in Camiguin; we went up to the Ardent Hot Springs with the kids for a dip in the pool. 

It was an eye opening experience it was to go back to Camiguin this weekend. The rate of change had accelerated rapidly and now it is on the crux of being a large scale tourist destination. The great thing is that because of its size and population there will always remain a Camiguin that is a real place, not just a tourist attraction. The island will be able to support the tourist and still have a vibrant local culture.

The second day of our trip we broke down and decided to do an island tour. This would be the first island tour we had done since I rented a motorcycle and took Tita on an island tour for her 30th birthday. 

Paras Beach Resort

Back in my Peace Corps days this was THE resort to stay at on island. When President Ramos visited Camiguin, he held his press conference at Paras beach Resort. Now it is just one of many fine resorts that have pools and beach front property. Also of note was the second year of my Peace Corps I rented a house just up the street from this resort. Like I had said before I was amazed how many really nice resorts have been established on island since we last visited in 2006.  Needles to say the kids and I spent a lot of time in the pool. 

CROSS MARKER AND SUNKEN CEMETERY

“Located in Bonbon, Catarman a huge cross marker has been installed by the Provincial government to mark the community cemetery that sunk during the 1871 volcanic holocaust. Years ago, gravestones were visible during low tide. “

This is just a tourist trap originally you could actually see the graves poking out from the ocean floor even in a mid level tide. I had heard that the real sunken cemetery had been covered the debris of a flood / landslide that had hit the island in 2005. I am not sure if this is true but on our way back from the next site the tide was pretty low and we still could not see any graves. 

CATARMAN CHURCH RUINS (GUI-OB CHURCH)

The eruption of the now “old” volcano on the Catarman side of Camiguin in 1871 burned this church that was built in 1697. The church was never rebuilt but now there is a small church erected inside of the old church.  The old church has been maintained if not rebuilt and the site offers a good view of the architecture that saw prevalent on the island at the time. If you look hard enough you can see several Spanish style homes still in existence, but they are very old and many of them are in poor repair. 

 BURA SODA WATER SWIMMING POOL: Bura, Catarman, Camiguin

I was a little skeptical of visiting this site as it is boasted as “The one and only in the country where you can swim to a pool of soda water.”   It was hard to say that the water we were swimming in was “soda” water but the massive pool was feed by a spring did bubble a few times. The kids had a blast in the water but I was a bit sunburned from our time at the pool at Paras Resort so I swam a bit and then hung out pool side. The pool is massive I would say it is about 300 feet but 100 feet. The great thing about the pool is that it is situated a bit up in the mountains so you get great scenery of the volcanic ranges that make up Camiguin.

KATIBAWASAN FALLS

After swimming a bit in the Soda Water we headed into town (Mambajao) to have lunch at the old pier. In the past this site was a pier directly into town now because of the changing tides and shallowness of the pier it has been turned into a park.  After lunch we headed up to the best part of our day tour the Katibawsan Falls. The best thing about this site is that it is just outside of town on a well graded road for most of the trip so it is pretty easy to get most of the way there. The problem is the last mile to the site this part is very steep and until recently it was unpaved as well. 

“The 250-feet majestic beauty cascades to a rock pool surrounded by ground orchids, wild ferns, trees and boulders. Its ice-cold waters provide an ideal summer splash to locals and tourists alike. Rock picnic tables, seats and cookout facilities are available for use. “

Ostrich Farm

After our splash in the falls we were off to the Ostrich Farm. This was a bit of a drag as the trip was pretty far (on the map it looked closer) and the animals were in pretty bad shape. They had taken to pulling out their feathers. The good thing about the trip though it was long it showed us some of the places where the local inhabitants of the island lived. The journey took us through wide open rice fields that offer great views of the volcanoes that make up Camiguin. 

MACAO COLD SPRING

It turns out that visiting this site on a Sunday is not such a good idea as this site is really a place for the locals to relax. It is not that we could not have gone but I felt we would have been intruding and I also worry we would not have been that welcomed to partake in the cool water. I also think I mixed it up with another site that I used to frequent as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I remember the cold spring that I used to go to was close to town (I am sure it was in Magting) while this site is in Mahinog. The cold springs of Camiguin live up to their names, they are quite frigid! Also another nice thing about the cold springs (there are many) of Camiguin is that they have a lovely blue tint to them from the minerals that the collect passing thought the underground rives of Camiguin.   Finally as I have mentioned most of the cold springs have not been developed for tourist and usually this means you get to swim in a pool that is sounded by centuries old trees drinking the waters of the pool, with few if any people bothering to stop at the pool. As I have learned this is only true during the week while students are at school and parents are at work.  

 

These two pictures are in the same place only 14 years apart in time!!

 

In Conclusion

There are so many other things that you can do on Camiguin that there would be a whole book devoted to the island. You could spend weeks if not years discovering the many fascinating natural beauty of the island. The island has changed much since we were there last; a number of high end resorts have sprung up where only a few had existed before; and although I am glad for the local economy it makes my visits to the island more expensive. Just think that 4 years ago I could rent a hut (a real local type) on the beach for $9 a day. Now I doubt you could find a local hut, more likely a beach villa with cable TV and AC with an expansive bathroom. I know this is what the tourists want but I miss the days of the simpler life on Camiguin. But who knows I am a good shopper and I bet if I spent some time looking I could find a true local place to hang out for days on end. One of these days we will need to return to Camiguin for some time to deal with our land and then we will need to hunt down this “local living” of Camiguin’s past.

Finally there are many more sites that are easily accessible that we did not go to because of time. I recommend that you search one of the various website devoted to tourism in Camiguin before you make plans to visit also I recommend you spend at least a week there. There are many activities that do not require physical fitness but there are many high adventure activities that you can do on the island and some of these require you to be in top physical condition (e.g. climbing one of the 5 volcanoes, riding your mountain bike from one side up and over to the other side of the mountain, etc.)