Vasta poissa olen viimein perillä: Exotic Bohol

Bohol, the island of the saucer-eyed tarsiers, the famous chocolate hills, fireflies, dolphins and much more. There we were after a few hours boat ride from Dumaguete.

Cheapie travellers as we (sometimes) are, we public transported ourselves to Loboc and to the endless steps of the Nuts Huts hostel. Nuts Huts was an interesting place built on a jungle hill with a big restaurant mid way the endless stairs that took travellers all the way down to the river. The huts were located there. There were kayaks to rent, a herbal sauna, massage and a comprehensive booklet about the many recommended activities in Bohol.

By the time we got there it was of course already dark. Our hut wasn’t too bad but since it did take place in a jungle and it was pretty basic, it also included all kinds of exotic visitors. First thing I saw when coming in was a big spider, next thing a cockroach and the third, a gecko pooping on the floor. The last thing was a small scorpion hiding in the fold of a towel, which I just used for my hands. Sketchy stuff.

Spidey

The cutie geckos

Not such cuties these ones

Nor these

Restaurant of Nuts Huts

Next day we rented a motorbike and went out on a mission. We wanted to find internet to find a phone number to find a doctor who could find out what was wrong with Christophs' ear. We soon learned that no doctor, hospital or clinic would answer any telephones. So there was nothing else to do than go to Tagbilaran, the capital. We visited countless clinics and hospitals and finally found the right doctor who’d see Chris after a few hours. So we had perfectly enough time to visit the tarsier center before!

These super cute ghost animals as we call them in Finnish are endangered due to the diminishing living space. They are not the easiest animals to keep alive: the can only reproduce once a year, they are extremely solitary, need a lot of space and stress out so much that they are said to be the only animals to commit suicide. Who knows. This particular tarsier sanctuary has saved tarsiers from captivity and freed them in a sanctuary forest. Some of them live in an area where visitors are allowed but with some rules: no disturbing behavior, no flash, no noise. I have to say that the tarsiers are extremely cute. Also a bit strange looking, like gremlins :) We saw six of them. I have to say that it was more like a zoo kind of experience but nice anyhow. We read that few of the tarsier places are not really doing the tarsiers any favors, and one shouldn’t support them. So if you come to Bohol, do your homework before visiting a sanctuary!

Awwww

This one was a baby still, I think. They were all tiny though.

Chris had no hole in his ear drum of which we were happy. There was water in the mid ear and he got some medicine to get rid of it. Perfect! We didn’t have to discard all our water including plans - aka all our plans really.

In the evening we went to the SUP school and organized us a full moon stand up paddling trip on the river of Loboc in the hopes to see some fireflies. It was just us and a guide. The atmosphere on the dark, moonlit river was quite beautiful. And so were the fireflies that were like living blinking Christmas lights hovering above the trees. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before. Without the full moon you could’ve seen them even clearer but I think it was pretty good just like it was!

River down at the Nuts Huts

SUP instructor

The next day we hopped on the scooter and left to do “the loop”. It’s a scenic ride which takes one to the chocolate hills, higher up again to beautiful villages and lakes and back down to the cost to Jagna and all the way to Loboc. The teletubbie land resembling brown piles of soil also know as the chocolate hills, are for some reason very famous. They do look quite peculiar but I mean, you go there, look at them from another hill and take a picture. That’s it. Also, they were not brown at all but green...

Chocolate hills, there they are. Not very chocolaty.

Almost successful panorama :'D

Christmas tree recycle style

Next up was the road past a pretty lake to Pilar where we had a quick stop. We couldn’t find ice-coffee so we had some ice crush with Ube instead. Ube is dessert made from boiled and mashed purple yam, pretty strange stuff you see. Completely purple.

My favorite part was the way up to Sierra Bulones and towards Jagna. The little villages there one of the most beautiful I’ve seen! Higher up the hills they grow all different kinds of flowers and pretty plants and there’s colours everywhere. Big banana trees, fan palms and neat huts are all around. The roadside was often littered with pots of flowers for sale and on the yards grew astonishing trees with orange hanging flowers. Pheww, so nice.

Lake of Pilar

My driver

The weather got tricky though, first I was superhappy for the cooling clouds but right after thinking this they started raining. And then pouring. We had to take little coffee breaks in nice tiny local cafes which wasn’t too bad at all.

In Jagna we stopped for a long and tasty lunch break before driving home on the coastal boulevard with the sun setting on the horizon.

We spent one more night in Nuts Huts, visited some very overrated waterfalls and a hanging bridge before moving to Panglao island. The island is famous for its tourist hell called the Alona beach. We stayed a few km away on Danao beach in a cute apartment type of place called Villa Juana. We were psyched to have our own (very basic but still) kitchen for making some brekkie. We visited the tourist trap beach, got disappointed by expensive but tasteless food and slow service, found a dive operator for the next day to dive in Balicasag and also eggs and fruits and even yoghurt for breakfast. Success.

Inka the ghost hangboarder

More of those geckos

"Amazing" waterfalls

But pretty ricefields

The forest of Bilar

Some hanging bridge, made of bamboo. And steel wires.

My breakfast chef :)

Next day’s diving trip (snorkelling for Chris) to Balicasag was absolutely great! I did two dives amongst beautiful corals and a great cliff with many many fish. All the dive sites we’ve chosen from Malapascua to Apo and Bohol all seem to share similar landscapes and plenty of fishes but all have their own things too. Here in Balicasag (not unlike in Apo) there were multiple huge turtles. So many that I got almost bored of them. One of them was the biggest I’ve ever seen, very impressive. And one was eating in the lush peach colored bush of seaweed and the scene was like from a National Geographic movie. Amazeballs. Again, many big triggerfish, a huge grouper, big puffer fish and some moray eels, one which was particularly colorful moray eel. Specialities included one ribbon eel, never seen one before, and an octopus in a little cave! On the second dive we saw really cool tiny crab which looked like it was pieced together from different fragments of seashell, coral, plants and such. The superspecial thing was an astonishing tornado of jacks! This means a school of jacks that start rising from depths in a tornado formation. The came up directly below me and it was really a cool sight. We also saw one great barracuda and a school of the silliest looking jaw mackerel.

Going out for the dives

Inka and a turtle

Guesthouse staff climbing up the coconut tree like a monkey, and no safety gear whatsoever of course...

After the dives we visited the Bohol Bee Farm which is famous for its honey and organic food. It also has a resort, dive shop, ice cream stands, product store...you name it. The food was fantastic and worth the price.

We had booked two nights from high up on a hill close to the seafront of Baclayon from a resort that was recommended to us by Ben (the climber in Yangon). Marquise sunrise sunset residential cottages had a horrible name and the road there was even worse but the place was awesome! With an infinity pool, neat cottages with the most pleasant bathrooms and nice staff, it was very suitable for our last days in Bohol. It was also surprisingly cheap. I guess the location puts people off. We didn’t mind. We enjoyed the pool, the excellent hangboarding spot and the restaurant and during the second day we went on a dolphin watching trip which fortunately included pick up and drop off. The tour itself was highly overpriced though and we were unlucky since the choppy weather made it hard to spot anything. Well, we saw a few dolphins, some were jumping around our boat and I actually saw a manta ray jump out of the water! At least I think it was a manta. But that’s it, no whales or hundreds of dolphins...unlucky. We visited the Pamilacan island too, snorkeled in the marine sanctuary area and had lunch before heading back to our pool. Next day we bussed to Ubay, said farewell to the inspiring island of Bohol and took the next bigger bangka to Leyte.