Bohol Adventure 2009

It was my first trip to Bohol and I had it arranged by a friend who runs a travel and tours agency. We arrived in Tagbilaran after a 1hr and 10-minute flight from Manila. A car (arranged by my friend) picked us up at the airport to transport us to our resort in Panglao Island, which is 20 minutes away. If you don't have a round trip transfer (from the airport to your resort and vice versa) arranged, you can take a mini bus (P20) from the central terminal at Tagbilaran (near Island City Mall or ICM). You can also hire a tricycle (P200) to Panglao or if you're feeling adventurous, you can hire a motorcycle which you drive on your own and use it to go to Panglao and around Tagbilaran.
We spent our first day hanging out on the beach, checking out other resorts and restaurants. Most of the resorts look nice. I guess some of the bad reviews on some resorts that I have read from other sites are exaggerated. Food along the beach is a bit expensive but there is one place that offers cheap meals (Trudis' Place), without the five-star ambience of course. But it's still on the beachfront anyway, plus they have free wifi :)

After an hour, we decided to check out Hinagdanan Cave. We rode on a motorcyle (P150) and arrived there in about 30 minutes. Entrance fee is P15. In the area are numerous shopping stalls which sell cheap souvenir shirts and items.

Our second day is spent touring the countryside. First stop: Chocolate hills. The view is spectacular. We spent about an hour taking pictures of ourselves and the hills. Next, we stopped by the road to take pictures of the man-made forest. We then went to the butterfly sanctuary then stopped by a small cottage by the road to look at tarsiers. After that, we went to a hanging bridge then we were off to have lunch at the Loboc River. The buffet lunch was OK, though I expected more delicious food. Anyway, I was hungry so it did not matter that much, especially when the floating restaurant started cruising its way to the river. At some point during the short cruise, we stopped by a group of locals by the riverbank who did a little presentation, playing their guitars, singing and dancing. I'd say that I enjoyed the river cruise as much as I enjoyed seeing the Chocolate Hills. Next stop was the Baclayon Church, the second oldest church in the Philippines (the oldest is San Agustin Church in Intramuros). I was awed by the old relics and how the walls of the church have been preserved. Last on our itinerary is the Blood Compact Site, which was not so impressive. It was included in the tour primarily because of its historical significance but i think the site has to be improved to be worth seeing. Our arranged countryside tour lasted the whole day. We were brought back to our resort at 5PM.

Our third day in Bohol was supposed to be spent island hopping but due to a low pressure area that brought in big waves, our boatman had to cancel the tour. My friend and I were now clueless on what to do. We heard of the zipline adventure in Danao and decided to go.

From Panglao, we rode a mini bus to Tagbilaran. From Tagbilaran, you can take a bus to Danao which will take up to 3-4 hours. But after asking around (asking from the security guard at ICM), we learned that we can take a bus to Sagbayan, which is 1 hour away from Tagbilaran, then take a motorcycle ride to Danao which lasts about 40 minutes. That saved us a lot of time! When we arrived in Sagbayan, we rode a motorcyle (with a driver of course) to a tourist attraction in the area, the Sagbayan Peak. In Sagbayan you can see other hills that look like the Chocolate hills, but they are closer. The Sagbayan Peak is the highest hill in the area.

After that, we rode the same motorcyle to Danao. We just made a little deal with the driver, about P500, for the gas and his "services" (aside from being our driver, he also acted as our tour guide) ;) The road to Danao is mostly rough, with some parts that are cemented (typical of roads in far-flung areas in the country). On our way, rain poured, soaking us wet, so we had to stop in a house along the road until the heavy rain stopped. We reached Danao and was excited to try the zipline adventure (or what they call the "Suislide"). But when I saw how high the steel cable was, I decided to just take pictures and videos of my friend who was very eager to try it. The cable is 480 meters long and the height is 200 meters, with a river full of big rocks below. They said it was much more challenging than the zipline in Davao. There are other adventures to try but we were running out of time. We had to go back to the city because we might miss the last bus. It was an exhausting day but the experience of riding the motorcycle while raining, reaching Danao, riding the small buses and seeing the countryside, were all worth it :)

On our fourth day, the sky was still cloudy but we insisted to go island hopping. Due to time constraints, we only went to Balicasag Island and did a little snorkeling. The waters were not that clear due to the weather. The sand was white but there were a lot of weeds. We checked out the village, which has an elementary school, a plaza and some sari-sari stores. On our way back to Panglao, we passed by Virgin Island which is smaller but has whiter sand and clearer shores than Balicasag.

It was time to go but we still managed to squeeze in some time for pasalubong shopping. The most famous pasalubong from Bohol is the "peanut kisses". There's also the "kalamay" and, depending on the season, you can buy lanzones which come from Camiguin.

Our 4-day trip to Bohol was indeed an unforgettable experience. Some parts of our itinerary were planned while others just came up - you just have to have that adventurous spirit to really experience what the place has to offer.