Our annual out of town (or out of the country) traditional trip has arrived. We have been planning this since last year. It's just too bad that there were some who were originally supposed to join us couldn't come. This year's destination: Bohol. I think it's about time that we start discovering our own country, don't you think?
Day 1. Our flight to Tagbilaran was with Cebu Pacific. We were supposed to fly out at 11:15am, but our flight was delayed by about 25 minutes. Not too bad, as compared to last year's trip. Flight delays happen. We arrived at Tagbilaran a few minutes before 2pm. It was my first time in Bohol. I thought that it was the norm for every airport to have bag carousels. But I guess for small airports, there's just no space for it. After we got off, we waited near the gate of the airport to claim our bags. A tug carried all the luggages from the plane to the area where we were. As we accounted for all of our luggages, we were ready to go. A van was waiting for us outside to bring us to our hotel: The Flushing Meadows.
Trivia: Flushing Meadows is the home of the U.S. Open. It is located in Queens, N.Y and has been the location for the annual U.S. Open since 1978.
The resort is beautiful! The main road was paved with red tiles; there were mini playgrounds for small kids; grass, plants and trees surrounded the resort (I love nature); there is a tennis court by our villa (though we never got the chance to play); and the pool's view is the sea and the horizon (they call this the Infinity Pool). After we checked in, we went to our rooms to unpack and freshen up. Since we weren't able to have a decent lunch, we decided to have a late one at the resort's restaurant. I didn't know about the history of the resort's name until we had our late lunch and saw the menu. There was a dish called Steffi's Pasta (if I remember it right). When I asked, "Steffi who?", Jarms said that it was Steffi Graf. Then she told us that the resort was named after New York's Flushing Meadows, home of the U.S Open. If you get to visit Bohol and stay in the Flushing Meadows, notice the name of the villas. By the way, the resort restaurant's name is Aces & Champions Bar and Restaurant. I didn't notice the name at first when we got there. :)
Trivia: Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 ranked female tennis player from Germany. She won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players.
The Flushing Meadows
After our late lunch, most of us decided to walk by the shore. The resort's shore is not as great as that of Bohol Beach Club (based on others' sharing). The sand has a lot of stones and coral pieces mixed with it and there are a lot of starfishes, transparent crab and seeweeds. In my opinion, this beach is not the type that people would like to swim in. But it is nice to walk around and see different species of sea creatures. That afternoon, the tide was low and a lot were washed ashore. We saw different colors and types of starfishes and corals. I have never seen a starfish as big as what we saw. It was interesting. :)
Creatures of the sea
As the sun starts to set, we decided to go back to the resort and take a swim in the Infinity Pool. It is called such because if you are seating by the pool or in the pool, it would look like the pool doesn't end. The pool appears to be a part of the sea. It's actually cool! :) and soon, after a long day, we retired to our rooms to prepare for an early start the next day.
Day 2. Our second day in Bohol was scheduled for the tour. Being a Sunday, we had to leave earlier than the scheduled 8:30am tour to hear mass. We all met at the restaurant for our complementary breakfast and then headed off to hear mass. We then started our tour with the Blood Compact Site. If we would recall our Philippine History, the Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Datu Sikatuna of Bohol made a blood compact to seal their friendship, as part of the native custom. The site, however, was not the original site. It was a replica made a few meters away from the original site. After a few pictures in the site, we headed off to our next destination: to see the tarsier. The tarsier is known to be the smallest primate in the world. They are sooo cute! But as expected from undomesticated animals, they don't smell good. Hehehe! Our next stop was the Chocolate Hills. This is a natural wonder of the world. We were told that the season we got there was not the best time to see the hills. Since it was starting to rain, the hills were beginning to turn green. They said that summer was the best time to see the Chocolate Hills. You will see the hills clustered together with a chocolatey color, thus the name. It was not easy to get to the top where the viewing deck is. This is the area with the best view. We had to climb up about a hundred steps to get there. But the climb was worth it. The view of the Chocolate Hills is just magnificent. Among our other destinations were the Butterfly Farm, the Hanging Bridge and the Man-made Forest. It was lunch time by the time we finished our trip through the man-made forest. We had our lunch in a boat that cruised through the Loboc River. A man serenaded us as we ate our lunch. We even passed through a small dock where kids sang and danced for a few contributions. It was kind of relaxing, after a very hectic morning. :) Out last destination before we headed back to the resort was the Baclayon Church. This is the second oldest church in the Philippines (San Agustin Church, in Real Street, Intramuros, being the oldest). A museum was built on the second floor of the church where old vestments, images and items used for the mass were displayed. It was interesting to see how the things we see now in church evolved during the Spanish era to our current time.
A little bit of history and our natural wonders of the world.
We passed through the souvenir shop to buy our "pasalubongs" before heading back. We got back to the resort by mid-afternoon, and by then we were all exhausted. Most of us decided to catch a few winks and rest before going back to the beach or the pool. I think Jen was the only one who decided to go for a walk by the beach. When she got back to our room, she was already holding a bottle with a clown fish inside. She told us the story of the old lady who gave her "Nemo" (we named it after Disney's Finding Nemo). She said that she was admiring the fish that the "lola" caught. I guess the "lola" found Jen amusing because she found the fish amusing. Hehehe! :D She was explaining that she couldn't accept the fish because she can't bring it home. But they can't understand each other because the "lola" only spoke the local dialiect (Bisaya). Jen found Joe, who can speak Bisaya, along the beach so she asked him to translate. I don't know what happened because she still had the fish in the end. Hehehe! :D To make the long story short, we had a clown fish with us for the day and we just decided to release it back to the sea the next day where he/she belongs.
Late in the afternoon, we decided to take the dolphin watch the next day. We thought, we're already here, might as well take the opportunity to see live dolphins in their natural habitat. :) So we booked a schedule for the next day to go "dolphin watching". We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out and playing in the pool.
Day 3: It was an early day for us again. This time we were scheduled for the dolphin watch. We left the island at 6am in the morning. I'm not sure to which island we were destined to go, we just trusted that our navigator knows whre to go. It was a 45 minute ride from Panglao Island to the middle of the sea where dolphin sightings were expected. Jarms, who has been to Bohol and has gone dolphin watching before, said that the last time she was there, she wasn't able to see any dolphins no matter how long they circled the area. I guess we were lucky. We didn't only see a school of dolphins once, but more than 3 times. One was even close to the boat. The one we saw that was near our boat had scratches on its skin. Poor thing. :( After seeing the dolphins, we went to a nearby island where we could snorkle. It was my second time to try snorkeling. I never really got the hang of breathing using a snorkle. I swallowed a few seawater as I was getting the hang of it. I think it takes practice. Hehehe! :D The view below the sea is beautiful! I was told that there are better snorkeling sites, but being new to these, I appreciated the sights below that sea. There was even a part where all I can see is the color blue getting darker and darker. We called it: 'the abyss'. :D Even though we know that we're going to float because we had our life jackets on, we still didn't dare to go that area. Too bad we didn't have any underwater camera to capture the view.
Our adventures and misadventures for the day.
After a few hours swimming around the area, we decided to go back to the resort to have our brunch. Since we had two consecutive days wherein we had to wake up early and sleep in late, we all took our afternoon nap. Some went back to the room, some slept by the poolside, some by the beach. That was one of the most relaxing naps I had in a long time. I'm not sure if it was just because I was so tired, or it was the ambiance as well. :D
That afternoon, we all hanged out by the beach. It was also the time to free nemo, since we're already going home the next day. 4 of us decided to walk by the shore of the island and free the clown fish given to Jen. Since it was low tide, we could walk on the shore (which is usually covered by water during high tide) and easily go to Bohol Bee Farm as a short cut. We walked around taking our time and taking pictures by the shore, moving farther and farther away from the resort's shore. We reached Bohol Bee Farm at around 5:30. The sun was still up during that time and we can still see the path that we went through. We stayed on the other side of the island for a while, bought some muffins and our dinner (we just wanted to try something new). Before we knew it, it was already twilight and it was already hard to see the path we took. Since there were sea urchins and slippery rocks, we decided to take the long road instead. We thought that it would take about 30 minutes to walk, but when we asked for directions they said that it was really far (probably more than an hour of walk based on their expression). We took our chance at taking the long but relatively safe route. The road was not the cemented type and there were no street lights to guide us. On our sides were trees and tall grasses. We're not even sure if there were snakes or other small but wild animals around. We depended on Lizzie's celphone flashlight and the lights from motorcycles that pass by. But we were worried about the little light we have because her celphone was almost 70% drained. When we reached the first intersection, we saw a house where we could ask directions from. It seems like they were having a gathering because there were a lot of people in the outside sala. We knocked at their gate and a lady in her 30s entertained us, we called her Ms. Lulu. When we asked for directions, she said that there are 2 ways to get back to the resort. One was the longer but lighted way, and the other was a shortcut but a very dark road. She said that it was dangerous to take the shortcut without bright lights to help us see the path. She looked at us like kids lost in the middle of a busy mall. She asked us to wait and called her husband. When they got back, she introduced us to her husband, Mr. Junie, who was carrying a big flashlight. He volunteered to guide us through the shortcut, which apparently took us only 10 mins to get back to the resort. It was REALLY a shortcut! These people are blessings! It was nice to still meet people with big hearts who will gladly help people in need. :)
Hanging out by the shore.
Day 4: Our last day in Bohol. We just spent the morning packing and getting lots of sleep. We didn't have to wake up as early as the last 2 days because our pick up time for the airport was still at 11am. So we took our time getting ready then had breakfast around 9am. We still had time to spare before checking out, so we decided to hangout one last time by the beach. Jen and I went back to the house who helped us the previous night to give a small token of our appreciation for their help. We also found out the the house was actually a foundation called The Shepherd Arms Foundation. I'm not sure what the foundation is for though. Since the sun was up, we didn't have any trouble finding our way to the house and back to the resort. :) Soon, we checked out of the hotel then headed for the airport. Our flight back to Manila was still a bit delayed. It was a really tiring but well worth it weekend. :D
The shortcut (upper left); hanging out by the beach (upper right); waiting for our flight (lower left); the plane that will bring us home (lower right).
And now I can say that I have been to all three main islands of the Philippines (Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao). Hehehe! :)
