Bohol

This week finally took us to the island of Bohol for about 4 days.  Wow!  This is a place I've been wanting to visit.  Now I can't figure out what took us so long!

About 350 miles south of Manila, but an easy inexpensive one hour plane ride away, Bohol is set in the Visayas in the middle of the country.  Its not far from Dumaguete and Cebu, other places we've visited in the last year.

Bohol makes an excellent alternative to Boracay.  The beaches are just as great, but without the crowds.  If you're looking for a relaxing time on the beach, some diving or snorkeling or dolphin watching, this is a better place to go in my view.  If you're looking for bars, night clubs, more people, then Boracay is probably preferable.

Most of the resorts are on Panglao, a small island connected to the main island by a couple of causeway bridges.  We stayed at the Bohol Beach Club, one of the original resorts, but it's recently been renovated.  Everything about it was fantastic.  It's right on a white sand beach with crystal clear water, and everyone there was very friendly and helpful.

     

One of the popular things to do in Bohol is dolphin watching.  We hired a bangka (small boat) to pick us up early one morning.  Thanks to Tony's superior bargaining skills, instead of paying the P5,500 ($122) advertised rate, or the P3,500 ($78) hotel rate, we paid P1,500 ($34) for a three hour ride a couple miles out to an area where dolphins feed.  Since they mainly feed in the morning, we had to leave at 6 am, but it was well worth it.  We saw dozens of dolphins out there.

The island was hard hit by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake just a year ago, with lots of damage and many deaths.  Most of the damage was in the north (we were in the south), but we still saw a number of old churches with major damage.  Many of the churches there date back to the 16th and 17th centuries and are really vulnerable to earthquakes.

Bohol is probably best known for it's "chocolate hills", a group of more than a thousand large round and cone shaped mounds.  Grass covered, the hills are brown during dry season which earned them the "chocolate hills" name, but they're quite impressive year round.   It's generally thought that upwelling of coral deposits is the cause of the mounds, but I don't know why they're not visible elsewhere.  They were far more impressive than I'd expected.

Another unique feature of Bohol is that it's home to an endangered species called the Tarsier.  Its one of the world's smallest primates with bulging eyes and a head that can turn 180 degrees.  The province is leading the way to protect the species which can be seen in several preserves around the island.  We stopped at one near the chocolate hills and were able to see several Tarsiers.

Bohol earned a bigs thumbs up from both of us!

   

     CLICK HERE for more photos of Bohol

Baguio

Baguio is one of the major cities in northern Luzon, and was the site of a visit by us for a couple days earlier this week.  About a 4 hour drive north of Manila in the Cordillera mountains, the city was established by the colonial Americans in the early 1900's as the "summer capital of the Philippines".

Sitting about 5,000 feet up, temperatures are about 10 - 15 degrees F cooler than Manila.  Though still tropical, its very mountainous with pine trees everywhere giving the city its other nickname, "city of pines".  You can easily see why it's such a popular destination for Filipinos trying to escape the summer weather.  I wore long pants the entire time I was there, and a jacket much of the time!  What a treat.

To get there, you drive north through the central plains of Luzon, the "rice bowl" of the country.  Though flat, the scenery is beautiful.  Then its an hour drive up the twisting, winding, zigzag road along river valleys into the mountains and finally to Baguio.

Thanks to Tony's connections, we had a corner suite at the Baguio Country Club, one of the city's choice places to stay.  Views overlooking the golf course and mountains were very peaceful and the place was great.

The city market is well known and a great resource for local goods and crafts.  Because of the higher elevation, vegetables and strawberries are plentiful and cheap.  Hand made wood crafts and colorful fabrics from the nearby mountain tribes are also popular.  We stopped at several local handicraft shops along the street, and took a taxi to the Easter Weaving Room where you can see local artisans weaving all sorts of colorful fabrics.

For any former Peace Corps volunteers out there, the Vallejo Hotel still stands.  It's been renovated and is now Casa Vallejo, but all the charm has been retained.  The Pines Hotel, though, is long gone after burning down in the 80's and has been replaced by a large shopping mall.

Camp John Hay was a major American R&R center up until the bases closed throughout the country in the 80's.  It's still a major tourist and recreation center today, and was a great place to walk around and see the panoramic views.  It also has one of the best golf courses around.

Baguio is also a jumping off spot for trips farther north to see indigenous peoples of the area and the amazing 2000 year old rice terraces.  We'll be back.  

CLICK HERE for more Baguio photos