Chocolate Hills - Bohol - The Philippines

May 10th - 11th, 2016

After our night on the bus we had another full day of travel ahead of us, from the bus station we got a taxi to the airport where we caught a flight down to the Island of Cebu in The Visayas. From here we caught the airport bus to one of Cebu's many Malls where we were able to finally enquire at the travellers lounge about ferry's to other islands....it's impossible to find out any current or useful information in this country without physically going to a terminal or depot, so frustrating! We then walked a couple of kilometres to the Ferry Terminal, hoping they had tickets left as the travellers lounge had run out, by the time we got there we were pretty knackered, hot, sweaty and fed up. Thankfully we were able to get tickets for the final ferry of the day to the island of Bohol and after paying an extra terminal fee and only managing to avoid porterage fees by complaining and kicking up a fuss, we finally sat down to wait. As has been the norm so far, the ferry was typically late leaving, but other than that, was an uneventful crossing, it being dark already we had nothing to do but watch the movie they played on board....minus any sound!

Exiting the terminal we were harangued all the way along the pier by bici taxi drivers to the point that we were ready to scream, how many times can you say no thankyou before they get the bloody point and if you've just said no to the previous 5, what makes them think you're going to change your mind all of a sudden for number 6?! I was eventually able to get directions to an ATM from the security guard at the entrance to the pier and off we stalked, followed most of the way by the bici taxis to which by this point we had decided not to use no matter what, just on principle!

After getting out some much needed cash (I haven't even gone into the debacle of the Philipino cash machines...that's a whole other rant!) we were able to actually hail a bici taxi of our own free will and negotiate a price to take us to Lomboc, where we had a room booked for the night. It was lovely and cool riding along the deserted roads once we were out of the main town, Tagbilaran, and despite the darkness, we were able to enjoy relaxing for a time while the driver frequently stopped to ask for directions....so much for knowing the local area. Eventually, more by luck than judgement we arrived and were able to check in to our room, order a burger each from the onsite cafe which was luckily still serving at 10.30pm, then have a blissfully refreshing shower before heading to bed, exhausted after a 40hr day!

So the next morning we got up to catch a local bus to the famous Chocolate Hills, which according to legend are the calcified tears of a giant, whose heart was broken by the death of a mortal lover. In fact they are the remains of a coral reef, the whole area once submerged beneath the sea and sporting a vast reef system that, as the land rose was gradually uncovered. The deposits of detrius washed up and over the exposed reef over the years built up into vast mounds, as the land continued to rise, rain water eroded channels around these mounds distinguishing them from one another even more until you have what is now known as the Chocolate Hills. A huge plain with something like 1700 hills, the tops of which during the dry season turn brown, supposedly look like as many chocolate drops scattered on the ground.

After we had had our fill of admiring the chocolate hills, we headed back down, past the new visitor centre that is being renovated after a large earthquake which also damaged some of the hills, through the many stalls selling the usual tourist tat and across the road to wait for a bus to take us back the way we had come. The first bus to pass was so full that people were hanging off the sides and many were sitting on the roof, we thought it best to give that one a miss. The second bus was also so full half the passengers had to get off to let one person out, also not for us. Finally a minivan came by headed in the right direction and we jumped on board with a few other locals, asking to be let off at the Tarsier Sanctuary which was on the way back to Lomboc. As our journey progressed more and more people squeezed into the minivan until I thought it must surely be full...I was wrong, there were about 22 of us in a 12 seater van by the time we managed to escape!

The Tarsier, one of the world's tiniest primates, although not related to monkeys, is an endangered species and at once adorable and slightly gremlin like at the same time. Smaller than your average sized rat, these little cuties have enormous eyes, bigger than their brains in fact, that are fixed in position, so when they want to look around they rotate their head up to 180 degrees. The sanctuary is there more to highlight the Tarsier than to provide any rehabilitation or breeding programs and as such is little more than a 15 minute walk along a terrible path from one spot to another where helpers point out the Tarsiers in their shady bowers. Hopefully some of the money from this project actually does some good raising awareness and not just funding the slightly surly attendants, but at least we got to see this amazing creature in a semi-wild environment (there were no cages or fences other than a post and rail to stop you getting too close).

We decided to walk back rather than taking another overcrowded bus and due to a slight miscalculation ended up trekking about 6 miles in the sticky afternoon heat instead of the 3 km we thought it was so that by the time we had collected our bags and made our way into the village centre we were pretty gross! Nonetheless, we got ourselves some lunch from a local cafe then jumped on board a rather posh looking Jeepney (converted Jeeps left over from WW2 by the Americans to carry passengers or goods, frequently decorated with elaborate lights and paint jobs...pimp my ride style!) which took us back to Tagbilaran where we could catch the ferry across to Cebu.

We wanted to spend the night here because we had found there was a salsa night at a local Mexican restaurant, so after a rather pathetic shower at our hotel, we caught a taxi and went dancing. It wasn't anything to write home about, but it was free to get in, played a reasonable mix of music and didn't have a bad floor, plus it was the first time we had been able to go dancing since leaving Melbourne! We mostly danced together as it was hard to tell who danced and who didn't, the place being filled with western tourists, though we did dance with a few friendly locals too though they seemed slightly awed by how 'good' we were...personally I thought I was dancing like crap so it must be down to good muscle memory rather than any particular skill that night!

We left around midnight as it was starting to wind down and both felt the better for going out, forgetting how irritable we get if we've not danced for a while, remembering to look for dancing whenever we can.