bohol country side tour

12 august 2011, bohol
chocolate hills, butterfly sanctuary, manmade forrest, tarsier watching, hanging bridge, loboc river cruise, prony the python, baclayon church, blood compact shrine

the countryside tour is the highlight of tourists' visit in bohol. with this 1 day tour, you will get to experience the entirety of bohol and clearly appreciate what the province has to offer. when someone says "bohol", what comes first to your mind? i bet there are two: chocolate hills, and tarsier. these nature's contributions can only be found in this little island. for the tarsier, i mean within the philippines.

we woke up early, had a quick breakfast, and our van arrived to take us to our very exciting countryside tour.

chocolate hills

i've been waiting to see this god's great masterpiece. as soon as i started seeing a number of hills, i just can't help myself but to stare and admire. i was just seeing these creations in books when i was young. but now they were just right in front of my eyes. how amazing is that? :)

it was not summer season yet when we visited, so the hills are not yet chocolatey-ish. the grasses were still green and abundant. i can't imagine how many the hills are. i wanted to climb up on one of those. 

butterfly sanctuary

i've already seen several butterfly houses. this one in bohol is just like a typical butterfly sanctuary, yet worth it to see.

the sanctuary houses 300 species of butterfly native to the province. they do butterfly breeding to conserve the species and raise their population as well. live pupae are also being sold to butterfly enthusiasts who want to raise their own butterfly farm. framed butterflies are also available.

manmade forest

bohol's man-made forest is a 2-kilometer stretch of mahogany trees in loboc and bilar. i believe these trees were carefully planted, as visible with how the trees have uniformly grown in terms of height and spaces between trees. this is a really good sight to see, as you were in the middle of the forest, passing through a concrete road though.

"The terrain from both side of the road goes up; to I don’t know how high. What you see are only the Mahogany trees that look like thousands of sentinels guarding the road, standing erect. No other vegetation is growing among the Mahogany trees. One only sees the brown trunks stretching forth from the earth and the green canopy above. And that’s what makes them look so attractive!" source

tarsier watching

philippine tarsier, the world's smallest primates and endemic to the country can only be found in bohol. the tarsier sanctuary covers a 134 hectares of land that serves as protected habitat to these little creatures. tarsiers are nocturnal. and did you know that a tarsier's eye is larger that its brain? hmmm.

tarsiers have been an extinct and endangered species. before, people used to catch them and sell, or preserve and stuff them. it is its nature to commit suicide when caught. because, they say it does not want to be touched by human.

hanging bridge

for us who live in the city, crossing a river through a bridge is fun. the hanging bridge is not really an attraction, but a simple enjoyment for the tourists who are not used to it. 

the bridges are made of bamboo and supported by huge metal wires. i read that 10 persons are allowed to cross at a time. but when we were there, more that 10 were crossing at the same time. cool right? :p

at the other side of the bridge, food specialties (peanut kisses, etc), shirts and souvenirs are being sold.

loboc river cruise

see main blog entry. click here

prony the python

named after its captor, sofronio salibay, prony is the largest python in captivity. it was captured october 1996, weighing 5 kilos and was 5 feet long. but prony had grown so fast.  it now weighs about 300 kilos and is already 27 feet long!

what does prony eat? goat and pig... and prony wants it alive. or else he will not eat. cool! haha.

we took a picture with prony inside his cage. scary, but worth a try. :p

tapang o!

baclayon church

formerly known as the church of our lady of the immaculate conception, baclayon church is one of the olderst church in the philippines and one of the best preserved jesuit build churches in the region.

the church was completed in 1727. in it is a dungeon, used to punish natives who do not follow the rules of the roman catholic church.

blood compact shrine

sandugo ("one blood") is a blood compact that was performed in bohol between miguel lopez de legaspi and datu sikatuna. it was the first treaty of friendship between the spaniards and the filipinos.

the shrine is in tagbilaran city.

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