[case in point, billboard]
brad and i followed this prescription to the t.
we had met up in cebu at the airport (let me just say … it is good to see brad after six months) and immediately went over to the department of tourism to renew my visa, where lo and behold, you can’t get your visa renewed (even though you can in boracay at the DOT) and so instead we said, oh well, and wandered through downtown cebu (gross, dirty, dingy, loud) to the port where we got on a boat to tagbilaran, bohol. and it was a seriously nice, fast boat and only took an hour and a half to get here!
immediately, i can tell how isolated i have been these past three months. i was completely overwhelmed in cebu by the noise and sheer number of people and things going on; i was amazed by how fast the boat to bohol was; i am amazed by paved roads, by malls, by chain stores. we went into a grocery store in tagbilaran, and i bought yogurt. it makes me laugh at my own amazement by these oh so simple things. who knew a paved road (like, with black tar) could be so exciting? it is also already putting things in romblon into perspective.
but i digress ….
we stayed the night in tagbilaran at a cute little inn (thank god for the LP) and in the morning headed up to loboc, and a place called ‘nuts huts’ (again, thanks LP). the bus dropped us off on the side of the road and we walked 750 m to a set of stairs (called the star way), that led down to the main building.
this place is … unbelievable. it is literally built into the hillside and the native nipa hut rooms are along the bank of the loboc river. on either side, sheer cliffs of jungle raise up, making for beautiful views from the common area/restaurant.
the place is owned by a belgian couple, rita and chris, who are friendly, outgoing, and full of helpful information and suggestions. our first afternoon, we walked down to loboc town along the river and saw the “museum” (i.e. church and a room full of old relics from it). the highlight though is that we also saw the loboc children’s choir rehearsing for mass the next day. the choir is world famous (apparently) and competes around the world and … are really quite good. i was happy we got to hear them.
[video of "o little town of bethlehem"]
we enjoyed a lovely dinner in the common area (so many vegetarian options! and vegetables! and a wonderful drink called the ‘jolly pink panther’!) and went to bed early.
the next day, i had museli with homemade yogurt (i swear, i woke up thinking about it in excitement) for breakfast with real brewed coffee. ohhh how wonderful it is to be in not-so-isolated places! we decided to rent mountain bikes and ride over to the tarsier sanctuary. i was (due to my past experiences with bicycles in this country) a bit hesitant to rent bikes, but chris assured me that these were good quality and that he maintained them himself and that the road was good so we should be fine. we had to carry the bikes up the staircase, but then had a wonderful ride to the sanctuary, about 18 km through rice fields and palm trees.
tarsiers are the world’s smallest primate at only a few inches tall, endangered, and they are really, really weird looking (but in the cute way). in loboc town, people capture them and keep them in cages so that tourists can hold them and take pictures with them – this reduces their lifespan by years. the sanctuary is .. run-down, but really the best way to see them. it is a bit strange – they have a fenced off area, and a guide takes you through, points to where the tarsiers are, and you’re all done within ten minutes.
nuts huts also offers a guided cave hike, so on monday morning, brad and i decided to do that. the caves are on the opposite side of the river, just across from nuts huts, so literally straight up through the jungle. at the top, the guide brought us inside and through two different caves. both had heaps of bats, and the second was an actual living cave, with stalagmites and stalactites.
we also had a wonderful view of nuts huts and the river. if you look closely at the picture, you can see the staircase to the right of the main building.
in the afternoon, we rode a bus up to the chocolate hills. the chocolate hills are famous as a geological site – it’s a series of 1200-ish mounds that all have the same general shape. geologists say that it’s because of coral deposits and erosion, but i prefer to believe the local legend that it’s from the tears of a giant. anyways, it is very much a arrive-walk to the viewpoint-look-take a picture-leave sort of place, but still, the hills were shrouded in mist and quite pretty.
on to cebu and kalibo!
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