Bohol: Balicasag and Virgin island - Day 3

Country Side Tour - Day 2

Day 3 - Island Hoping at Balicasag - Dolphin watching - swimming at Virgin Island

We were awaken by the knock of our door in our resort, though sleepy I manage to stand and opened it, it was our tour guide for our Day 3 activities. He informed us that we need to hurry if we want to catch the dolphins. Though feeling dizzy, we hurried to change our clothes, did our morning routine, good thing we prepared our things the night before, so we grabbed our bags and ride on his motor that will bring us to the wharf.

It was 5:30am when we depart from the wharf. There are many boat already packed with tourists and almost everyone is cheering everytime those marine creature appears

Dophine watching

 Our camera’s just keep clicking because we want to capture them with their witty stunt J

Approaching Balicasag Island

Marine Sanctuary

Around 6:15am – arrival at Balicasag Island – had our coffee – P30.00 for the three in one instant, ordered
choose our menu for lunch - This cost us P800.00 including rice and coke

our chosen menu for paluto

We really did enjoy our snorkeling, too bad we have no underwater camera to capture the marine life, the corals were so colorful, and the fishes wow!! different sizes and colorful too. I think we are the few tourists left in that sanctuary, we were there more than an hour, we really love the underwater. Then our guide asked us if we want to get back to the shore, we agreed because we are tired and famish too.

Upon getting to the boat we hurried to our table and because we are so so famish, we asked the store to serve our food.

Finally... yum yum

we ordered additonal 2 cups of rice  :) 

we are really famished then that we ordered additional 2 cups of rice, the food is so good, the service is fast, our P800.00 for this food is really worthy. I can say, it is more worthy than the Loboc Cruise. After heavy lunch and a little rest and strolling a few stores there (my friend bought one sarong) the boatman decided to leave and proceed on our next stop... VIRGIN ISLAND. You can have your fresh buko juice here, we even tasted the sea urchins, and infairnes, tasted ok. my mouth and stomach can take it.

Our boat - heading to our final stop - Virgin Island

 Welcome virgin island - sorry guys, I accidentally deleted my shots with this long stretch of sand from a distance.

virgin island - 

After a few minutes of photo shoot and deeping into the water, we decided to go back to the wharf, all we want to do is rest even for a few hours.

From Wharf, someone is waiting to bring us to our resort, his name is dodong, he is young and he serves as our habal-habal tour guide. 

Upon arrival on our hotel we made a deal with him to have a quick tour, he picked us up at 4:00pm, brought us to Hinagdanan cave to buy pasalubong, he even toured us in Alona Resort. We were glad that we hired him, we were able to visit the Famous Alona Resort, too bad its getting late when he asked if we want to visit the mag-aso falls. tsk tsk tsk...

The day is very tiring and we set our tired body in bed after preparing for our things for our next day check out back to manila.

Bohol: My First Plane Ride - Day 1

Country Side Tour - Day 1

As we all know, Bohol was been hit by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake recently, and many of the historic place mostly churches was been destroyed and a lot of tourist spot was been devastated by this massive earthquake a month ago.

I know this entry is a bit of late but please bear with me, I want to share my experienced when I visited that city with my friend last May 26, 2012.

Bohol is a part of visayas region, this town is known for its colorful hills, once you mention Bohol people would just exclaimed “ahhh it’s the CHOCOLATE HILLS”, the chocolate hill was also been nominated to be part of the seven wonders of the world together with underground river in Puerto Princesa, Palawan which won one of the slot.

Bohol was been blessed with mother nature, it offer a lot for the tourist who wants to explore the city and it offers a lot of activities aside from the famous Country side Tour. Bohol beauties is very captivating, If Palawan was been called a “Paradise” because of its underwater beauties, pristine beaches and limestone, well bohol was been called “God’s little Paradise’ by those who are caught off-guard by it mystery and charm – by bountiful bohol.

HOW TO GET THERE?

There are many ways to reach this town,

1. By plane via Airphilippines, Philippine Airline, Cebu Pacific, Air Asia has a daily flights to Tagbilaran which is the Main City of Bohol.

2. Bohol is a two hours away from Cebu via fastcraft, you will travel by sea, so if you are in Cebu, you can reserved at least a day to explore the town of bohol, most travel agencies will offer Country Side Tour for a limited time.

3. Via Bus, forgot the name of the bus company that cater to this service, the ride will take you 2 days I think, and according to my friend, she used this mode of transport (because she has a lot of time) just to view the Bicol Regions as she pass by to this regions.

But if you have a limited time you can go there by plane, recently most airlines company offers a seat sales, you can steal a huge bucks if you avail the seat sale you know, most seat sales are falling on off peak seasons, and the travel period would be 7–11 months after you booked your ticket, so you still have a lot of time to search and search and search.

Now let me tell you how I ended up visiting this place and why I still want to explore more of Bohol.

It was mid February 2012 when a friend of mine who is a native Boholano mentioned that she wants to visit her homeland after 10 years, I heard a lot of stories from her about bohol and I really want to go there and experienced those stories of hers, the falls, rivers, the views specially chocolate hills, the sea and everything that bohol that could offer for a first time visitor like me.

She told me the date and I mentioned this plan to my friend and she tag along with us and because the two of us has only a limited time, I booked at Zestair, P2,500.00 with extra baggage for our roundtrip ticket excluding terminal fees, that time, for me P2,500.00 is quiet cheap because the date is still fall into a peak season of our country and beside our travel date would be May.

Now let’s continue………..

As the day of our trip coming, my friend told me that she cannot come anymore with us, that something came up but she will just asked her relative in Bohol to accommodate us, but me and my other travel buddy declined the offer, instead, we did our own itinerary, that was the time I learned about the travel blogger, I contacted a lot of accommodation but most of them are fully booked, so I ended up with Boholspeed, they did not require any amount of reservation so I acquire their service for this trip.

There are a lot of things happened on this trip, but I better not mentioned the negative things that took place, besides, we catch our flight back, and the said itinerary was all been followed.

All is set, my leave, my budgets, clothes, everything. Though this is my first time to ride on a plane, I am not that nervous, because my travel buddy used to travel domestic and abroad, all I have to do is follow her instructions, though it’s her first time to be in Terminal 4 and it’s also her first time to travel bohol.

The day has come, and I am not feeling well that time, but not even sickness could hold me for this trip. Our flight is 1:10pm, we wake up a little late though, we prayed before we left the house, we Asked God for his guidance and protections for this trip. We left hope 9:30am we arrived around 11:25am at the airport, we had our early check inn, waited for our departure at the airport, for the first timer like me, I keenly observed everything around me.

screen for Flights Status

Terminal 4 - Waiting Lounge

Our flight was been called, feeling excited, gave our ticket/passes to the crews, of course, picture taking is a must every body do this, so don’t be shy hahahaha. Look for our seats, another picture taking and then the crew and the captain welcome us, before take off, we prayed again for God’s covering.

Aerial Shot before touch down

We arrived 10 minutes earlier at Tagbilaran Airport, picture taking before check out J , our service is waiting outside and we began our Day 1 tour, asked the driver to drop us at fast food because we are a bit of hungry.

First stop for this tour.. Boyoyoy - the smallest man in the Philippines, his relatives says that he was born blinded, and the family took care of him. No entrance here just donations for Boyoyoy.

Boyoyoy

Dauis church

Besides the Dauis Church

My travel Buddy with our Car

Bohol Bee Farm -

Next destination.... Hinagdanan Cave...

Last Stop.... Shell Museum - we bought few accessories here and met the owner.

owner / collector of shell museum

Our First Day tour ended up around 7:30pm, the driver took us to our accommodation Muro Ami.

Muro Ami is a beach front resort. Our room is worth P1,000.00 per night for 2 person without breakfast, Air Condition Room with Television, One bed shared for two, free wifi, the staff are accommodating and we just love their hot chocolate that cost P35.00 per order, they offer breakfast for P150.00 mostly are silog dishes.

***end of our Day 1 tour ***

Bohol : Country Side Tour - Day 2

Bohol Tour - Day 1

BOHOL Country Side Tour

The night we arrived in our hotel, Muro Ami on our first day in Bohol, we were kinda disappointed because we expect that we can hear the sounds of the sea, unfortunately it was low tide that night, so we just slept early, but could not get a good sleep not because the surroundings is not good, it’s just that we could not get a good sleep that night.

Wake up early, freshen up, went out to our room, and wow… we can see how beautiful the scenery, it was still low tide, and because of it, we were able to feel the sand, so white like milk, it is powdery, we also catch a few star fishes with different colors, we were able to play on the beach before taking our breakfast.

few of many star fish.. :)

Muro Ami - Beachfront Resort

2 colorful star fish

Breakfast - Bangsilog

8:45am the car arrived to pick us for our Country Side tour.

Country Side tours includes: Blood compact, Baclayon Church, Butterfly sanctuary, Python prony, Hanging Bridge, Loboc River Cruise, Chocolate Hills in Carmen, Man Made Forest, Tarsier Conservation and pasalubong shoppings.

Now for the First Stop – Blood Compact – according the History – It was Legaspi and Sikatuna who performed this, probably not far from the modern town of Loay.

Blood Compact view

Blood Compact - Sikatuna & Legaspi
Too Many people taking some shots on the good angle.

Baclayon Church 

Inside Baclayon Church

Python Prony 

Buttefly Sanctuary

Butterfly Effects

The Famous Loboc River Cruise - There were singings while on cruise with a buffet, the food is so so though.

Loboc River Cruise - P400.00 per head

I love these singers and dancers - they really put an effort to make the tourist happy. a few buck of tips wont harm your pocket.

Loboc River Cruise

Chocolate Hills in Carmen - it was a magnificent view - i was joking with the other tourists that this is not a chocolate hills but a pandan hills because of it's green color. It was raining when we get there. Entrance Fee i if I'm not mistaken is P50.00 per head

the Main Entrance going to the Chocolate Hills Viewdeck

she was so tired climbing - but she manage to smile despite of her fatigue & Headached

The Famous Chocolate Hills

Chocolate Hills

we didnt know that there is another way going to the top
we used the path on our way down

I texted our driver to fetch us and head to our next stop.... Man-made Forest - the SLR was run out of battery and our cellphone cannot capture a good shots because it was already cloudy and theres a little rain shower in that place. The place was quite is very relaxing, with it lushful greens nature, wow, it's a wow, i was thinking that Metro Manila has this kind of forest too.

Man-made Forest

 See the Road?

Manmade Forest

Next - Tarsier conservation - entrance fee P60.00 per head - before you enter in their sanctuary there is a briefing, you must registered and listen very carefully to this briefing, it is very important, because tarsier is sensitive, they can commit suicides if stressed, camera flash is not allowed and silence is a must.

Hello Tarsier - How are you?

Snob Tarsier - hehehehe

shy type.. :)

sleeping tarsier or only camera shy

Our driver asked if we want to visit the House ship but we declined, instead we asked him to drop us at Tiange, forgot the name, found out the items were quite expensive, we hurried back to our care and  asked him to drop us at Hinagdanan cave, but it was already dark, instead, we look for food. We bought bread, water and grilled chicken for our dinner.

Back to our Hotel, ordered hot chocolate ate our food and chicken, freshen up, prepared our things for our next day activities - the Island Hoping in Balicasag and Virgin Island.

Bohol Tour - Day 1