"Presidential Me" A Self-Portrait By Julio

Cool Bohol

We headed to Bohol for this year's family holy week retreat.

Bohol is cool! "So many things to see and do!" - that is a quote from Diego.

We stayed in Panglao Island where the beach is great. We love it for its fine white sand, warm water, and most of all for its peacefulness. The beach was not busy which we found quite pleasantly surprising.

But really our most favorite part was the trip to the magnificent Chocolate Hills! The postcards and pictures we see do not do justice to the splendor of the hills. They are just too beautiful and unbelievably too many. According to our driver, the hills turn chocolatey brown during the very dry season when there is not much rains to nourish the grass on them and plantation around them. We could just imagine what a yummy sight that could be!

Another favorite (at least for Dad and Mom) was the man-made forest uphill enroute the Choco Hills. According to our driver again(really, he was amazing), it was an initiative of the city mayor in the 1980s- he planted molave trees on an 8-hectare land along a hill (yes- one of the chocolate hills). The trees are now all full-grown and majestically provide a breathe of fresh and cool air. Really cool! If only we could breathe that kind of air everyday!

We had lunch on the floating restaurant by green waters of Loboc River and even walk on the hanging bridge that traverses the river.

Then for Julio, we went on to get some history fix and went to the Baclayon Church, oldest church in Bohol (the second in the entire Philippines). Also visited the blood compact monument. The site commemorates the friendship between the Spaniards, represented by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, and the Boholanos who were represented by Rajah Sikatuna. The blood compact happened in 1565.
well worth it once we have spotted a pod of dolphins jumping in and out of the water a

And for the animal-loving Diego, we went dolphin watching in the wild. We had to wake up early for this activity- and were off to sea by sunrise. It was a waiting game but couple of times. We also went to see the smallest monkey in the world - the tarsiers. And visited a mini-zoo which had the longest phyton in captivity which is estimated to measure 25 feet and to weigh 200+ kilos (and still growing). Interestingly, the snake was found in a cemetery in 1996 by its owner, then only weighed 5 kilos and measured 5 feet in length. Scary cool huh?!