Touristing around Bohol -- Day One

The Cebu Temple has been closed for two weeks (Feb 3-16) for maintenance and major cleaning.  They even wash the exterior grey granite walls.  They thoroughly clean carpets and the huge, gorgeous, Austrian Swarovski crystal chandeliers.  Every time I gaze at their beauty, I say to LeRon, "I'm glad I don't have to clean them."

We spent the first week of holidays in Manila.  I haven't gone through those pictures yet, but I will.  The second week we spent three of those days in Bohol with the other two missionary couples.  Beautiful part of the Philippines.  Touristy, fun place.

A 2-hr ferry boat ride took us from Cebu to Tagbilaran City, the capital of Bohol province.  Coming from dry southern Alberta, we are always fascinated with bridges -- how they are built and how they work and the beauty of their designs.  The crossing was calm, thankfully.  Last week there were major warnings for heavy rainfall and wind in Bohol, but this week things were calm. Our guide met us at the port.

  

First stop was Sandugo -- the place of the "Blood Compact" of 1565 between a Spanish explorer and the chief of Bohol.  The participants cut their arms and dripped blood into their common drink, sealing their friendship, instead of fighting.

The flag of Bohol shows the dripping blood!  Apparently the blue stripe represents nobility; the white stripe, purity (hmn . . . not sure bloody wine is so pure); and the red stripe courage.

Next stop . . . a dinner river cruise on the Loboc River.  Food mostly Filipino, so . . . interesting.  We're with the Andreasens (in front), then the Stirlands, then the Torries.

Luscious green foliage.  Why can't we grow palm trees like that?  In the 50 years we've been married, we've planted trees and they've died, and we've planted again, and they've died.  We're on our third go-round right now for our shelter-belt trees!

The Ati Tribe are the "first nations" people of the Philippines. They live in villages along the river and keep to their traditions, not just for the tourists, but because they like their way of life.  Their livelihood comes from the land but also, of course, from the tips tourists give or from the handmade souvenirs tourists buy.  The river boat company doesn't pay them anything.

I had no idea fire was going to shoot out!  Scared me!

Cute little girl was happy to get her picture taken.  You can see that they wear western clothes sometimes.

Children are children, no matter where they live.  All are alike unto God.  "He inviteth them all to come unto him, and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none . . . black and white, bond and free, male and female . . . and all are alike unto God . . ." 2 Nephi 26:33.  One of my favorite scriptures, especially after having served a mission in Africa.

Well that was a fun experience!  Wish I would have known more about the Ati people before the experience though.

Since I was on the boat, I couldn't take a picture of it, so here's another riverboat, just like the one we are on.  Fun times.

Now that we know what to look for, we see rice fields all over the place.  LeRon wanted to get a close-up look.  He is "outstanding in his field," or rather, kneeling in his field.

 

Camera focused on LeRon's shirt instead of the rice heads.  These are starting to fill, just like wheat does.  So interesting.  Harvest is a still a couple of months away.

Rice field by some homes.  These homes seem a bit more upper class than what we see in Cebu.  In fact, we even saw a home with a brick wall around it with broken glass on the top of the wall, just like we used to see in Nairobi.  Protection from thieves.  Notice the coconuts in those coconut palm trees.  So interesting to our prairie eyes.

Gondola ride across a beautiful valley.  No, we didn't do the zip line that you can see.  LeRon doesn't like heights.  I'm amazed that I got him into a hot air balloon ride one time.  That was in Cappadocia, Turkey, and he loved it.  Highly recommend seeing that part of the world and doing a balloon ride there.  Some things he can do, and some things he can't.  I understand because I can get pretty claustrophobic at times.

Coolest thing ever was to see a tarsier.  Look at those eyes!  Tarsiers are small primates -- about 5-6 inches tall with eyes that are bigger than their brains.  They are born with fur, and with their eyes open, and are only about 1 inch long.  They can climb trees almost immediately after birth and eventually can jump 5-6 meters between trees.  Their eyes don't move but they can rotate their heads 180 degrees, like owls.  They are nocturnal, so mostly sleep during the day.  Not sure how anyone discovered them in the first place.  Tarsiers are my new favorite animal -- along with zebras, penguins, and koalas.

Photographer is closer to the tarsier than to us.  It is absolutely tiny.

More beautiful rice fields.  The farmer in us notices things like that.  In fact, it made LeRon a wee bit homesick for the farm.

Here we are in the "Chocolate Hills" riding ATV's.  The other couples did it last year and loved it.  I knew I couldn't straddle a 4-wheeler anymore (because of problems with my hips), so we chose to ride a go-cart type vehicle.  It was brutal.  Even the other girls said so.  The 4-wheelers were pretty beat up and it was super muddy and very rocky.  Much worse than last year, they said.  Not so much fun.  We were glad for the rain gear they had us wear.  So much mud everywhere and water would rush in under our feet.

Picture stop.  You can see the riper rice field and the chocolate hills.  And our blue footwear too.  Glad for all the plastic as we rode through deep pools of muddy water.

Most of the work in the rice fields is done by hand.  But farmers are starting to use some mechanization.  In fact, we have heard of farmers swathing the rice with some kind of swathing machine.

LeRon thought this logo on the tuk-tuk was cute.  "Do not dismay . . .."   Yes, for sure you need God's help when you ride the streets on motorbikes and tuk-tuks.  But tuk-tuks go slower, so you are a bit safer.  There were lots of tuk-tuks in Kisumu in Kenya.  In fact they called Kisumu "Tuk-tuk town".  We've ridden tuk-tuks in Thailand and thought they were quite fun.  And tomorrow we will ride one again.  Stay tuned.

Chocolate Hills lookout.  There are about 1700 chocolate hills here in Bohol.  They are yellowish-brown in the dry season and green in the wet season.  They are karst formations (i.e., made of limestone).  They range from 30 meters to 120 meters tall).

We're climbing up the tallest karst to an overview.  But since it's 120 meters tall, LeRon and I decided to only go half way.  By the time our old bodies made it to the top, the light would be gone.  End of a fun first day in Bohol.

Found some more tarsier pictures in my many pictures.  The keepers have made nests for the tarsiers close to the walking path so we could see them as they sleep.

Google says that yes, they can sleep with their eyes open.  Who knew?