Bohol – June 20, 2009 (Part 1)

Flew to Bohol last last week-end. I flew in on Saturday, June 20th, 2009 and we flew back on Monday, June 22nd, 2009.

My morning started at around 3am as I left the house to get to the airport for a 5:30am flight. I don’t know why, but I woke up fairly late… 2:15am and I hadn’t packed yet! So I took a bath and rush through packing stuff for the 3 day trip. Needless to say, I forgot a few things. I really should get around to making a list.

So I get to the airport in plenty of time. It’s amazing that at 4:00am the airport is full of people. Anyway, I spent the time waiting at the Mabuhay Lounge where I took in a nice breakfast of Aroz Caldo, Mango Juice, a Banana, and some croissants.

Side note. While I personally enjoy the Mabuhay Lounge, I kinda think that the place doesn’t quite live up the quality of what an Airport Lounge should be. I’m sure it doesn’t measure up to what other airlines have. The place is dirty, the banyo smells… all in all… nakakahiya siya.

The flight landed earlier than it’s posted 6:55 arrival time. I think I was out of the airport by 6:40 and was quickly on a cab to meet up with Jasper, Patrick, and Patrick at the Paragayo Beach Resort at Alona Beach.

The Paragayo Beach Resort is a quaint little resort with cheap rooms and clean accommodations. If you aren’t picky, the place is actually quite nice and decent. Again, it wasn’t fancy, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s walking distance from Alona beach. (According to our driver/guide, it’s named after 70’s movie actress Alona Alegre… I of course question that history).

Once the guys finished dressing up, our driver was waiting for us outside the resort for our day of a “Bohol day tour”. We went around to see the sights. I had actually seen some of this stuff 6 years earlier when I visited Bohol in 2003… but of course it was nice to see the sights again. (Maybe I’ll post pics from that trip in the future).

First stop was Hinagdanan Cave. So named because… well, there were ladders before to get down to the cave… now there are stairs.

It’s a “typical” cave with a big pool of water which you can actually swim in. Oddly as you enter this little stone “hut” which is the entrance to the stairs, there is a sign which warns… “No Soap.” I guess people would actually bathe in the water.

I do recall the last time I was here, there were a lot of people in the water. We were lucky to get there with the cave empty. We didn’t get to go “around” due to the high tide of the water.

According to the cave guide, the water is a mixture of fresh and salt water… apparently the cave opens up to the sea… somewhere.

The cave was quite dark. In these situations, flash photography isn’t quite good because the back would just end up black with the foreground brightly lit.

It was here that we discovered that the cave guide was very knowledgeable in the tips and tricks for photographing the cave. He was pestering me to “investigate” camera and look for a “twilight mode”. I didn’t know my camera had such a feature… but  apparently it did. Anyway… we still didn’t get a lot of good shots due to bad lighting. Jasper was able to prop his camera on a cement post to take the picture above of the cave interior at a low shutter speed.

All in all, it was an interesting visit. Albeit a tad damp.

Blood Compact

The next step was the was the commemorative site for the Blood Compact between Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Datu Sikatuna.

Located in Barangay Bool, it shows 5 life sized figures around a square table with Legazpi and Sikatuna engaged in a toast. Unless you do research you don’t know exactly what is happening because the one thing missing in the whole “monument” is signage and the standard plaque which describes what is going on. Our driver then tells us later that the site really isn’t the actual site of the Blood Compact, rather it’s just a commemorative site.

(photo… me, Patrick, Jasper, and Patrick… hmm… I seem smaller than Jasper here)

Next stop… Baclayon Church

The church is just a few minutes from the Blood Compact site. It’s a nicely preserved church from 1727. We also got to walk around the grounds. There were some services going at the time.

to be continued…

Part 2: http://lakwatsero.me/2009/06/24/bohol-june-20-2009-part-2-2/

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