I woke up at 7:30 this morning. Before heading off to breakfast, I sent a message to Dario, the taxi driver from the night before. He’d agreed to take me on a tour of Bohol, starting at 10 a.m. and ending at the airport at 3 p.m., for 1000 pesos. The huts at Nuts Huts are along the river. The restaurant is on a hill, at the end of a steep set of stairs. Breakfast was a pleasant affair of brewed coffee, vegetable omelette, butter and a warm roll. The roll seemed freshly made. I had Chris contact Sari Manok to request that a boat pick me up at 9:30.
At 9:55, there was still no sign of the boat. I sent a message to Dario requesting that he ask Sari Manok to pick me up if he was waiting at the dock for me. About 10 minutes later, the boat arrived. The boat was no from Sari Manok, but rather from the same company that had dropped me off the night before. Chris was worried that there would be a fight between the two companies if I took that boat but I had been waiting at the pier for Sari Manok for 35 minutes and had no desire to wait any longer. I figured that their lateness was just cause for them to lose my business.
The owner of the boat had a small zoo of sorts with tarsiers, bats, and birds. I had wanted to go to the tarsier center but figured that just seeing the tarsiers in Loboc might be enough.
The tarsiers are so tiny. I’d read this but hadn’t imagined how tiny they are. Their eyes seem to be at least 1/4 of the size of their body. It’s amazing. I almost expected them to scurry around like mice or little monkeys but they seemed to have little personality. They just clung to their branch. Could it have been the time of day or shyness; there were a bunch of humans gawking at them after all.
We drove through the manmade forest, a legacy of President Carlos created in the 70s, on the way from Loboc to Carmen. My guide said that each couple from that region who wished to marry had to plant a tree their during President Carlos’ reign. By then, it had started to rain so I was not keen to stop until we got to the chocolate hills. I did climb the stairs to the viewpoint although much of the view was shrouded in mist. I did not linger but quickly read the information about the geography of the place.
On the way from Carmen to the hanging bridge, my guide bought boiled corn. He told me that the corn is boiled for 3 hours. The kernels were harder than I’m used to but it was still tasty. I also bought some sort of sweet made of rice flour, cooked wrapped in a banana leaf. It reminded me of a sweet in St. Lucia called paimie (sp?). We stopped for a few minutes at the hanging bridge and bought roasted ripe bananas coated in sugar.
We only made one stop between Loboc and Tagbilaran. I chose to forgo visiting the church. I had enough time to get a pedicure (long awaited) and decided to find a place to do that. The place that I’d read about online was fully book but my driver knew another place. I got what was called a foot spa done. It was luxurious and the lady was very thorough in performing my pedicure. It was 250 pesos well spent.
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