Cruising Bohol

After nine hours of sleep we wake up feeling refreshed. We get up before the alarm (which was set at 6:30) get dressed, enjoy breakfast (banana pancakes with chocolate J ) and  pack our daypack. Today we have a pretty full program and we’re planning to stay on the other side of the Island (in Anda). So we go to our motorbike and just to be sure I check whether we have our registration papers… turns out they are not in the motorbike, and the lady is in shock… She looks around while we wait and finds the originals. So we’re good to go.

We head for the main road and turn right, on our way to Loboc where we want to get informed on going paddle boarding (SUPping) on the Loboc river…  On our way we pass a butterfly farm and can’t resist. We walk inside and they literally give us wings. We walk out feeling so light and continue to go to the sub place. Which is the adventurous thing to do instead of going on a lunch cruise. Since our schedule is full we  make arrangements for tomorrow on our way back to Panglao Island ( which is a peninsula).

After the arrangement is set we drive into the hills in the middle of the island and visit the Tarsier sanctuary… These little animals literally fit in the palm of  your hand. The y have huge eyes and I just want to cuddle them… They are on display for tourists…but nocturnal animals and they can’t be kept behind bars.. they turn suicidal and will bang their heads against bars until their skull breaks.So every morning the locals walk around the sanctuary and pick the sleeping tarsiers and hang them in the trees on a good spot so the tourists can see them.

After some buko juice the sun finally started to shine! Time for sunscreen.,.. especially for Gen who has English skin. We cruise in to Carmen t and walk up a long long flight of stairs to reach the vieweing point of the Choloate hills. Even though the hills aren’t brown because the wet season is almost over, it still looks like Marioland.

We drive down the hills and stop at a little bakery to get some lunch. There are bakeries in all the towns and they are really really good! For 50 Eurocents we can eat until we’re stuffed and continue to drive. The landscape is amazing, but it´simpossible to captureon film. We keep  saying wow to eachother. At this point our butts are already starting to hurt and we still have a long drive to go. Little kids yell hello at us and we feel so welcome… until I lmost hit a dog, which run freely all over the country… and like to lay down in the middle of the road. This dog just ran across the street and I braked hard… then Gen noticed the dog and yelped… all in all, our adrenaline was flowing.

A little later we stopped in the middle of nowhere to give our butts some rest and enjoy the landscape. After this quick stop we reached Anda really fast after I almost  killed a cat… luckily they have 9 lives. We find the resort and want to check in. The lady/ girl behind the counter looks confused.. they haven’t received a booking and the manager is not on site. This is quickly resolved and we check into our cottage.. which has a view of the beach. It’s really quiet in the resort and we discover we’re the only guests… Which means we have a private beach, private pool and private restaurant.

I drive to the local dive center to plan an early morning dive (and found a cheaper price on their one website which they didn’t know about so I get a discount because now they now they have to take the site offline).

I run back to the resort and get some drinks on the way. Gen is at the beach.. and she managed to get hurt.. walking in the sand and then hitting some coral in the water… We watch a stunnig sunset, take a dive in the pool and get ready for dinner. The shower basically is like a broken sprinkler… so a good shower isn’t an option.  We enjoy a (pricy) dinner in the restaurant and suddenly there’s a flash. A storm comes rolling in and just as I want to bet how long it takes for the lights to go out… they go out. Luckily they come back on very quickly and we’re now enjoying the cool that the storm brings.

I’m pretty sure we’re going to be asleep at 9pm again, but then… the day starts early tomorrow with an early morning dive, a drive to Loboc, paddle boarden and probably some more cocktails. We’re so lucky to be able to travel like this!