boss♥me

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 { 7:29 AM }

Bohol Adventure - Day 3

Okay, on with our 3rd day .

Mang Viao fetched us to go dolphin watching and island hopping as early as 5:30am. The water was calm and the breeze was cool. You won’t even feel like you are in the middle of the ocean. We went past Alona Beach and saw the whole of Panglao Island in its morning beauty.

After an hour, we saw other boats on the same area and like us, they were waiting for the dolphins to emerge from the waters and when they did, boy it was like war! The boats were racing to get near them because they only surface for a few seconds then changes direction again. My 55-200mm lens weren’t enough for we are very far from the spot where they appeared. So we waited a few minutes more and voila! They jumped just a few meters from where we were! Hahahaha! I was shouting like a 3-year old kid when I saw them. The boss was busy recording with his camera.

That was it. We headed off to Balicasag Island to visit the Fish Sanctuary. The spot where we docked doesn’t have the fine sand that you see in Dumaluan Beach. We decided to tour the island first so we walked inside it and were surprised to see houses, day care center, a school and a baranggay hall.

I was too excited to snorkel so we headed to the sanctuary after a couple of minutes. Once I dove in, I was amazed to see a school of fish below me, I was right on the edge of a cliff and I can see every kind of fish playing and racing for tiny bits of bread that are being fed by the people. In all my snorkeling experiences, Bohol has got to be the best so far. This is the only place where I saw colorful fishes in their most comfortable habitats and not scared of people! The boss and I really had a great time and good thing our boatman/tour guide was a good swimmer so he dove a few meters below us so he can take pictures of us together.

We snorkeled for about 2 hours. The sun was hot and it was blistering my skin when I resurfaced. We decided to go back and enjoy swimming more at the resort. We were starving when we went back to the kubo where we will have our lunch so we ordered fresh buko for 20 pesos each and much to my delight; it was the sweetest buko I ever tasted. I wonder how it turned out so sweet when its soil is above salty water. Hahaha! Ironic. We picked our kind of fish and it costed us P230 for this:

You will also have to pay an extra hundred for the "paluto" with all the condiments and additional 10 pesos per cup of rice which was not bad for a fresh catch. I don't really have the guts to eat big fishes like the swordfish and mayamaya so I was happy to see these little ones on display. I don't know but i can't tolerate the after taste of fishes. I was really happy to see our fishes cooked and served to us like this:

See? It wasn't bad after all! We ate happily while listening to some stories about Balicasag Island from the elders that were there. They said that their ancestors where there first before the lighthouse was built. That they are technically squatters but the US Navy who bought the island from the Philippine Government agreed for them to settle there since they were the people who first discovered the islands etc..After a few chit chats we knew that the one who served us our food was the Baranggay Captain of the island and his wife. They were so accommodating. It was really nice to connect with the locals as you get to learn the history and how they live in an island that the only means of transportation to the city is a motorboat. Being the people loving person that I am, I made sure i had a shot with the kapitan's wife. She invited us to come back as their guests every July because its the island's fiesta and she said we can stay at her house for free. Making friends with the locals is really fun. Hahaha!

Too bad i already forgot her name. But i know where they stay. :)

After 3 bukos and a very hearty lunch we took off and headed to Virgin Island. It’s a sand bar which you can only see when its low tide. It doesn’t have any settlers since it tends to sink when the waters are high. We stayed for a while and enjoyed its pristine sands and did lot of camwhoring there.

We asked Mang Viao to take us back to our resort since the heat of the sun is unbearable. We gave them P2000 for the whole trip inclusive of snorkeling gears and life vests. While waiting for the sun to set, we just lounged at the shore and I continued to read my magazine. We took a dip when the sun was down but didn’t enjoyed much because there wasn’t a part of the beach w/o starfishes, sea urchins so we can’t really go for a freestyle. After that, we just rinsed and slept.

We woke at around 8pm to have dinner at Dumaluan Bar and Grill which is just a few meters away and had Buttered Shrimps and Liempo with Mango Shake.

Dumaluan 2 Bar and Restaurant

Liempo - P90

Buttered Shrimps - P180

a good meal will cost you around P400-P480 - not cheap

It rained hard and we were forced to stay in the comfort of the kubo because we can’t let Eva get wet. The rain stopped after a glorious one a half hour and we went back to our room to watch a movie then slept again after. That night, I was kinda gloomy knowing that we’re coming back to Manila once the dawn breaks.

Yes! I finished another entry. I feel fulfilled. Day 4 tom.

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