Gremlins or Tarsiers...It's hard to tell

An amazing trip to Taiwan last weekend apparently wasn't enough. Monday night after getting back from our first study abroad trip, Haley and I decided to book a spontaneous getaway to the Philippines for four days. With a late flight out Thursday night that didn't arrive until 4am in Cebu we had to maximize our time away.

The trip started out with a taxi ride to the ferry port and then a two hour boat journey from the island of Cebu to the island of Bohol. We would spend our time on Bohol and Panglao Island exploring everything there was to offer.

5am Ferry Rides

We finally made it to Bohol (Alona Beach) around 8, got a taxi to our resort, checked in, and then got talked into renting a van for the day that would take us to all of the main attractions on the island. Let me say that it is obvious that tourism is the only (close to only) source of income for locals. You can not walk five feet without being harassed into buying fake sunglasses, a snorkeling day trip, a trip to whale sharks, or mangosteens.

First stop on the van tour was the oldest church on the island. Because the Philippines had a lot of Spanish colonial influence the primary religion of the people is Catholicism. It was actually nice to see a church and cross again. The temples in Hong Kong are very interesting to look at and try to understand but they are definitely not familiar territory for me. The church wasn't anything spectacular but the gardens were quite peaceful to walk around in especially in the 90 degree weather! 

Another short ride landed us at some sort of "zoo". It was basically a hut filled with caged animals. I'm not the biggest fan of zoos or anything like that but I did enjoy holding a lizard and petting a python!

Because of our big "American" breakfast on the beach before we left our next stop was a bit of a bust. We stopped at the floating restaurants but skipped the meal and instead settled for an ice cream to cool us of in the heat. It wouldn't be an exchange experience without confusion even at an ice cream stall. First off, the cones were not like any other cone I've ever seen. It was almost like a deep fried plain tortilla with a little bit of sweetness (not the most appetizing cone I've had). The flavors were also bizarre. I settled for one scoop of Buko, young coconut flavor. There was also ube, ginger, choco, mango, and some others that I can't remember. 

Bohol has lots to offer, but one of the attractions the entire group was most looking forward to were the Tarsiers. Tarsiers are native to only a few Southeastern Asian islands and are one of the smallest primates in the world! They are only grow to be about 3-6 inches and when they are born they are the size of a thumb nail. After seeing them up close I definitely know where the inspiration for the Gremlin movie came from. In a  weird way they are one of the cutest animals I have ever seen! Haley contemplated putting one in her pocket to tack home. 

Sleeping-they're nocturnal

Alien Fingers

The final stop was the infamous chocolate hills. The 45 minute drive wasn't too bad because we all slept! The long day of travel and day in the sun had definitely gotten to us by this point. We arrived at the top of one of the hills and then climbed to a viewing point to see the other hills. It was an odd site. Just as the name says all  we saw were a lot of hills, but the contrast between the flat Filipino landscape and hundreds of surrounding hills was strange to look at. March signals the beginning of the dry season so we were lucky enough to see the start to the browning of the hills. This is where the name chocolate hills comes from. The hills formed because of uplifts of coral deposits thousands of years ago.

The day in the heat wore us all out. We all slept on the journey back to Alona Beach (where our resort was),  and got back in time for a little tanning on the beach and then some dinner. We also booked a snorkeling day tour for Saturday so headed to bed early because dolphin watching begins at 6am!