02.19.09

Bohol’s Chocolate Hills and the Tarsier Monkey

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:29 am by Administrator

Before my computer hard drive crashed, I had seemingly endless space for pictures.  So it came as a big surprise when trying to download my pictures from our recent trip that my computer was giving me grief.  Turns out the hard drive Brian installed for me is ity bity.  I see why he told me that it was only “temporary. . . “  Turns out I’ve practically filled up all my disk space, already!  Yikes!  So since my pictures are scattered over 4 chips mixed in with my previous vacation, ha!, a lot of my pictures are out of order.  So I guess I’ll just start anywhere. . .

During this trip to the Philippines, we were able to take a trip to Bohol.  Bohol is one of the Philippine islands south of Manila in the Visayan region.  The plane ride is about an hour long from Manila to Tagbilarn in Bohol.  Their airport is tiny, and so I’ll have to share a little about that one later, heheheh. . . Anyway, one of the sites to see in Bohol is the Chocolate Hills.  Now this isn’t the right time of year to see the “chocolate” because the growth on the hills are green at this time of year.  It’s later in the year when the greenry dies that the hills get their “chocolate” look from the dead plants.  Basically these hills are made up of coral deposits and the action of rainwater and erosion, and so only short vegetation grows on them, no large trees or big bushes.   So this time of year, I guess you can say these are “mossy” hills, heheh.  According to the placcard, these hills are scattered throughout the towns of Carmen, Batuan, and Sagbayan and consists of 1,268 mounds of the same general shape.  Here’s what part of the road looked like driving up to the hills.

Here’s what some of the countryside looks like on the way up.

Since the Chocolate Hills covers such a large area, a lookout platform high enough to get a good view of the hills was erected so tourists could get a nice view of them.  This is what the entrance to the lookout platform looks like.

And this is the view of the walkway up to the top of the platform.  The top of this view is actually “not” at the top of the platform, yet.  It goes on a few more tiers.

Our driver and guide had the good foresight to take us to this spot early because he knew that it was likely to rain in the afternoon.   Sure enough as we started to drive down the mountain, it started to pour down on us.  Not sure how safe it would have been to climb up all these steps with the pouring rain.  Especially with my parents so move slow motion already without rain.

Once at the top, this is one of the views.

I’m sure there were better views to take, but there were quite a lot of people up there, and so it was hard to get a shot without someone in the way.

Here’s a shot with Aaron and some hills behind him.

And me with some hills behind me.

It was a really nice view from up there, and I do have more panoramic shots.  But I’ve noticed somehow that my pictures don’t do it justice.  I’ve noticed this with other pictures I’ve taken that some depth is lost.

Another thing Bohol is known for is the tarsier monkey.  Some say that they are only found in Bohol, Philippines, while others say there are some in Indonesia, too.  They are considered endangered, so people aren’t allowed to keep them as pets.  These cute little monkeys look more like a cross between a bat and a monkey to me.  Check it out.

Aside from them being so cute, what’s so special about these monkeys, you might ask?  Well, they are “tiny,” only about 3 inches in height not counting their tails.  Yeah, and you thought only the people in the Philippines were small. . . Here’s a picture of a man touching one to help give a size comparison.  Eh, never mind that the sign clearly read, “Please do not touch the tarsiers.”  Hmmm.  Oh, and no, that’s not my Brian, but some other guy.

Can you see the little guy?  He looks like a clip-on koala, but trust me, these little guys are real and actually jump from tree to tree.

And finally, the monkey in me comes out at times when I see those cut-out forms where you can poke your head through.  When my mom told Aaron and me to stick our faces inside, I was all there, but Aaron was not so gung-ho.

I know that when this picture was taken, Aaron was not amused.  However, when I downloaded the picture and showed him a closeup of his face here, he did get a good laugh out of it.  He’s usually not such a sad boy!

The other part of our tour took us on a floating luncheon down the Loboc River.  We also got to see the largest python in captivity and then got to do some shopping! Yee!

Will share those later, tho.

Marlakins

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