Breathe taking Bohol all over again.
I could not forget how Bohol took my breathe away the first
time I saw it, 7 years ago; being back after how many years really gave me an
adrenaline rush, making me remember the first time I explored the wonderful
place.
I had so many firsts here that it gave me a surreal feeling
when I visited the place; my first plane ride, my first time seeing a whale
sprung out of the water in dawn, the time I compared the size of my fist to a
fully grown tarsier, the first time I was captivated by the beauty of 1 of the
previous 7 wonders of the world - Chocolate Hills, the first time I ate in a
floating restaurant, and the list goes on. And now that I'm back, I sure know
where to go.This time, I didn't take a direct flight from Manila - instead we
booked a connecting flight from Manila to Cebu, and rode a ferry for 2 hours to
Bohol. We did this to buy us sometime for side trips.
Make sure you read my Cebu post here:
So here's what happened in our week stay in Bohol.
The night of April 7, we arrived in Bohol through ferry, it
was a 2 hour ride from Cebu. We stayed at Ellen's Bed & Bath to settle for
the night.
April 8 was the first day of the conference, and there were
more than 7,000 YFC members present. We joined the Advocacy Parade that went
from the cathedral to the Carlos P. Garcia Sports Complex. There was a mass,
and I was hand-picked to be a collector, and to usher the lay ministers for communion.
We then had talks, and afterwards, everyone wore their “Coachella” outfits,
but, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go back to our accommodation to change
into my own OTTN. No one judged us though, despite our outfits.
By April 9, we went to the St. Peter Parish in Loboc for the
second day of the conference. Unfortunately, we woke up late, and since we were
13, we decided that it was unfair if half of us were able to bathe and the
other half didn’t. So, we took the better route, and decided to be late
instead. We all prepared, and took the bus (it was 45 minutes to an hour long
and I was sleeping the whole time to reserve my energy), and missed the mass.
We were still able to participate in the activity which was Random Act of
Kindness.
We were grouped with youths from different areas. The act we
wanted to do, since there was an abundance of food, was to give the locals,
which we did. We also stumbled upon a man who was painting the Loboc bridge,
and we helped him – we managed to paint half of the bridge, and the man was
really happy. After that, we came back to the church. Since a few of the groups
weren’t there yet, we had to wait awhile in a nearby store. Since most of my
groupmates are from Visayas, they taught us how to use their natural dialect. I
learned that gehegugma taka means mahal kita (I love you), tagpila – magkano
(how much), asa – saan (where), unsaun pagadtu didtu – paano pumunta doon (how
do I get there) and of course ngano gwapo manko – bakit ang gwapo ko (why am I
so handsome) lol. After that, we went back to venue, and attended Mass. After
the talk, we had to put facepaint on ourselves, and I looked like a cat. I also
had fishbone tats on my arm – Hi TEAM GOMA NG BUHAY KO!. Our coordinator also
treated us to a midnight snack in McDonalds – thanks Tito Robert! After that we
tucked ourselves in and settled for the night
April 10 was the last day of the conference wherein, after
the mass, we painted our shirts and ourselves as a sign of gratitude. After the
announcement of the winners in the Creative and Sports Competition, they
announced where the next icon would be – Ilocos Norte. Wooo!
#ICONgotoIlocosNorte
After the conference, everyone was so excited – we rushed
back to the accommodation, and packed our bags for our roadtrip to Anda Beach. We
got there by 5:00, just in time to see the 2nd round of Ateneo vs.
La Salle – a great turn of events for Ateneo – and we stayed in Anda beach
until dinner which was treated by Tito Kiko. By night time, there was a low tide, and we stayed on shore
until the waves reached us. By the time high-tide came in, the stars came out,
and we were able to star gaze.
April 11, our itinerary for this day was to go cave at
island hopping, we got to see 2 caves and islands and the rest of the day was
spent on beach. By late afternoon we checked out from the resort and headed to Jagna
where we will stay for the night. It was also the day when I met my friend
Franco – 8 year old nephew and Alex – 11 year old niece of my friend, they only
know 2 dialects Bisaya and English which was a bit challenging but it turned
out to be fun. They taught me words in visayan and in return taught them
tagalog. Ungab is the visayan term for stars and of course maglaba sa akung
sanina that means maglaba ako ng aking damit (I’ll wash my clothes).
Not one of us wanted to
leave Bohol on the day of April 13, but we had no choice in the matter. Our itinerary was over, and it
was time to go back to Manila. We asked the front desk for a wakeup call by
6:00, and an hour after, we were prepared and went over to check out. We ate
breakfast in McDonald’s, which was only a few meters from the inn. We headed to
the airport via tricycle (a common mode of transportation for Filipinos aside
from the jeepney). We were there by 8:15, almost two hours advance, and good
thing, too, the queue was already long but I managed to get good seats because I
was able to use the kiosk to check us in. Our flight wasn’t delayed, as well,
and we reached Manila by 11:15, contrary to the expected 11:35.
Till we meet again, Bohol!
Despite
how our tiredness, we woke up early on the day of April 12, our tour day, due
to the excitement we were all feeling. Since my flight with Biboy, Joan, JM and
Jenie was tomorrow, we already brought our stuff with us. My friends, Franco and Alexa, were sad since
they thought all of us were leaving. I bid them all farewell, and we left for
our first destination, the Chocolate Hills. It was 215 stair hike up to the
viewing deck to see the hills in 360 view in which I tweeted a remake of me 7years ago (if you follow me on twitter @jasperjohnjose you’d have probably seen
it), next stop was CHAP short for Chocolate Hills Adventure Park which you can
do the following activities — Spiderman, Angler, Chicken and Fish feeding, Butterfly
sanctuary, Gymnaskids, Snakeladder, The Rush, Pentagon, Campsite, ChocoZorb
ball, ChapBody ball, Quadrillion, Tarzan Hill.
While we
were leaving CHAP, it began raining. Thank God, however, that it stopped eventually.
Since Bilar was not a city, there were no fast food chains, and so we tried the
local food – praise for the Cabcab (cassava-pancake treat that was crunchy with
a bit of sweet syrup). We then made a stop to the Man-made forest wherein we
pretended to be Twilight stars. We went to the Tarsier Conservation Area where
they have 113 tarsiers. Then, we went to Loboc Eco Park Adventure for the Zipline
and Cable Car but, unfortunately, the waiting time was 1 hour to an hour and 30
minutes so we just decided to head to our next destination which was Baclayon
Church – one of the oldest Churches in the Philippines and was erected on
1596AD. We also went to the location of the Blood Compact. We also bought some
treats for our loved ones, and friends back in Manila. Only the five of us
stayed in Tagbilaran since our flight was tomorrow while the others went back
to Jagna.
Till we meet again, Bohol!
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