My Bohol Philippines Tour in October 2010

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Taken at Chocolate Hills, Carmen Bohol Philippines

with My Cousin Mercy 

My cousin Mercy and I had been planning for quite sometime to go to the Philippines to visit our family. We were supposed to go in July 2010 but the air-fare was extremely expensive due to high peak season. So we moved the date to October. I purchased the ticket  8 months in advance and I was so lucky to find a round-trip ticket online via air-savings.com for only $690/per person. Mercy purchased hers 5 months prior but got charged for $1200.

Avril

Mercy's available vacation was 21 days. Hubby and I can only take 2 weeks vacation. So, she went first for 1 week and we followed.
Being this was the first time hubby would travel outside the country, I was so worried for him how he can handle a long boring 25-35 hours flight including landing, taking off, stop-over to multiple airport and lay over. The flight wasn't so bad. It took only 25 hours to get there from  Phoenix, Az to Cebu Mactan Airport. Coming back though was horrible, it took us 35 hours. We had 9 hours lay over in Korea.
Once we arrived, I was welcome with my older sister along with her husband, niece and my adopted little Avril. This was the first time Avril and I met. She looked at me and seems to know who I was. She uttered the words 'mommy'. She even pointed my hubby as her 'papa'. It was so cute!

These are my nieces; we were at the Royal Concourse buffet right after Avril's baptismal. Funny how both grabbed the 'reserved'. They don't look reserved to me.
The following day after Avril's baptismal, we headed to Pier II for Panglao Beach Bound. The vacation has just begun but when we arrived at Pier II my stupid camera died on me. What a bummer! So we rely on my cousin's camera and my not so nice google phone camera.

SuperCat Ferry Tagbilaran Bound

It was stormy season and bad timing to travel across the ocean. While we were on board, the rain came down pouring hard. The Ferry starts to rock back and forth. It feels like I was riding a roller coaster. Then the boat changed from rocking back and forth to swaying side to side. This time I was very scared. I look at my hubby he seemed to be so calm. He was holding on to his video camera. I grabbed his hands

and as I closed my eyes I heard a  loud thud right on my side. The crew were carrying passenger's order and it went fly overhead due to the boat went up high and drop hard. She was so embarrassed.  As you can see the photo on the left, we captured just the last part of her picking herself back up. The rain lasted at least 45 minutes before the weather subsided.


When we arrived in Tagbilaran Bohol, Philippines, I was so nauseated of the whole thing. We didn't waste time, we ventured out to find a 'hired van' and negotiated a great rate for $10 across the Island to get to our hotel in Panglao Beach. We stayed at Cherry Homes Hotel in Panglao. It was a great rate for 5 person for only $60/night. On the 3rd day, we went on to see places.

Photos on top is at Blood Compact Site in Barangay Bool, Tagbilaran City. More information about this site. Click here!


There are so much to see but we didn't have enough time. We then went to Baclayon Church. From there we went on to Hinagdanan Cave. We came and went. I have a lot of photos but I could only show few here.

Valentina is the name of this Python. Whew! I was scared. My smile didn't show how scared I was. In fact, I was the last one to posed right next to the python snake. Ewwww!


From there, we headed to Loboc Twin Bridge. Oh My! native local people who lives there they can just dance on the bridge and even run with no hesitation. While the rest of us could not even move because of the fear that it might cut into two pieces.

As you can see, two of my beautiful cousin were holding on trying to be cool but deep down inside they were shakin'.
We skipped the Loboc Luay Cruise for we didn't have time like I said. We could have gone but we opt out.
The next place was to see our baby cousin Tarsier.
What a beautiful creature that was!

She look like me! lol just kidding. Tarsier measure 4 to 5 inches and is the world smallest primate. More info about this little creature. Click here!

After the encounter of this beautiful creature, we headed to 'Man-Made Forest. Isn't it beautiful?

We feel it was romantic being out there. So hubby and I kissed!


Of we went to Chocolate Hills. We've got so many photos of it. I don't think I need to add more since the top one photo taken in Chocolate Hills.


Then we headed to Sagbayan Peak.

This photo taken at the bottom of Sagbayan Peak.

This is Chocolate Hills view from the bottom of the step. It has 214 steps leading to the observation or view deck.

We got to the top my cousin Noel and Grace are goofing off around. Making some silly posed. After the long tiring tour, we headed to my cousin Ate Fe's house.

This is my cousin's house where we all spent our weekend. For us, it was our relaxing week since we were so tired after running around  seeing places. The next morning, my cousin mercy, grace and I were washing laundry in an old fashion way.

And we were singing 'This is the way we wash our clothes, wash our clothes, wash out clothes, this is the way we wash our clothes early in the morning.' In fact, hubby took a video of us while we were singing and doing our laundry.

After the weekend enjoying spending time with all my beautiful cousins, sadly we all had to leave.  From Sagbayan we took a bus to get to Tubigon Pier. We took a slower boat from Tubigon to Cebu bound. On our way to Cebu City, the water were so sleek and very clear. We could see the bottom of it.



While closing in to Pier II, we encounter this itty bitty island. (photo on the left). I'm not sure what's the name of it but looks like it has only few homeowners who live there.

The hill on the left side is Tisa Hills, Labangon Cebu City. It was hazy and cloudy day.

We finally arrived at Pier II in Cebu City and my heart were aching to find lots of beggars racing and risking their lives and their kids just to dive down for a penny. As you can see in the middle of the little boat (banka in Tagalog) a small child sleeping while parents waiting for any one to throw a penny on them.

Wanna ride? I will take you to places you want for only 0.20c US dollar, of course only for a short ride. If you want to venture with taxi, it's still a lot cheaper.





My beautiful cousin mercy visited us at the hotel the last day prior to our departure and took some nice posed. Our flights were 12 hours apart. She left mid noon, we left midnight.


Our flight back From Cebu to Phoenix, Arizona was not a smooth one. For some reason, the connecting flight from Korea to LA was a short and the most horrifying one. Well, if we reverse the flight from LA to Korea it took 14 hours straight with the plane flew steadily 545 Miles/hour. While coming back from Korea to LA, there was a moment that the plane were it speed up to 850 Miles/hour. When it does that, the plane would shake so much that It felt like it was going to crumble into pieces. I was so scared we thought we are not going to make it to US. Thanks God! we arrived safely in LAX and from there we had 2 hours lay over. While waiting for our flight to Phoenix bound, it was wonderful to have to taste of an American Starbucks for a dollar a cup at the airport. It was such an interesting vacation for me and my hubby.

Hopefully, our next vacation would be a lot smoother and more exciting one!

Hubby and I kissed at Alona Panglao Beach, Bohol

My First Grand Canyon Trip Click here!
Hiking at Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction Arizona
Sunset Walk around Peralta Neighborhood
Great True to Life Story to tell!