Weekend at the Beach

We spent last weekend at Alona Beach in Bohol, a 75-minute flight and 40-minute taxi ride south of Manila.

After liquids were banned on flights in the U.S. and elsewhere, I called Philippine Airlines to ask if the same rules were being enforced in the Philippines. "No," I was told. Of course, when we arrived at the airport Friday morning, there were signs indicating that liquids indeed are now prohibited on PAL, which is how I ended up flying with this classy carryon bag. As it turns out, Shelly carried her water bottle on without any problems, and I carried mine on on the return flight, so enforcement seems, at the best, spotty.

It's been a long time since I've flown into an airport as tiny as the one in Tagbilaran, the capital of Bohol, where you walk down the boarding stairs directly onto the tarmac, giving you fantastic views of the plane, if you're into that kind of thing. Which, if you know me, I am. It also gives you a great view of the "fire truck" they wheel out prior to your flight's arrival:


The beach was fantastic ... clean, white sand, only a few tourists, and a good selection of hotels, bars and restaurants, one of which advertised itself as "the best pizza on the beach." Shelly tried the pizza, and declared that if it indeed is the best pizza on the beach, then any other place selling pizza must make a really, really bad pie. Pizza aside, you know you're going to have a good weekend when this is the view out of your hotel room door:


Don't like the sand? Just look inland, instead:


After a day of snorkeling and napping, we headed out for a massage -- the blind masseur I had squeezed my head so hard I thought it was going to burst -- and dinner. On Saturday, we headed inland for a tour of Bohol with Rogelio, a driver we had met on the beach. Our first stop was the site of the "blood compact," where in 1565, Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi explained that he was not a Portuguese plunderer and Boholano chieftain Rajah Sikatuna agreed not to kill Legazpi and his men, and then sealed the deal by drinking a cupful of each other's blood. There's also a great overlook here, with a bunch of tourists standing around:


Just up the road from the blood compact site is the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Baclayon, the second-oldest church in the Philippines (and the country's oldest non-extensively-renovated church), founded by a pair of Spanish Jesuits in 1595.


But the real highlights of a trip to Bohol begin when you get to the Chocolate Hills, one of the Philippines' top tourist destinations. During the dry season, these 1,268 nearly identical hills turn a nice light brown, giving the hills their tasty name. Even when they're mostly green, the hills are an impressive place to visit.



Bohol's other highlight are the tarsier monkeys, primates which are just a few inches tall, yet can jump nearly five meters. They can rotate their heads almost 360° and have eyes that are, relative to size, 150 times larger than human eyes. These little guys can't see well during the day, so spend most of their time hanging out on tree branches. It's also the oldest primate group, having been around for an astounding 45 million years. I've stuck my fingers into this photo just to show the size of a tarsier.