Christmas in Bohol, Philippines

Our journey to Bohol was like every other one we'd had in the Philippines, full of drama. We headed over to the port in Siquijor excited to spend my birthday at Alona Beach on the island of Bohol. Unfortunately when we arrived to board the ferry we were greeted by a security guard mumbling that everything had been cancelled. This was because of another typhoon heading our way in the next couple of days. We were distraught as Josh had made plans for my birthday which we were already a little disheartened about because I had a horrible cold. After losing all hope for a few minutes we pulled it together and asked the locals for help. One man took us to a local fisherman who he thought would be willing to take us across to Bohol. When we arrived he was busy partying for Christmas so wasn't very enthusiastic, but after seeing our pleading eyes he agreed. We later learnt that a ferry sank elsewhere in the country due to the storm so began to understand why they are so overly cautious here. Thankfully we made it to Bohol after a warm welcome from some dolphins who swam around our boat whilst a fiery sunset framed the mystical island behind us. 

The next day was my birthday and Josh spoilt me like crazy with a huge cake meant for twenty people, lots of balloons and gifts. We went to visit the Tarsier Sanctuary located in Corella which took a while to get to on our little bike, but it was so worth it to see these adorable creatures. There are two places to see Tarsiers in Bohol and one is dedicated to the conservation of the species whilst the other is a tourist trap where they treat these primates dreadfully. On our visit to the right sanctuary we learnt that the Tarsiers can leave the highly protected forest at any time into the vast area of less managed forest, but many stay close by until they feel more confident. Being only 10cm in size they have lots of predators including humans, snakes, and house cats, add this to the fact they only have one baby a year and you'll see the odds are stacked against them, therefore controlled conservation of the species is vital. We were lucky and got to see five Tarsiers curled up out of the typhoon rain, sleeping soundly which was wonderful.

As a birthday surprise Josh whisked me away to a beautiful hotel for the night, although the typhoon ruined plans again as we couldn't go outside due to the weather. Luckily the next day was beautiful and sunny so we eventually got to enjoy the stunning pool and beach at the resort. Overall minus the typhoon, stress of nearly not making it to Bohol and horrible cold that refused to leave me, it was a lovely birthday. The island of Bohol is famous for its Chocolate Hills which are definitely not as exciting as they sound. We rode 60km from Alona Beach, stopping in the man made forest along the way, and arrived at somewhere much less chocolate-y than we thought. The story goes that two giants were fighting and throwing big boulders at one another which led to the creation of these perfectly shaped limestone domes across the landscape. They are so named because in dry season the foliage dies and turns brown so they look like chocolate, although we thought that was a stretch of the imagination. After climbing up to the viewpoint and gazing across the fascinating landscape for a while, we bought some fresh calamansi juice and headed home. 

It was strange for us both to wake up on Christmas Day and not be with our families, we missed them so much but thought keeping busy would be the best thing. We decided to do some diving near Balicasag Island which is a stunning, white beach protected marine reserve. On our first dive just as we descended we saw a beautiful Manta Ray gliding past us in the deep blue, apparently they're incredibly rare to see here so we were lucky! This dive also treated us to lots of grazing turtles, healthy coral reefs full of tropical fish and a huge school of jack fish. Overall it was just a brilliant dive site with lots of beautiful aquatic life to enjoy and turtles to wish Happy Christmas to. The sun was shining with not a cloud in the sky as we got back to the shore so we spent the rest of our day sunbathing and getting ready for dinner. We went to the Henham Hotel which had a fancy beach front dinner service and got as close to a roast as we could, tofu steak with gravy and potatoes. The evening was spent video calling our families, as they were just starting their Christmas day. It was so lovely to speak to them but also very emotional to not be together. Hilariously Josh sent an almost to scale cutout of himself to his family which had pride of place at the end of the table. 

When it was time to leave Bohol we were both a little sad as we enjoyed our time here and it had gone so quickly. We spent our last day relaxing on the beautiful Alona Beach and saying goodbye to all the doggies we had met. Our next destination is the beautiful Palawan Islands where we'll be celebrating the New Year in El Nido and heading up to our last destination in Asia, Coron.