Bohol, Philippines

After seeing a ton of beautiful islands and beaches, we continued our Philippines adventure over to another gorgeous island, called Bohol, known for its unusual geological formations. After a quick one-hour flight from El Nido, Palawan, we arrived to the island and made our way to our hotel, Amorita Resort, that is located on Alona Beach. We were welcomed with a great support staff who grabbed our bags, gave us a wet hand towel to freshen up, and handed us some tasty lemongrass juice. We sipped our juice while soaking in the ocean views and worked up an appetite for lunch. Our room wasn’t quite ready yet so we enjoyed a tasty lunch at their oceanside restaurant.
 
It was so warm out, we were all eager to get in the water! Their shallow infinity pool was the perfect place to cool off and soak in the gorgeous views. Oh and this pool was also perfect for a game of pool tag! We played tag and Marco Polo until we felt we sufficiently annoyed the people trying to relax by the pool and all agreed everyone was officially 'It'.

Later that evening we walked along Alona beach, which is lined with upscale hotels and local seafood restaurants. We passed a local guy sitting on a rock with a huge bucket full of sea urchins. He started knocking the side of the sea urchins with a spoon to split them in half then pulled out all the muck and poured the 'meat' of the urchin in a little plastic dixie cup. It took him a few minutes, but after he put around 10 urchins in the cup, a guy standing there waiting picked up the cup and gave him some cash, then proceeded to DRINK THE THING RAW RIGHT THERE!! He tried to offer some to his wife, but she refused to try it ( I don’t blame her!). We asked how it tasted and he said 'uh, pretty unique'. Yeah dude, you're eating the oceans boogers, good luck with that!
 
We had something a little more delicious in mind. Didn't take long for the boys to spot an ice cream shop. Except this one had some super unique flavors we'd never seen before and we all decided to try one we'd never had before. The flavors we landed on were durian (a fruit with such a potent smell that it’s banned in a lot of hotels), mango, ube and charcoal. Unusual, yet all were super tasty!
 
We dropped the boys off at the room to take showers and ordered them room service for dinner. Once they were settled and ready to relax with a movie, Marshall and I went back to the beach to people watch and grab a bite before hitting the hay. It was a bit more hoppin this time and we decided to follow the flow of people down a random side alley. We heard music and saw a big crowd so we knew something cool was happening. As we got closer, we saw about a half dozen performers throwing fire sticks around. So cool that we got to unexpectedly catch a free fire show!
 
We continued zigzagging around the town and came to a cocktail bar called Bamboo Place. We stopped in for a quick cocktail, but we were pretty tired so we decided to start heading back. Along the beach were a few more street performers that used their fire skills to throw fireballs around people’s heads for a cool video. I mean, I personally wouldn’t risk my hair going ablaze for a video but there were lots of other people perfectly fine taking that risk apparently.

The following morning we had booked an archery lesson at our resort. They had legit bows that we had never used before. It took a few shots for us all the get the hang of it but after a while the boys were shooting bullseyes. Nice job boys!
 
I was, of course, craving a blended coffee drink and we found a short walk away a little place called Bo’s Coffee, basically their version of Starbucks. I must say, their fraps are much better than Starbucks!
 
We spent some time at the beach and pool before packing up our suitcases and picking up our rental car. We kind of left in a hurry, so unfortunately, I left my favorite shorts and a tank top there. I guess that just means I get to go shopping for new clothes. Not so bad!

There was a local bee farm nearby that has an open-air restaurant serving all fresh organic ingredients. Perfect place to stop for lunch! We had spicy mango pizza and an organic salad with edible flowers while enjoying a nice cliffside beach view. The pizza was amazing and we slipped in a little more ice cream before we jumped back in the car to get to our next destination!

We drove nearly an hour through the countryside to our next hotel, Loboc River Resort. It’s an eco-friendly resort along the river with incredible jungle vibes. They offer all kinds of activities like paddle boarding, kayaking, monkey feeding and firefly watching boat tours. Fireflies, whaaaat!? We have to do that! Before we decided what adventurous things we'd do while we were there, we dropped our bags in our room and headed for the pool (of course). The boys had just enough time to cool off before the monkey feeding started. We walked over to "Monkey Island" and watched the guide feed the monkeys bread and various fruits. It was fun watching the monkeys swing from a tree on one side of the river to a tree on the other which looked totally impossible. After the monkey feeding, the guide walked us around the property to feed the ducks and rabbits as well. Last, they brought over a massive water buffalo that they let the kids sit on for a fun picture. So cool!
 
Later that evening we enjoyed a lovely dinner at our hotel’s restaurant overlooking the river. It was fun having all the wildlife sounds serenade us during dinner. Turns out they also have the best Carbonara pasta in the WORLD. Marshall and Wesley proceeded to choose that for every meal for the next few days. Oh well, 'When in Rome', amiright?

We all had a good night’s sleep before what we knew would be a full day of adventure ahead of us. About an hour drive from our hotel is the Chocolate Hills that is famous for its rolling hills landscape. We pulled into Chocolate Hills Adventure Park excited to try some of the thrilling activities we saw on their website. When we got to the front desk we were informed by a not so friendly staff member that only 3 of the 10+ activities on their website were available. Seriously, why are they even open? Luckily, the main attraction we wanted to do biking along a zip line was available. However, their website showed two tandem bikes going at the same time where all four of us could be in a picture together. But nope, they only offered one person bikes and you could only go one at I time. I gave them a little rant letting them know it’s not cool to false advertise on their website. On top of that nonsense, they also had a sign that you couldn’t have asthma, back issues or be menstruating, specifically because they didn’t want any red stains on their harnesses, lol. I mean who’s actually going to admit such thing and then just turn around and go home?
 
To get to the bike zipline, we walked up 260 stairs to get to a platform with sweeping views of the Chocolate Hills. It's basically a tight rope suspended 250 feet off the ground that you pedal across. I know, we do some crazy stuff! We geared up with safety harnesses and the guide said Wesley had to go first because the smallest bike just happened to be closest to the zipline at the time. Wesley didn’t hesitate and hopped right on! As he was about halfway across, a big gust of wind blew through the hills. I was a little nervous for him, but he champed it up. It was Tyson’s turn next. He was a little nervous but Wesley game him advice to "not look down and just look straight ahead and smile the whole time", lol. Marshall went next and rode there and back like it was nothing - he said he was a little scared too though. I went last and was absolutely terrified!! I gripped the bike handlebars for dear life and felt like I was going to fall off the whole time. I just pedaled as fast as I could to get to the other side as quickly as possible. Although it was scary, we all agreed it was a really unique and cool experience. We were so proud of the boys for doing something so adventurous and out of their comfort zone. Super cool dudes!

The adventure park also had zip line surfing which I had never seen before. The boys couldn’t do it because you had to be 100lbs. But somebody had to try it! Marshall said it was all me, so I hiked up a long trail to get over to the platform. Right before I got there, I saw a giant spider that was as big as my fist. I cringed as I had to walk under its huge web to get to the platform. The guide clipped me in, slipped my feet into the slots on the surfboard and away I went. So awesome surfing the sky while gazing out at the chocolate hills in the background!

Down the street was an ATV tour company. Since the day was still young, we figured we’d go see if we could get on a tour right away. We only had to wait about 15 minutes and then off we went with a private tour guide. Sweet! We rode in the two person buggies, Tyson with Marshall and Wesley with me. The guide led us along the bumpy dirt trail through the hills and splashing through mud puddles while taking videos of us as we went. Somehow mud got on the butt crack of my shorts but nowhere else….not sure how that’s even possible. Great, now everyone’s going to think I pooped myself.
 
We arrived at a viewing platform which required us to walk up a couple hundred stairs. Man, we’re really getting our steps in today! Once at the top, each group’s tour guide was taking their photos. We had to wait quite a while as the group of six in front of us took pictures of every possible group and individual pose like they were having their own private photo shoot. When it was finally our turn our guide had us do various poses, one of which was jumping up on a broomstick to look like you’re flying in the sky. Haha!
 
Tyson ended up driving the ATV all the way back. He drove like he'd been driving for years. Guess some value comes from those racing video games!

Once the tour ended, we were all ready to go back to the hotel and relax by the pool. As soon as we got back, the boys ordered some chocolate banana shakes to sip poolside. Yum! As Tyson was sipping his drink, he glances around the pool and casually says “why is the pool infested with old people?” Then he makes up his own military chant ‘I don’t know but I’ve been told....people in the pool are super old.’ I nearly died laughing! 
 
Next to the pool is a volleyball court so we took a break from swimming to play some volleyball. The boys kept hitting the ball over by the pool nearly hitting some old folks trying to relax on their lounge chairs. We figured we should probably stop playing before we knock someone over and break a hip.
 
Later that evening we were excited for our boat tour to go firefly watching! Marshall grew up seeing them in the forests in Texas, but the boys and I had never seen a firefly before so were super excited. We cruised up to a tree along the river that was filled with hundred of fireflies and they were all flashing in sync. We didn't expect to see so many in such a small area. It truly was magical! A few would fly down to the boat and the boys actually caught a couple that had flown down and landed on them. So cool!

The next morning, we woke up and decided to start our morning with a paddle boarding tour down the Loboc River. Our guide was a local and had grown up fishing that same river. We enjoyed his stories giving us insight on the local Philippine culture and was asking us about life in the US as we paddled along. 

By the time we got back it was nearly time to check out of our hotel and continue our journey to the next place. We really enjoyed that area so we were bummed to leave but looked forward to see what was next. Along the long drive we stopped at a Tarsier Sanctuary. Tarsiers are little gremlin looking creatures about the size of an avocado. It was really cool to see them in person and in the 'wild' hanging out in the trees.
 
The next stop was Hinagdanan Cave. We climbed down a steep set of stairs trying not to hit our head on the low cave ceiling above. Once inside the cave, there is a huge natural pool you can swim in. The boys weren’t feeling like swimming so we just explored inside the cave. There were several souvenir shops out in throng of the cave that we strolled through afterwards. The boys all got a T-shirt and some sliced mangoes.

We continued driving toward our next hotel, passing through residential down random dirt roads making our way to the beach that our hotel was on. We parked the car and walked around trying to find it. We walked by what we thought was our hotel. It was so dingy with rust all around the outside and the pool water was poopy brown. It reminded me of me of somewhere the Grizwold’s would have stayed on the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation. There were some local fishermen all giving us the stink eye, not helping at all, so we decided to cut our loss and find a different hotel to stay the night at. This time with clear pool water at a minimum. I quickly researched hotels nearby as we drove around and booked a room at BE Grand Resort.
 
As soon as we checked in, they informed us that the water would be shut off between 5-8pm. Oh just lovely! But they said there would be an apology snack waiting in our room. No snack was there and just a foul smell instead. We quickly left the room to explore the rest of the hotel which ended up being really cool. There was a fun bungee trampoline by the beach that the boys enjoyed flipping around on. We then checked out their game room to play pool and table tennis before making our way to their beach front restaurant called Monkey Bar. We sat at a table facing the ocean that seat cushions on the ground instead of chairs. We had smoked chicken and brisket which was amazing! 
 
Shortly after we got back to our room, the water was turned back on, but we ran it for nearly an hour and it was brown the whole time. Ewwww!  Looks like we’ll be skipping showers and brushing our teeth with bottled water. Although this hotel was not the best experience, it was definitely better than the run down one that we ditched, lol.

​Bohol was quite the adventure, and we'd highly recommend it. As for our next stop, we were excited to check out yet another island in the Philippines!
 
Next stop: Cebu, Philippines