Bees, Ears and Sea Urchins

An early morning walk along Alona Beach for Elijah and me.

Most of the buses, Jeepneys and pedicabs have colourful designs,
but the Finding Nemo bus is my favourite.

Almost all of the shops and restaurants were closed when we arrived at 6:15am so it would have been unusually quiet if it weren't for the hundreds of people waiting to board the 30 or so boats heading out to the islands for diving, snorkelling or sight seeing.

'Tourist police' and a man with a loud hailer were all there on hand to make it work and somehow the boats managed to negotiate their way out. I'm glad we're not staying right on the beach!

There wasn't much open for breakfast but we found something cheap and cheerful, complete with a ocean view and 2 kittens for Elijah to enjoy.

Back at the resort Hamish had breakfast and I had a swim, then we headed out to the Bohol Bee Farm resort - a combination of organic farm, old fashioned handcrafts, restaurants, cafes, a souvenir shop, resort accommodation and a diving business - all right on the water.

We loved the tour - especially the traditional raffia weaving and the hands on bee demonstration.

Yes, those are European bees!

We were brave enough to hold the rack, but no one on the tour was brave enough to take up the invitation of placing our hands on the bees.

As three males, we were interested to learn that males make up only 5% of the bee hive population and are literally only good for one thing, after which they die.

Of course there were samples to try - we all tried 4 different types of honey, I tried the corn coffee, and Hamish and I tried the honey wine - not surprisingly it was very sweet and the tiny sample glass was just the right size.

Bohol Bee Farm make their own ice cream and have cafes and ice cream shops all over the region. The boys weren't too keen about some of the exotic flavours but salted caramel hit the spot.

After many days of instant coffee with powered milk, I enjoyed the real cappuccino at the funky cafe - even though it was still made with long life milk (we haven't seen any sign of fresh milk here).

Thanks to the joys of Spotify, over coffee and ice creams I tried to remedy Hamish's ignorance of U2's greatest hits from the 1980s. Travel is so educational.

We enjoyed the view from the restaurant on the cliff, as well as from the cool platform down at the waters edge.

A terrifically enjoyable morning with great variety - Danielle you would have really liked it.
How to complement this great start to the day? A trip to the doctor of course.

Elijah had woken up with pain in both ears. Past experience with Isaac in Fiji, interpreted by Dr Google diagnosed this as 'swimming ear' - an infection of the outer ear common when you swim a lot.

'Where is the doctor's on Panglao?'
'Not here, sir' (everyone here either calls me Pastor or Sir - something I can't see catching on back home)
'You have to go Tagbilaran.'
I was surprised and saddened that there is not one doctor on this island of tens of thousands of residents and tourists, and Tagbilaran is 30 minutes away if you have a car.
'How long will it take to go and to wait at the doctor?'
'Not long, sir, just half a day.'
Not keen to spend half a day we had decided to wait and see but by midday I changed my mind and decided to get the antibiotic process started.

They had offered to drive and stay with us for no charge, which was very generous. Indeed two staff came with us - one to drive and one to walk us through the process. So the driver dropped Leonil and us at the door of the medical centre, and we walked to the ear, nose and throat centre, spoke to the nurse on duty, waited for about 3 minutes, then saw the doctor. He carefully and gently looked, diagnosed and explained and prescribed the treatment.

The whole process at the medical centre took no more than 20 minutes! And how much would you expect to pay for such a visit? Certainly not the $18 we were charged!

Leonil guided us through the process at the pharmacy, as well as buying some over the ear headphones for Elijah, we bought drinks for everyone and headed back. The whole process actually took no more than 2 hours, half of which was travelling. We were so thankful for the help of the staff and of course gave them a tip.

Finally another walk along Alona Beach enjoying the antics of the tourists - some posing in pretty dresses up to their waist in the water, some flying sophisticated drones, and others gathering around a local man digging the flesh out of the sea urchins he had caught that day.

We were sorely tempted but brave tourist beat us to it and paid him $12 for half a cup of this delicacy.

Finally dinner on the beachfront at a cheap restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet.

Not a bad mix of a day when this time last night I didn't have a plan. Hopefully that works out again for tomorrow!