A whole variety of housing and lots of dogs just wandering around, plus the local primary school where the playground consists of a little bit of concrete and a whole lot of plants growing out of tyres.
Then back for a morning swim before breakfast.
First stop was the Tarsier sanctuary - extraordinary little creatures with big wide eyes and heads that can turn 180 degrees in both directions. No bigger than your fist, they live solitary lives with at least a hectare of land each, coming together only to mate. As they're nocturnal creatures, the guides use their morning walk to find as many as they can so they can show the visitors. We were no more than one metre away from them. Fascinating to see!
It was worth every Peso - 60 per person, which is about $2 AUD (I think they could probably charge tourist 10 times that amount).
Next we went to the Baclayon Catholic church, built out of coral stones carried from the sea by the Jesuits with forced local labour in the 18th century.
The church is very impressive inside with beautiful frescoes on the ceiling depicting stories from the Bible, appropriately mixed with the Pope and some not-so-subtle local history.
In the museum next door we saw many artefacts from the history of the church - a confessional, vestments, candles, even an old hymnal open to what Hamish recognised as a Gregorian chant, and the pages were made out of cow hide! Sorry no photos allowed here.
Then, contrary to plans, I suggested we try the waterfalls down the coast that I had read about in a blog. The view from the road right next to the water was often beautiful, and we were even sometimes able to go 70! Eventually we found our way nearly to the falls when it started to rain and the locals told us we wouldn't be able to drive the final 1.5kms on the slippery road in a car. We hung around for a while and chatted with them, then decided to go back to another fall. They had said this one wasn't as good, but we thought it was amazing, complete with a rope swing!
I wasn't going near that but Hamish was daring enough to try it. I struggled for ages to tie the ropes together and get it up to Hamish, until a young women took pity on me and offered to do it. Sufficiently humbled by my lack of courage and skill, I settled back to enjoy watching Hamish swing on in.
A great shower!
And for those in suspense to hear about the blood drinking monument, we dropped in there on the way back. An impressive monument but it lacked the one crucial ingredient - a plaque that explains it! So we were left to ask our friend Google. Apparently for some reason the locals around these parts didn't know what was good for them and so didn't welcome the Spanish invaders with open arms, and so the Spanish kept moving on, until they found the local chief here. He liked the look of them and received them warmly. In accordance with local custom, to seal their friendship the two leaders mixed some of their blood with some wine and drank. And they lived happily ever after.
(https://www.bohol-philippines.com/blood-compact-site.html)
In accordance with family custom we decided to seal our friendship by drinking some Coke Zeroes (Zero blood and Zero sugar) at the cafe next door while we enjoyed the view.
So we've covered 3 of the sights depicted in our hotel lobby - can you recognise them? Still some to go.
But for some reason they hadn't included the modern shopping mall where we went for dinner and some supplies. What's different about a mall in Tagbilaran?
1) The aerobics session on a busy Thursday night (it was blaring all through dinner, but stopped just before I got may camera out).
2) The supermarket checkouts - more than 30 operating, none of them self-serve. With no credit card payment and a loyalty points program that the cashiers have to hand write for each customer, it was slow.
3) The toilet paper dispenser just outside the toilets (no need to spend a penny, 1 pesos is now the market rate)
Finally back to the hotel to prepare for tomorrow.
Tomorrow?
Tomorrow we are excited to be meeting our Compassion sponsored child, Raine, in a village 2 hours away. We found out tonight that we will not only be visiting him at home and going out for lunch with him, but also first visiting the child centre and running some activities with all the sponsored 3-5 year olds. Good to know before hand!
And we've clarified arrangements for visiting our other sponsored child JM and his child centre on Saturday, plus the church service there on Sunday.
Can't wait!
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