Bohol: Dolphins and Pamilacan Island

Before going to Bohol, we did our homework, we researched the sights and made a shortlist of the things we wanted to do.

This is my sister's list:

1. Lie around and enjoy the resort

2. Lie around and enjoy the resort
3. Lie around and enjoy the resort

4. Eat, eat and eat in between 1, 2, and 3

Me, ever the ambitious travel explorer, had a much longer list.  In fact, if only I had Sofia's bangs, you could probably call me Dora.  Hahaha.  

1. I wanted Sofia to see the Tarsier

2. This place is synonymous with the Chocolate Hills, in fact, I was so excited on the plane because we already saw it before landing.  

They are called Chocolate Hills because of their resemblance with Hershey's Kisses when they are brown during summer.
Now, they are more like Matcha (Green Tea) Chocolate Hills

3. I even wanted to do the Loboc River Cruise, but I think that was because I mixed up Bohol and Palawan and I thought that the one here was the underwater river one, but it wasn't.  Ooops!

4. Then I wanted to pass by an old Church or two, take nice pictures, say a little prayer and make a wish too.  The Filipinos have a belief that if it's your first time to visit a church, you can pray for something and it will come true. 

5. Then almost as an after thought, my sister mentioned that we could also go dolphin watching if we wanted, but we would need to leave at 5am.  Almost implying with her tone of voice that we are not the wake up at 5am kind of people... for anything!  Hahaha...  Unfortunately for her, I said, Really?!?  That's the only thing on the list I really, really, want to do!  I think Sofia would love it!  That and 1 and 2.  

My sister's friend suggested that we could do the dolphins at 5:30am, then enjoy the beach at Pamilacan Island, come back to the resort for lunch (because they said there was no food at the beach), and then do our Countryside Tour where we insisted on doing only The Tarsier Visit and The Chocolate Hills in the afternoon.  Sounds like a great plan on paper  :)

We started the day on schedule.

5:00am Wake -Up Call
Are we all ready to go see some dolphins???
Sofia snores YES!!!  Hahaha... Kidding.

This was our ride.

Everyone NOT dolphin watching on the island is probably still asleep.
Hahaha, exagg much.

I just like this picture.
It looks like he's playing tug of war with himself.

Safety always comes first.
I made sure we had lifejackets on board.

Ready to look for dolphins na

It takes a super duper long time pala.  I think the boat ride to the area Pamilacan Island takes approximately an hour.

The sea was a bit bumpy so my daughter held her Ninang's (godmother) hand the whole time

I took so many the sun is in the process of rising pictures

Lovely Sunrise 

We got really bored so we started eating the breakfast the hotel packed for us

We finally got close enough to Pamilican Island

Just like in the Safari, dolphin watching has a spotter too
The stressful part is that he spotted na a lot of dolphins, it still looked like just waves to me
(more memories of South Africa where I kept on bluffing about seeing them)

More me pictures while waiting...

I actually asked the guide, "sigurado ba kayong may makikita tayo?  kasi kawawa naman anak ko if wala sya makita..." (translation: are you sure my daughter will get to see the dolphins? it's such a pity if she doesn't see any), and he said yes! Thought bubble: Yay!!!  If Sofia will be able to see it, than most probably... I'll see them too!  Hahaha.

We saw two boats, so we followed them hoping that they were able to track the dolphins better than we did.

Then we finally saw them!  There were so many of them, there was even a school of baby dolphins.  We had to keep on chasing them because it's very hard to catch them on camera.

I'm calling all the dolphins Jack :p

When we had enough, we headed to Pamilican Island for the second part of the tour.

Pamilican Island shot in Vivid with my Canon S95

It looked like a really rustic island so we decided only to stay for a while

We rented a hut for Php300 (less than SG$10) so that Sofia and Yaya could eat their breakfast
I walked around to take pictures while my sister tried to nap

By the beach in vivid

It's a really quiet island.  It has fine white sand and it was very clean given that it's a public island.

The island is a quite neighborhood with their own church.
Our guides lived on this Island and they said the main livelihood was fishing,
and running dolphin and whale shark tours too I guess.

They also have resorts for the local visitor

I thought these kids were busy playing

Then they proudly showed me their catch of the day

A closer look at the sea urchins.
The poor kids holding them kept on saying "agay agay" (translation: ouch, ouch).
They told me that these can be eaten and the name in the local dialect but I forgot.

Before calling it a day, Fif and I picked up some shells on the beach.

Fi's shell collection.
Bossy daughter's strategy is to point to the shell she finds.
I have the honor of picking it up and rinsing it before I give it to her.

Knowing that the boat ride back is quite long, I actually just lay down on my side of the bangka and I took a nap.

I woke up just as we were approaching the main island.
This is Baclayon church.  It's one of the old churches in the island and quite near our hotel.

Call us spoiled, but we were so happy to get back to the resort.  It was only around 10am but we all felt like we were out the whole day... 

I had a capuccino AND a Pinakwan Shake
The Pinakwan Shake is one of the resort's specialties
made from Pina and Pakwan (Pinapple and Watermelon)

We were so tired, we actually cancelled our afternoon tour :p  Well, we could try again tomorrow, if we find enough time between lazing around the resort and eating... Or better luck next trip :)