sojourn to Bohol (part ii )

The last day of our Chem Congress was a tour, but we’ve read that not all of Bohol’s Tourist sites can be accommodated for the day’s tour. We decided to spare our last afternoon before the day for the official tour be spent in Panglao Island.

I was with some participants from Zamboanga City, we were nine of us in all. We were able to make three stops, which were seemingly hectic but it was cool, considering that we had limited time that afternoon and the driver we contract for that tour was paid fairly cheap enough compared to the usual tour packages. We paid the driver of a cab with Php 1,000.00 only (he only asked Php 800.00) for the whole tour, while tour agencies would usually require Php 900.00 for an individual tour package. That means, we were supposed to pay Php 7,200.00 if we were to avail a tour package from any of the local tour agencies!

Our first stop was at the Hinagdanan Cave.

The cavern was dark and has an underground pool. The water was fresh and not salty. It’s clear but you can not see the floor of the pool because the cavern was seemingly dark even when there were few light bulbs inside, purposely installed to allow the visitors to see their path since the rock that forms the flat-forms for catwalks is always slippery or most of the time covered with water.

It’s a little creepy and silent, what you would hear inside are the sounds of bats trying to find some niche where they couldn’t be disturbed from their own siesta. Even if the visitors would not try to make loud talks, their murmurs would somehow reverberate inside this chamber as if the whispers were made by a lot of enchanted beings, echoed several times which does not also stop because the time the echoed whispers dissipates another one would somehow start to reverberate.

We passed a certain old church that was accordingly built during the 17^th century. San Agustin Church has a five-storey Bell Tower that stands majestically even if its first floor is almost completely submerged below the ground.

Its thick walls were made of corals from its local seashores! Imagine if the Green Peace and other environmentalist groups did exist early during the Spanish Time, the gobernadorcillo and other Spanish Officials, even the Friars would have been charged for destroying the environment! Not to mention all the force labor employed just to have this work done. The cruelty of humanity can sometimes create a magnificent work of art/architecture.

The group decided to cool off at the beach, while the sun was still a bit at the middle of the sky. We went to a beach beside one of Bohol’s expensive Beach Club. It was so because if we want to experience the ambiance of the expensive Beach Club resort, we only have to cross the beach front and go to their well-manicured area, hehe….

I wish I could put the picture facing this beach… the water was actually serene and clear, although it would have been much better if the beach was a little bit deserted like the ones you would see in the beaches of Siargao Islands. This time of the year however, Panglao is so inhabited by a lot of tourists and local people, obviously because it is near Cebu City and people from the urban areas would find this place a very accessible escape from the summer heat.

The next day was a bit more exciting as we were scheduled to visit a lot of sites including the world-renown Chocolate Hills. I was there ones after I attended a friend’s wedding which was held at a church in this same Island.

Our 1^st stop the next morning was at an old Governor’s House. The building was now transformed into a government seminar house and a souvenir stop for tourists. Then we went to the Blood Compact Shrine. I do not know why they have to put the shrine there when the Blood Compact Rites between the Spanish Conquestadors and the Filipino Indios in the 16^th century did not actually happen in that area. I can recall my College History that it happened somewhere in the Visayan Island but not actually in that area. I would have wanted to ask the tourist guide this but I wasn’t at the mood in making a debate regarding the exact historical recounts, and for one, it would be insensitive of me to hurt the pride of the local tourist guide considering that they put so much pride in the fact that it really occurred in their island.

Nonetheless, the view in this part of the Island is breathtaking. You can see the sea and far to the horizon the beauty of the world.

That island that can still be seen from where we stood is actually an Island inhabited by dolphins. There was another tour package for this. You can have an actual exposure to the dolphins and frolic with them in the sea! I would have loved that. I love water and I would have chosen to go but my extra pocket money was not enough for that tour package. I believe somehow I’d be able to come back. By then I would really go there…

Several kilometers from this area stood the Baclayon Church.

Built in 1727, it is said to be the oldest coral church in the region. It is one of oldest in Asia and foremost among the best-preserved Jesuit-built churches in the Philippines. The convent which is connected perpendicular to the nave of the church, houses the well-preserved olden implements, church’s gizmos and tools during the Spanish Friars’ time. The altar has an elaborate design where a lot of niches were suspended at the back of the altar as alcoves housing for a lot of statues and idols of saints.

The walls are thick and the windows still hold tinted glass panes.

At a certain moment during our short stay inside the church I studied every figure and the crevices and design of the interior, then I knelt on one of the pews, trying to pretend I was praying. I pictured everything with my eyes closed, relive everything I saw with my poor memory, and I felt the hair at my nape raised in a goose bumps, as if I saw an old moment in the past, in a trance I was like observing a mass that happened long, long ago when this church was just newly-built. I couldn’t understand the feeling. Maybe it was some sort of a feeling of nostalgia, sad but a little bit holy. There was a sense of total respect to something I couldn’t understand. I am not a strong believer, not even to my own religion. I am the least Catholic in my own family but I always believe about a certain Supreme Power, I know there is something or someone more powerful than all the energy combined in the whole universe. I was just so awed this church was able to concretize the absolute gratitude of human beings towards this Divinity, whatever or whoever we call IT that. I do not know whether people today still think and do something good in honor to this Supreme Power or Being. With all the amenities and conveniences we have, we do not even think there is This entity whose total wisdom knows no bound. I can only trust my life to HIM or to IT.

Suddenly I felt the urge to light a candle before the saints parading on the altars and pray for gratitude, for the grace of life I enjoyed even until that moment where what prevailed inside my head was loathing for the misery of being abandoned by a lover. I somehow felt as though I had grasped a certain wisdom, that everything that happened in my life has a meaning. Whether I understood it at the time or not, I just felt that the answer to a lot of selfish questions that still lingered at the back of my head had been put into the light and was meant for a divine purpose. I just know that, whatever it was I’d been mulling as useless investments to a person I considered important, was somehow significant. I know that I made a connection; that somehow I have touch a single soul, longer than I suppose to have made, and I am blessed that for a long period of my life I was important to this soul and I mattered to him. When we got out from the church I felt no regret for all the bad and good things I experienced in my life recently. I just know that I’d be content and happy that even if I did not achieve certain things people consider with so much greatness, I am not insignificant after all. I was also relieved from all the worries that I wouldn’t be responsible anymore for this soul, because I made everything possible to be of good service to him, I had been a provider, a friend and a lover. I was so thankful to God for giving me the chance to meet this person, and for all my moments with him and beyond.

The bus took us then to the docking area at the Loboc River where the next tour activity would be a cruise along this river.

We had our lunch on the cruise while enjoying the scenic views along the river and a duet band was making rendition of Carpenter Songs as a means of extra entertainment. We sang along with the two singers and the air was so festive! The air was neither so cold nor so hot, the ambiance was just too perfect and the company that I was with, were so cheerful!

We docked at another area where several domesticated tarsiers were being showcased (along with flying lemurs) to tourists.

Tarsiers are the smallest primate on earth, their size is no larger than the palm of an adult human being. They can only be found in Asia. Bohol Island is remarkably the only place in the Philippines where this creature thrived. However they are considered endangered species as their number has significantly dropped in the recent century. They are logically fated to become extinct as these primates do not have a dominant ability to reproduce. When a female tarsier is fertile it can only accommodate one single lover, since their vagina closes after every sexual encounter. The breeding season takes almost a year and they give birth only to a single off-spring, after the maternal labor these creatures would be busy nurturing their babies that they do not have anymore attention for any creature of their kind. They are considered loner and territorial as their domicile should be one that is more or less a kilometer away from its neighbor tarsier. Interesting actually!, I haven’t known a single tribe of human beings who are totally monogamous and loner...

(to be continued…)