Philippines above and underwater

Philippines above and underwater

Bohol island

Jagna

Jagna is a small fishermans village. SO small that it fall under the impression that there is only one hotel here. And we saw it as soon as we got off an ex quay. DQ Lodge (double with air conditioner and a bathroom costs — 500 php. An additional bed costs — 100 php). There is Wi-Fi. Conceiving that hardly there will be any choice we decided not to search anymore and checked – in to that hotel.

We decided to go to the beach to snorkle. We wanted to tap into the sea again taking into account that the last three days of our trip were not planned for diving. We went to Can Uba Beach. 4,7 kilometers away from finder dock. Tricycle costed 10-20 php per person.

The beach was beautiful and it was almost empty, beer San Migel in a booth across the road in front of the beach costed — 65 php per 1 litre. An old lady looking after the beach took 50 php for our sitting at the table under the cover. We swam to our heart’s content, saw different star-fish, (finally! =^_^= ) met the sun-set and walked back to the hotel – the road was good. 5 kilometers along that road – was a short distance! 🙂

We decided to wander about the vicinity to find some place to eat. But there was nothing but the local diners in the the so-called “down-town”. Having noticed the pointer «IDEA Pension House and Grand Cafe restaurant» we hardly find it in the dark depth of the vilage blocks. And indeed it was a well european restaurant that was quite unexpected for such a lonely spot. The hotel and the restaurant was founded by the Philipino deaf and mute Assotiation and the prices were higher than in the hotel we stayed. (double costed — 850/950, extra person — 350 php) ideapensionhouse.daodiamond.com.

We had supper (it costed us about 300 php per person including 2 beer) and went to sleep. Next morning we had to decide how to get to Tagbilaran from Jagna, calling on Chocolate hills and tarsier.

Jagna—Tagbilaran

We woke up at 7 am, had breakfast in a cheap tavern right under the hotel (piece of beef, rice, rice noodles and coffee – costed about 80 php) and went to look for the transport. When we talked about Chocolate hills tricycle drivers tried to change the subject, saying that it was faraway. So it may be concluded that it is difficult to come to argreement with tricycle drivers when the distance was over 20 kilometers especially i the way back was not supposed. Car-drivers came up very quickly. They asked us where did we want to go. We said: Jagna-Chocolate hills-Tarsiers-Tagbilaran. They said 3500 php. We made faces but didn’t say anything. He said – 3000 php. We shifted from foot to foot and said that it was too expensive. We suggested 2500 php. He made a face and began to distuss it with his companions and finally agreed.

Ayway the price was high but we had no choice so we decided to go. High price was justified a little by the fact that we ride by the minibus. If there were 5-8 people with us the price per person would be quite budget. 🙁

As far as i understood you can reach the Chocolate hills (Villa del Carmen) from Jagna two ways — the shortest way (via Sierra Bulones) and by a good road (via Velencia). We went the shortest way, for we kind of paid not much and the fuel is very expensive. 🙂 The road was really difficult – at some place the serpentinous road turned into unpaved road, there were uneasily descents and ascends. Approximatel in half an hour we reached the Chocolate hills. Well, there’s nothing to describe. Everything you can find in the guide-book. The entrance fee is 50 php per person. It’ rather descent

Another half an hour and we came to tarsiers. Thanks God they were in cages but you can’t say they were in the natural conditions. A lot of hide-outs, paths between them and a lot more is built up on a net enclosed area on a side of a hill. Guides in yellow T-shirts show the coched tarsiers to the inattentive people and keep watching that nobody couldtouch transiers or tried to steal them!

Tagbilaran

Tavers Pension House Hotel. The advantages – free of charge transfer from/to the airport (although the airport is only 2 kilometers away from the hotel, actually at a walking distance). The disadvantages – WiFi is fee paying (100 php). We decided not to pay for Wifi and had the internet in a chineese restaurant during the dinner. Double with air-conditioner with hot water + the additional bed in the room costed — 1095 php.

Tricycle from Tagbilaran to Alona beach (Panglao) is 15 kilometers – 200 php. And to get back by a taxi costs the same. The entrance fee to the public beach is 35 php. It was Sunday and it was not easy to push through the locals. An attempt to get to the beach of an expensive resort failed miserably — a guard showed us the price for weekdays 350 php and for Sunday 500 php per person. But he sais he was ready to let us in for 350 per person despite it was Sunday. Of course in our thoughts we wished him to go to hell. :whistling:

We went along the opposite side of the beach for about 100 meters leaving the locals behind, threw our things under a tree and had a great swim. We saw an unthinkable number of sea dwellers: sea hedgehogs and sea stars of all kinds, a sea snake and even a small moray eel. If you swim far behind a line of anchored boats you can see a reel reef starting on with beautiful corals, fish and a cliff into the blue abyss.

Legaspi (Legazpi)

Next morning we had a flight to Legazpi via Manila. And this flight turned into an another adventure. The flight from Tagbilaran was delayed for an hour causing us to miss our connecting flight Manila-Legazpi. Cebu Pacific Air didn’t have anymore flights to Legazpi that day and we were fevereshly thinking about the variants of further development of events. Finally we were proposed a flight to Nagi, which is located about 100 kilometers away from Legazpi with a chance to get from Nagi to Legaspi under our own power by bus. 😯 We had no choice so we agreed. 🙁

In Nagi we found out that the bus terminal is 15 kilometers away from the airport. Taxi drivers proposed to take us to Donsol for some extremely high price, that we were not ready to pay. So we decided to go on the road and catch anything that goes to Legazpi’s direction. And then fortune smiled upon us and in five minutes we saw the oncoming bus with a sign «Legazpi». We boared the bus happily and managed to get to ill-fated Legazpi and we had to get to Donsol from there.

Having got off a little bit earlier the final stop in Daraga by the skin of a teeth we managed to find a jeepney to Donsol that drive us by a charter having taken 200 php per person. It was 30 km to get to Donsol and in 40 minutes tired of a crazy day we finally got to the place of destination. :-]

Author: Vladimir

Traveler, photographer, author of the reports.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.