Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Sightseeing in Bohol: Day-trip to the Chocolate Hills & Tarsier Watching

Anette 9:01:00 AM Animals, Monkey park, Philippines, Southeastasia, Travel

On our last day in Bohol Yuma and I had booked a cab for the day to take us on a trip around Bohol to see the most famous tourists spots of the island before leaving with a ferry in the afternoon.

Some of the memorable sights we visited on our trip. Made by Instaframe & Instagram

Some of the sights on our list included the so-called Chocolate Hills, and a nature reserve where one can see one of the world smallest monkey called the Tarsiers. From our hostel situated near the Alona beach in Panglao island it took us more than one and a half hour to reach the famous Chocolate Hills, and on our way we also passed the huge Human Made Forest, where we stopped for a couple of pictures.

The Chocolate Hills

Enjoying the view of the Chocolate Hills

The Chocolate Hills do look very interesting with their special formation, which apparently have been formed over millions of years in the distant past when this part of the island lied under water. Although they look very mysterious with their three-less surface I noticed that one of the hill was only completely bare on the side that faced the tourist view-point, while the other side was covered with trees. This made me wonder if the trees on the Chocolate Hills have been cut down by purpose to make them look more mysterious than they actually are..
Anyway, the Chocolate Hills is an alright destination if you want to take a closer look at the wild nature in Bohol, but if you don't want to waste hours in the car then I don't think you miss that much by not going. On the other hand, the Tarsier reserve is not that far from the Chocolate Hills, and if you are going on a day trip to Bohol's famous tourist spots there are honestly not that much else to see anyway so why not..

On our way back to the main road we stopped by the reserve where one can see the cute Tansier monkeys, who apparently served as a model for the famous movie E.T. These small creatures are another of many species in the Philippines who unfortunately are facing a possible future extinction due to loss of habitat.

A cute little Tarsier monkey <3

Apparently the Tarsier can die from stress if kept in captivate under bad conditions, so it is important to avoid using flash. These monkeys are only active during the night, so their eyes are big and bright to enable them to see in the dark. No wonder they don't like to be flashed by the tourists' cameras. Another thing that should be avoided, is talking with load voices when near the monkeys. Lastly, one be conscious when choosing which monkey park to visit, as some places keep them under stressful conditions making them face an early death..

The tarsier is so small it could fit into your hand..

The park we went to looked nice and tidy, and I believe measures were taken to ensure that the monkeys were doing alright. I hope the staff treat the monkeys well in the evening too, when the tourists have gone home..

After our visit to the park our driver took us to another place where they were keeping various species of animals. I don't remember the name of the place, but is was dirty, the animals were kept in small cages directly on the concrete surface of the floor. They had a couple of ostrich there too, and both had lost nearly half of their feathers. Seeing animals captive like that makes me feel really sad and uncomfortable, so I couldn't stand being there for long. We just snapped a couple of pictures with the big pythons and left as soon as we could. Not a place I would recommend to anybody, unless it was as a recommendation for action by animal activists><

A big snake which luckily already had eaten lunch that day.

There is not much else to see on the island, so after a short stop at an old Spanish church we asked our driver to take us down to the harbor where we were able to catch an earlier ferry departing from Bohol. Our day trip had been interesting, with the best part being the park with the cute monkeys. The rest of the sightseeing was, to be honest, only so-so. I suppose beaches and diving is the best part of visiting Bohol;)

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Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
- Anette

About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.