Planning to visit Bohol or recreate memories while you were there? May this post featuring our adventures in touring Dauis, Panglao Island, Bohol help you. The following enumerates the tourist attractions we have been to during our second and third day of visits in the province. If you’re interested to know about our itinerary on the first day, click here and hopefully you’ll enjoy reading as well. 🙂
Our 3D2N Bohol Itinerary (Continuation)
Day 2
We woke up at 6AM, still tired from the previous day’s lineup of activities but in a good mood. We were ready to conquer the day with healthy outlook starting from the complimentary meal served for breakfast. In the hotel’s restaurant, we had plates of grilled pancakes with maple syrup and butter, bangus, sausages, bacon, eggs, rice, toasted bread, mangoes, bananas, coffee and hot chocolate.
Two hours later, our tour guide fetched us from Bohol Plaza Resort and our adventure took off with seeing the smallest man in the Philippines. We dropped by the house of Bayoyoy the Dwarfman, a very small old man with very young looks, in Dauis, Panglao. We saw pictures of him and Korina Sanchez posted around his house as his story was featured before in Rated K in ABS-CBN years ago.
Now at 66 years old, Bayoyoy has been suffering from dwarfism since birth. He is blind and mute. He also has limited range of motion; he can’t walk, fold or stretch his arms and legs because he has no joints. He eats only baby food (soft food) and does not allow touching; else he’ll be disturbed and will act like mad. He habitually moves his head right and left as this is his only exercise. We begged the question, what caused him to carry dwarfism?
The reason his relatives/care-takers gave was that his parents were third cousins. There may be a problem in blood compatibility thus producing six out of the 15 children that had the same genetic disorder. All others had already passed away; the eldest died at 48 years old in 1988.
I didn’t see the purpose of their relatives opening their house to tourists except for wanting donations or telling the moral that thou should not be married and/or should not make a child with third cousins.
Because of this new learning, I became more curious and I found that there’s no cure or treatment to this disease. Administering of any medication would not do any help and the real cause is unknown. Tsk tsk. How unfortunate. I pity Bayoyoy and his other siblings for having average-size parents who didn’t stop producing children when they already know they can cause much suffering to the lives of their offspring with the genetic condition. So much for being a “perfect couple.”
Looking forward for the “miraculous well” that’s said to cure/heal the sick and also make dreams or prayers come true, we headed to Our Lady of Assumption Church.
The well is located near the altar of the church, and bottles of water from this well were found at a small kiosk at the back of the church.
I wondered, why not give some of these bottles to Bayoyoy the Dwarfman regularly so miracles can maybe happen with the whole world standing as witness? 😕 Anyway, they might think it’s not possible and so do I.
Not so far from the church was Hinagdanan Cave in Bingag, Dauis, Panglao, Bohol. Overall, the entire cave was majestic. It has mystical formations of stalagmites and stalactites, a lagoon where tourists can swim, and nests of swallows on the ceiling. When you intend to go to Hinagdanan Cave, make sure to bring a camera with flash and flashlight and arrange a visit there at daytime because darkness envelops inside and you can’t get proper lighting when you take photos.
Our fourth destination was the Nova Shell Museum where we met Mr. Quirino Hora, a renowned sea explorer for over 30 years. We saw displays of unusual types of shells in varying sizes as part of his collection. At present, this shell museum showcases one of the biggest shell collections in the world. Because I’m no enthusiast or collector of any kind, I’m not particularly interested in shells. My key takeaway was this wonderful trivia Mr. Hora shared: “Pearls are freak shells.” Pearls are formed as by-products of an adaptive immune system-like function of certain mollusks and natural pearls (round ones without human intervention) are rare.
The Shell Museum is a must-visit indeed if you’re curious of the beautiful sea life. You can also find teeth of sharks preserved by injecting formaldehyde.
The last stop that was part of the packaged tour was Bohol Bee Farm. There we learned about the smell, taste, uses and benefits of their different “homegrown” organic herbs and spices such as oregano, dill, peppermint, lemongrass, etc.
We also had our first-hand experience on weaving raffia and buri as each of us took turns to maneuver their machine set up to create fabric that’s certainly what Bohol is proud of. Aside from curtains and place mats, the end-products shown to us consisted in baskets, wine holder, wall organizer, table runner, bags, slippers, tissue holders, table napkin holder and wall decorations.
Stepping into the highlight of the Bohol Bee Farm (the bees, what else?), we listened intently to the safety instructions of our guide and introduction to bees. The guide elaborately explained about the life and nature of honeybees including their job and duties of bees (depending on the sex) and answered our burning questions about bees. It was a good interaction we had and a fun learning outside of the classroom. 😀
He added that it would be better for visitors not to wear floral or citrus scents of perfumes or colognes when getting close to the bees because the smell would only provoke the bees to think that they are flowers and hence start buzzing around their bodies. When visitors attack a bee, other bees would join forces to put the person down. Very dangerous! So once he took out a frame of honeybees from the box where they are being cultured, we were hesitant to go near him even when we already were wearing netted mesh straw hats to protect our heads and face from being bitten accidentally by bees.
Bohol Bee Farm houses a resort where guests can stay in and a restaurant apart from a shop selling souvenir items and organic food and drinks made from ingredients harvested from the farm. We dined in their restaurant and were left deeply sated with the freshness and harmony of flavors of the food.
It was hard to order because everything on the menu seemed to be a delight. At last, we agreed on: Cabcab (cassava paste dried and made into taco-like crackers) with pesto and green tomato dips (PHp 190), Organic Garden Salad with Honey Mustard dressing (PHp 190) , Buko Pasta (spaghetti pasta with herbs and tomato sauce mixed with fresh buko) and Vegetarian Pizza (homemade tomato sauce topped with organic veggies). Complimentary appetizer given was Camote Bread with Honey, Mango and Pesto spreads. The bread had a steamy middle, utilitarian in the tastiest way possible. For the beverage, instead of choosing to drink only water, this time I had one of Bee Farm’s specialties: Bee Fi (Camote, Mango and Pineapple drink).
All were delicious and were of superb quality! With the strange contrast of flavors, I felt like my mouth was tad confused. Each had a distinct taste that fared differently from other food from restaurants we’re used to. I loved the feeling because it meant that I had sampled another totally new combo that my taste buds welcomed and I wish they can’t forget. 😛
As a side note, service was attentive and prompt, something one should never take for granted.
After lunch, we went to Bohol’s city proper and checked out BQ (Bohol Quality) Superstore. Although it’s far from SM malls and Ayala malls, this four-storey mall’s grocery store, department store and few independent stalls are enough to cater to the locals’ shopping needs. BQ Superstore also has a food court with limited stalls at the top floor. Cost of a movie ticket sold in cinemas is only PHp 100! Whoa! 😯 That is relatively super cheap as compared to the price here in Manila that starts from PHp 180 for regular 2D films.
To continue our mall visits, we rode a tricycle to Marcela Discount Store. Why is it called a discount store when prices are not that discounted or lower than expected? Something is wrong with the brand name because it confuses people. :S Mom walked to the market opposite Marcela “Discount Store”: Cogon Public Market. Here, prices of vegetables and fruits are way more expensive than those in Divisoria. The tour guide said that this is because the produce are transported from Cebu.
For dinner, we bought food from STK (Sugba Tula Kilaw) Foodhaus and Chicken Ati-Atihan (Sinugba at Abdul) near the market. We took the food to our hotel room where we had a modern and fancy form of picnic. 😀
Day 3
We had this assumption that we’d be staying in a hotel where there’s a swimming pool. But because we had another layer of assumption—that our schedules would be too packed, we won’t have time to swim anymore. (Also, we can always just swim at home.) With this reason, we did not bring any swimsuit, goggles and extra towels. And this we regretted.
Bohol Plaza Resort’s swimming pool and jacuzzi were too much to miss out. We could not pass the chance to soak ourselves in the water, so we ended up buying swimming attire and goggles. Wahaha. When sunshine has broken on Day 3, we went for another set of complimentary breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, rested shortly and then swam on the pool!
After bathing, we took pictures of the entire resort then proceeded to the dining table once again for lunch. At 1PM, we were sent by the hotel’s van service to Tagbilaran City Airport and waited till departure time.
☑ Bohol – Wrap Up of Day 2 and Day 3
Here are the places we’ve been on those two days:
- House of Bayoyoy the Dwarfman
- Our Lady of Assumption Church
- Hinagdanan Cave
- Nova Shell Museum
- Bohol Bee Farm
- BQ (Bohol Quality) Mall
- Marcela Discount Store
- Cogon Public Market
- Bohol Plaza Resort
- Tagbilaran City Airport
As mentioned in a comment to a fellow blogger, expenses / budget per person was PHp 6,500. This included roundtrip airfare (Manila – Bohol), transfer service, van rental and driver’s fee, entrance fee to all sites, hotel accommodation, breakfast in the hotel and lunch in the river cruise (on Day 1). Price for value was decent.
Although we’re not funded by super-affluence, we take the time to breathe and embrace life by doing what we love, and one of them is traveling. Working in the office, staying at home, and watching others live their lives should not be the end-all and be-all of our life’s itinerary. The world is an enormous place where we can learn lots of stuff. We can start discovering customs, food, history, people and landscapes within our own country. There’s a copious amount of contrast in all aspects, and let’s realize: Oh, what a charming place we have. 🙂
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