Easter in Bohol

This is mum at the pool in our resort. It was Charts and it was run by a German girl called Sonia who was really nice. Our holiday was organised by my friend Paul, a travel broker.


We went to the fancy resort next door called Alona Palm.


Me in the pool



We went on a day trip with some other people from the resort on Easter Saturday. It took us to lots of places including a beautiful fresh water waterfall. It had 197 steps to get down which was fine but it felt like a million on the way back up!











We travelled around nearly all of the island of Bohol. It was much bigger than I expected but really beautiful.









We stopped the van along the road to see a local family harvesting the rice that they had grown. By hand one person scoops up the grains and sprinkles them in front of a fan. The grain of rice fall onto a mat then the little leaves that are lighter blow onto a mat further away. This separation is needed before they can sell the rice. The fan they used to blow the rice was hand operated so the poor fella had to stand all day and wind it by hand!


The woman was wearing a jumper and benny hat...it was so hot that day we were all sweating. She was trying not to brown her skin any more in the sun.






We stopped for lunch in this little hut. I think they are called putok's. The are found in the countryside and they are where the men come and hand out in the evenings or even during the day. They aren't supposed to be in them after 10pm so they don;t wake up anyone living near by.








There were millions of people on this bus! I didn't catch it very well but there were people sitting on top of each other.


A caribou hiding from the sun in the mud!




The roads in Bohol were crazy. We kept having to get off the bus and walk to try and let the bus get over the road. They were damaged by water during rainy season.



The chocolate hills!


The chocolate hills is what Bohol is famous for. They are funny hill formations that used to be under sea. In the Philippine summer they turn brown and "chocolaty"


We went to the Philippine version of a National Heritage house and beside the restrooms they randomly had an old bat filled with turtles!






A trapdoor in the bedroom...what all modern houses are missing.


We visited an old Spanish church that was getting prepared for it's Easter services.






The Easter services are held at 4am in the Philippines. Everyone goes to the service then eats lots of food and they break from whatever they were fasting from during Lent.








This is a tarsier! The Philippine tarsier, (Tarsius syrichta) is very peculiar small animal. In fact it is one of the smallest known primates, no larger than a adult men's hand. Mostly active at night, it lives on a diet of insects. Folk traditions sometimes has it that tarsiers eat charcoal, but actually they retrieve the insects from (sometimes burned) wood. It can be found in the islands of Samar, Leyte, Bohol, and Mindanao in the Philippines. They are endangered but are not being properly protected by the Philippine government.

The Philippine Tarsier is a tiny animal, measuring about 4 to 6 inches (15 cm) in height. The small size makes it difficult to spot. The average mass for males is around 134 grams, and for females, around 117 grams. The average adult is about the size of a human fist and will fit very comfortably in the human hand.Like all tarsiers, the Philippine Tarsier's eyes are fixed in its skull; they cannot turn in their sockets. Instead, a special adaptation in the neck allows its round head to be rotated 180 degrees. The large membranous ears are mobile,^[8] appearing to be almost constantly moving, causing any movement to be heard. It has uniquely large eyes (disproportionate to its head and body), which are listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest eyes on any mammal. These huge eyes provide this nocturnal animal with excellent night vision - Wikipedia