The Beauty of Bohol

2008-02-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

Bohol is best for....

The python named Prony is Albur's star and has known to the people as "Live Anaconda of Bohol." Prony, a female python is owned by Mr. Sofronio Salibay. Prony captured the attention of media network GMA 7 who filmed the feeding. According to JingJing Salibay, the lady caretaker, Prony ate cats dogs which should be clean and free of bruises. This "illegal" kind of feeding according to animal welfare rights activists caught the attention of Animal Kingdom and ordered the caretaker to stop feeding Prony with dogs. Animal Kingdom also donated money to raise a sanctuary. ABS-CBN and other media networks, newspapers and magazines have featured Prony. In March 2006, Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho's stringer Leo Udtohan went to Albur to film Prony as an important element whereas snakes of its kind became a popular "dish" in other parts of the country.

CHOCOLATE HILLS

2008-01-28T21:27:00.000-08:00

Spread over the municipalities of Carmen, Sagbayan and Batuan, the Chocolate Hills is definitely the province’s signature attraction. It consists of approximately 1,268 haycock hills with heights ranging from 40 to 120 meters. In the summers, the dome-shaped grass covered limestone hills dry up and turn brown, transforming the area into seemingly endless rows of chocolate kisses.

TARSIERS

2008-01-28T21:21:00.000-08:00

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.

If no action is taken, the tarsier might not survive. Although it is a protected species, and the practice of catching them and then selling them as stuffed tarsiers to tourists has stopped, the species is still threatened by the destruction of his natural forest habitat. Many years of both legal and illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture have greatly reduced these forests, and reduced the tarsier population to a dangerously small size. If no action is taken now, the Philippine tarsier can soon be added to the list of extinct species.

ARTS and CULTURE

2008-01-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

Bohol’s sixth pillar of tourism is our people’s dynamic arts, artistic traditions, and cultural expressions. In music, painting, dance, literature, theatre, sculpture, and most recently the movies, Boholanos have reared exceptional artists who rose to national stature and international distinction.

ISLA HAYAHAY

2008-01-28T20:39:00.000-08:00

A Paradise in Calape, Bohol
One of the places that I have visited in my recent home visit to Bohol is the Isla Hayahay Beach Resort and Restaurant. The resort is located at the Barangay Lomboy, Pangangan Island of Calape, Bohol (Coordinates: 9.8837582 N, 123.8274187 E).

The place is ideal if you want to take a break from work, if you want to take your family out from the noises in the city, if you want to go on diving and snorkelling and view the different marine life of the island, or if you just simply want to be on solitude.

How to get there? Getting there is easy... Once you are in Bohol, take a bus or a V-Hire (Van for Hire) whose route will pass the town of Calape, Bohol. Drop at the town's public market, and then inquire which tricycle is bound for Pangangan Island. The island is just 4.5 km from Calape and it is accessible by a causeway.

How about the amenities and services? If you wish to stay overnight, Isla Hayahay can provide you the accommodation that you need, food that you desire, boat for island hopping, FREE fishing and snorkelling at your own leisure, and eco tour around the island where you can enjoy the attractive scenery of the Lawis Marine Park or view the Giant Clam during low tides.

The island is identified as the sanctuary of sea/coastal species thus it is rich of marine resources and ideal for eco-tourism. About 115 hectares of the island's land area of 946 hectares has been declared as a Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserve and is currently manage by the Protected Area Management Board or PAMB.

MAG-ASO FALLS

2008-01-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

Mag-aso falls is located in the heart of antequera, bohol. from tagbilaran city, the province capital, there are buses and jeepneys that ply the tagbilaran-antequera route. in antequera, tricycles and motorcycles are available to bring tourists near the falls.

the surrounding area of the falls had been turned into a 'tourist-friendly' destination, with 197 concrete steps leading down towards the falls. though the concrete steps may be a disappointment for adventure-seekers hoping to see an unexploited natural attraction, still, mag-aso falls is a sight that one shouldn't pass up.

mag-aso falls derived its name from the Visayan term 'aso,' meaning smoke, which refers to the smoke effect created by the cascading waters.

HINAGDANAN CAVE

2008-01-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

Well known, and easy to reach is Hinagdanan ("laddered" in Cebuano) cave on the island of Panglao, just 2.5 kilometers from Dauis. This cave has a large number of stalactites hanging from the sealing, and matching stalagmites sticking out of the earth below them. The cave leads to a large underground cavern, that contains a pond. Both ends of the cave are open but swimming in the pool is not advisable as the waters there are not clean.

SAGBAYAN PEAK

2008-01-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

Bohol's newest tourism boom is Sagbayan Peak. This five-hectare mountaintop resort and recreation center offers massive, spectacular viewing for nature lovers. Its viewing deck offers a 360-degree perspective of the Chocolate Hills plus the blue sea that separates Bohol and Cebu. The high-powered telescopes on the view deck are a treat. With a 10-peso coin, you can have a view of Cebu City from across the sea for a minute or two. There's a playground in the middle of a grassy field, while a flea market at a side offered native products and delicacies. Caf? Baudillo is an imposing structure on Sagbayan Peak, with its spacious veranda and congenial ambience.

As of March 20, 2005 the management has added attraction to the influx of both local and foreign tourists by bringing the life-size giant dinosaur known as T-rex. It is 19 feet in length and 10 feet in height and is properly situated at the old parking lot near the stairs leading to the pavilion area. Myrna Torrefranca is the operations manager and wife of Mayor Jimmy Torrefranca. They purchased the T-rex all the way from Pampanga by Manila-based business couple Allan and Delia Torrefranca only to give additional attraction to the site even with the existence of another cartoon character like Duffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Marilyn Monroe, Donald Duck, Pizza Man, Snow White and 7 Dwarfs, Lion King, Tiger and other dinosaurs. Sagbayan before, was known as an ambush area. Since Jimmy Torrefrance became chief executive, here the Torrefranca family worked hard if only to change the image of the town into a tourist destination until the Sagbayan Peak was born.

BOHOL BEACH CLUB

2008-01-28T20:19:00.000-08:00

Bohol Beach Club, nestles in Panglao Island in the Central Visayas. This is approximately thirty (30) minutes by land from Tagbilaran City. Bohol has become a popular destination for tourist, as it is blessed with natural wonders.

Bohol Beach Club has a number of facilities like pool bar, beach bar, restaurant, swimming pool, outdoor jacuzzi, scuba diving, glass bottom boat, tennis court, billiards, darts, chess, table tennis and backgammon.