Bohol Tour » Minor Destinations and Stopovers

To continue the series of posts about our Bohol tour a few weeks ago, I want to share some minor activities and quick stopovers we had. These activities and destinations, such as the tarsier and python/ostrich viewing, quick stop to the man-made forest and the hanging bridges are part of the usual tour package. If you are planning a Bohol tour, I suggest you skip some of these activities and spend the extra time to other worth-seeing and more exciting adventures.

The sad life of the suicidal Tarsier

I thought we were going to a forest or some enclosed thick bushes to see the famous cuddly-looking tarsiers with soft, grayish-fur – or perhaps it’s like a quick hunt in an enclosed forest. But no - we just made a detour in a residential place beside the highway, which is more like a souvenir shop with tarsiers and some flying lemurs in a big stinky cage.

I don’t know but I think there’s something wrong with the display of the tarsiers with tourist interaction on that cages – there’s a touch of cruelty to animals there. Some noisy foreign tourist still have their camera flash on while taking pictures and others are touching it despite the person-in-charge’s “no-flash, no touch” warnings.

Three Interesting Tarsier Facts:

1. They commit suicide during captivity due to trauma from touching and loud noise. (Is that so? Then why are these tarsiers in cages are not yet dead? – maybe they are in group therapy or in some kind of a self-help-pro-life session. ha ha)
 2. They are nocturnal animals and should not be disturbed at day time (Ah, ok. That’s why they are just clinging on those branches and not moving – because they are supposed to be sleeping. I will understand if they hate humans that much. Maybe they are praying that those who are taking pictures with flashes will be re-incarnated as a tarsier in cages too.)
3. They can rotate its head nearly 360 degrees – (Yay! reminds me of the movie “The Exorcist”)

-Source: Philippine Tarsier Foundation Inc.

Eerie Man-Made Forest

Even if it is still noontime, the area has this late-dawn effect due to the towering mahogany trees growing straight up, obscuring the sky by its branches and thick leaves. 

Our initial plan was to do a short horror-comedy video clip on this eerie forest. Myself, in a hood as the killer-with-a-knife chasing the girls. But our camera ran out of battery charge (damn!) and we don’t’ have enough time. Sayang masaya sana yun. What we did is just a few not-so-perfect jump shots.

Hanging-out at the Hanging Bridge 

This hanging bamboo bridge is located across the upper part of the Loboc River. This bridge hangs approximately 20 meters above the Loboc River and slightly sways back and forth as you walk across. Other than the two bridges, there’s nothing there except for a souvenir shop.

Anyway, you can a have a refreshing drink of fresh buko for only 20 pesos there. It’s a good quick stopover to have refreshing break on a long road trip.  

The bored Python, crazy Ostriches and other animals

We have some pictures of the python and the animals in cages but I think they are not worth sharing because I’m sure you’ve already seen one - plus what’s so exciting about animals in cages. I’d rather watch Animal Planet or National Geographic.

However, you can still include this in the tour if you’re a fan of viewing lazy python, snakes, ostriches, owls and other animals in cages.

What I suggest is the zip-line or the butterfly farm instead. Zip-line adventure is definitely more fun than looking at these bored animals. 

Ok that’s all for our minor bohol tour stopovers. I should have included Bohol Bee Farm, Hinagdanan Cave and Bayoyoy the Dwarfman but I think these parts deserve a separate post.

More of Bohol on my next posts!
 
_________