Narrative from the Holy Week Travellers' Homepage 

Day 2 - We went straight to Carmen to see the world famous Chocolate Hills. From the parking area of the view deck, you can already see the Chocolate Hills scattered everywhere. But still, we climbed up almost 200 steps to the top of the view deck to have a better view… The Chocolate Hills were simply breathtaking! 

Back on the roadtrip, Manong Felix went to a stop on the middle of the highway. Lanie went to us and told us that we were already in the Candabong Man-made Mahogany Forest in Bilar-Loboc.

Our next stop was the Hanging Bridge in Loboc. It wasn't scary or anything because the bridge was wide enough to accommodate our group, plus, the plunks of wood were near at each other so slipping your foot in between the plunks was simply impossible. But wait until you cross the bridge… Huh! It didn't seem that okay anymore. The bridge kept on swaying as we tried to cross towards the other end. 

Next, we went to the Loboc River. Nope, we were not in the area where there were floating restaurants. We were at Supercrap, a few meters before the Raymond Cal's Floating Restaurants. Pump boat rentals were cheaper here and besides, we wouldn't want to take our lunch onboard (although that would be very nice!) due to budget constraints.

 The Supercrap station also had a tarsier sanctuary, accredited by the DENR. An area by the river had been set-up where tourists can have a picture with the tarsiers. 

 The Loboc River was surprisingly colored jade. It wasn't dirty or anything. That was just it's regular color. We passed by a spring where the water was too cold and there were a lot of locals bathing and washing their clothes. A very typical provincial sight! 

We went straight ahead and saw the Busay Falls. It wasn't as grandiose as the Mag-aso Falls that we saw yesterday, but it was still an exciting scenery. We went to all the different falls that our pump boats could reach (the river has gone thinner by the falls), and then chose the best place for us to swim, which was the largest and the widest falls.

We also went to the Blood Compact Monument in commemoration of the First International Treaty of Friendship in Bool, Baclayon. I tried to look for the original marker, which was supposed to be several meters away from this monument. Sad to say, I didn't find it.

Our last stop for the day was the Hinagdanan Cave, also in Dauin. Hinagdanan came from the word, "hagdan" which referred to the stoned steps leading down to the cave. Inside, there's a 50' meter wide underground pool where tourists and locals can enjoy swimming. 

Day 3 - At exactly 6 AM, we arrived at the Baclayon Pier. We were met at the pier by Mr. Jojo Baritua and pointed to our pump boat. Mr. Jojo Baritua heads the Pamilacan Island Dolphin and Whale Watching Tour. We got to know him from our research in the internet and coordinated our tour mainly through e-mail. 

Excited to see dolphins and whales, we boarded our pump boat. We had to start early since Mr. Baritua said that the dolphins and whales usually show themselves off at calm waters. Water was calm during early morning.

Unfortunately, there were none. We've been going in circles for almost an hour and we had not seen any dolphins or whales. Good thing Mr. Baritua sent a message about an hour after that we should look instead in another place (which I forgot the name). I relayed the message to our boatmen and we headed straight to wherever it was. 

And true enough, from afar, we could see the dolphins!!! Yehey!!! The dolphins were swimming (and playing?) near 2 pump boats. We headed straight to their location so we could take a closer and clearer look. However, everytime we're near, the dolphins hid under the water! The next 30 to 45 minutes were spent chasing the dolphins. Yup! We would see them swimming about a hundred meters away from us, too far for our camera to capture (although we all had zoom lens). The 3 pump boats kept on speeding towards the dolphins, but, they were too shy to show-off, they kept on disappearing under the water. 

SIGH… We must have wasted 20 shots trying to capture the dolphins in still. But fate wasn't with us, we could only shoot them from afar. I'm sure, should we have our pictures developed, nobody would believe us that those were dolphins in our pictures. He! He! He!

We didn't see any whales either. According to our boatmen, the last they saw one was two days ago. SIGH… Another shy type!

Tired from chasing the dolphins (as if we literally had to run after them), we told our boatmen to proceed to Pamilacan Island.

Pamilacan Island is a small and typical unexploited and uncommercialized provincial island. The dolphin and whale watching tour operation was a community effort of the 250 families (care of Issa's inquisitiveness!) living in Pamilacan Island. The men handle all the pump boats and the dolphin and whale watching tours, while the women take care of the accommodation and the preparation of the food for tourists in the island. 

By 9 AM, we decided to head towards Panglao Island. 

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