Blood and Chocolate Hills

Day 2 in Bohol was filled with a lot of interesting sightseeing. As we drove through the Tagbilaran City, the capital of the province, our tour guide gave us a brief but colorful history of Bohol. Every year, the Boholanos celebrate the Sandugo Festival, which commemorates the blood compact between Philippine leader Datu Sikatuna and a Spanish conquistador General Captain Miguel Lopez de Legazpi on March 16, 1565. To show their friendship for each other and their commitment to the Spanish crown, each man cut their left arms, sprinkled blood in a cup of wine, and drank to friendship and brotherhood. Datu Sikatuna is sometimes called one of the first Filipino ambassadors.

The Sandugo Festival starts every year in March, but the most anticipated street dancing competitions take place in July to coincide with the annual TBTK (Tigum Bol-anon Tibuok Kalibutan), a gathering of Boholanos from around the world in Tagbilaran City. The festival is filled with music, parades, costumes, church services, and beauty pageants.

cheers!

Next stop, tarsiers! It was quite a long ride to the location. I took some random pictures of the countryside.

really old, parasitic tree

street vendor

they sold clams

they sold crabs

rice paddies

Tarsier farm!

Tarsiers are known as the smallest monkeys in the world, though they are not monkeys, but marsupials. They have long tarsals (hence their name), are very small, and can jump very high. They’re nocturnal animals and have huge eyes.

tarsier

i'm an idiot

Next, we drove to Bohol’s natural wonders, the Chocolate Hills. They are a collection of over 1,700 hills scattered across south central Bohol. Hills made of chocolate? Is this heaven?

Chocolate Hills

No, but these hills are pretty high up. They’re called the Chocolate Hills because during the dry season, when there’s less vegetation, they resemble Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses. I don’t remember their original names, but the first comparison to the popular confection was made by a visiting American teacher. The name stuck ever since. We visited during the rainy season so the hills didn’t look as brown. Aren’t they cute?

Geologists are still trying to figure out their origin. Some theories include limestone weathering, sub-oceanic volcanism, or ancient coral reefs that erupted from the sea. There are a couple of local legends that explain their existence. Our tour guide told us one of the romantic stories:

Legend has it that when giants lived with mortals, a gentle giant fell in love with a beautiful village girl.  Agoro , the giant was handsome and though a favorite among female giants, was also a loner. When everything and everybody sleeps, Arogo would sit by his favorite spot near the river to ponder or just watch the night pass by.
One night while Arogo was by his spot, he noticed a beautiful native girl with hair as black as the night by the river bank. He instantly fell in love with Aluya. After that night. Arogo would always wait by his place to take a glimpse at his beloved Aluya.
A rumor reached Arogo that Aluya would soon marry a man her parents chose for her.
The night before Aluya’s wedding, Agoro kidnapped Aluya. Seeing a giant, Aluya screamed, kicked and cried, but to no avail. Arogo was successful in abducting Aluya.
In the giant’s cave, Arogo tried to give Aluya food and water but the girl kept on crying. Her sadness reached her heart that she died with tears in her eyes. Arogo buried her and kept his vigil. He cried for days and months. Giant tears fell to the ground. He cried a thousand years for the loss of his love.
After sometime, Arogo’s tears hardened and became what we know today as Chocolate hills. The Hills were witnesses of an unrequited love of the years go by.

We got to climb these hills, which was quite an experience for me. Anyone who knows me is familiar with my awful fear of heights. It’s so frustrating, and I battle with it all the time. Whenever I’m in a very open, very high up location (or sometimes even the third floor of a mall), a chilling feeling swirls my brain and turns me stone cold. Acrophobia. Phobias are irrational, that’s why they’re phobias. If anyone can offer a cure, I’ll take it. Some people I know like to watch me cower and panic whenever I’m in such a situation and will even try to make me feel worse by freaking me out by lunging toward me. To them (or him) I say, I’ll remember that.

So imagine a chocolate kiss. Its sides are quite steep. Not very different from its geological counterpart. There were concrete ramps and stairs built into the side of the hill to make it easier for climbers. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so of course I climbed. I chose the ramps because they felt pretty enclosed and safe. I went up slowly and calmly behind my sister, stopping to enjoy the view and take pictures.

hills as far as the eye can see

we were pretty high up. see me holding on for dear life?

After lots of picture taking, we decided to walk back down. I thought to myself, the ramp is kind of steep, maybe I’ll take the stairs. I took one look at the top of the stairs…because you could see nothing else. From where we were, the midsection and the bottom of the stairs were nonexistent. You’d think this was a good thing, but watching people walking down and disappearing from sight sent chills down my spine and turned my legs into stone. The handrails were flimsy and wobbled. Everything was open air. I quickly looked at the ramps. They were my other, better option. They were built more lateral to the hill than the stairs, but they too were steep and open air. My heart was pounding. I started to heave. My older sister and mother were trying their best to figure out which method of descent would be less frightening for me. “Take the stairs, I’ve checked them out and they’re good…..no take the ramp it’ll be okay…c’mon lets go… ChiChi can you hear me? C’mon let’s go…” I heard nothing but the soft ringing in my ears and the silent immobility of my feet. Korean tourists were walking around me, laughing and having fun, wondering why this five foot statue of a terrified girl was placed right in the middle of the path. I became angry with myself, that I was paralyzed during what should have been a beautiful experience. What a crippling phobia! I was so beside myself with anger, that I began to cry. My sister noticed and offered to hold my hand while we walked down the ramps. GAH! I am six years old again. My father told me that I had this kind of spell when we first visited the Tagaytay volcano when I was a child. Pathetic. I could really go for some chocolate, or a drink.

We arrived to the bottom, and I am upset, but I release my anxieties with a bit of shopping in the gift shops. What a morning! I couldn’t wait for lunch.

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