Cebu to Tagbilaran
I had a good night sleep and woke up recovered. The legs were no longer hurting after a lot of walking in Japan. The bus from Tagbilaran to Carmen Hills was new, comfortable and air-conditioned. Music played on the bus further lifted my spirits and I began to see the brighter side of things despite the hard day before.
My husband and I were heading for the hills, or to be exact, for the Chocolate Hills of Bohol. It is a strange geological formation of conical hills covered with green grass that turns brown during the dry season, so the hills look like chocolate cones. There are more than 1,700 hills that are spread over the area of 50 square kilometers. The city of Carmen is one of the two places to view these hills.
The bus ride took 2 hours. Breakfast at the hotel was not too fancy but decent enough not to worry about food until lunch time. I watched the road, listened to lively music and enjoyed the ride.
In Carmen, we walked up to the viewing deck on top of Chocolate Hills Complex and, like everyone else there, took a lot of photos.
The same 2-hour bus ride back to Tagbilaran, a nice lunch at the mall and we were ready for our next destination, Panglao Island, where we were supposed to do nothing but relax on the beach.
A tuk-tuk driver had a difficult time locating our hotel, Casa Teofista. After driving us back and forth, and asking the locals, he found it with my husband’s help well hidden in an alley. We unpacked and went to check out the beach.
Alona Beach where we were staying was photogenic – a typical tropical beach with palm trees and fine white sand. However, trash was everywhere, especially empty wine bottles. The water was too shallow for swimming and warm as in a bathtub. We waded in it, walked from one end of the beach to another and could not think of anything else to do.
There were many sea stars in the water and a few sea urchins that are called the porcupines of the sea. Their stings can be extremely painful; luckily we did not step on any of them.
All the following day, we did not know how to keep ourselves occupied. Most people come to Alona Beach for diving, but we don’t do that. Watching fireflies on the river did not sound interesting and so on. We wandered around the town and on the beach. I was glad when the day was over.
Something in our hotel room, perhaps dust or mold, caused an allergic reaction in me. I did not sleep well the first night. The second night was even worse. I could not breathe in the room and at 3 a.m. had to get out of it. With my computer, I sat outside bitten by mosquitoes until it was time to have breakfast and to check out.
We were taking the ferry back to Cebu to see Magellan’s Cross and then to leave the Philippines from the airport on Mactan island.