Bohol Island
Tuesday, March 15
The shell sellers were already on the beach as we headed for the airpot. As we passed through security there nearly everyone had shells. The attendants asked why we wanted them. We told them, “Beauty is its own excuse for being.”
After a half hour flight we landed in Cebu and transferred to a bus for the trip to the docks. Cebu City is second to Manila in population and has a majestic provincial capitol building. The dock area was alive with activity. As we boarded the “Sweetheart” ferry for Tagbilaran on Bohol Island venders besieged us offering mangos, crackers, ice cream, sandwiches and cold drinks. Elaborate displays of their wares were set up on bicycle “stores” that they folded up and pedaled off with as the ferry pulled out.
We made settled in on the upper deck where cots covered the entire area except for a narrow walkway. Fresh sheets and a pillow were provided along with a lunch box of chicken. We spent the three and one-half hour trip reading, talking, relaxing, writing and watching dolphins. It was here that I started writing this account of our adventures. Others of our group crowded around to see what I had written.
We were joined here by Vero Palermo of Iloilo, a professional photographer who traveled with us for several days taking shots for postcards and travel articles. Croton hedges lined the road. Abaca is an important crop growing under the coconut trees. The road was filled with children walking from school, many carrying bolos that they had used to trim the school-yard grass. All over the Philippines the barrio schools are built in the same style—a long low building with a porch the full length.
We passed a cockfight arena, deserted today as cockfights are usually held on Sunday. Graceful women carried their loads on their heads; boys herded pigs, led caribous and pulled wagons. Little girls walked arm in arm and waved to us as we passed. We had crossed many wooden bridges, so it was a surprise to see an iron bridge right out of Ohio, with a plaque explaining that it has been erected by the U.S. Army.
Our route was along the Leay River where native women were on their knees washing clothes.Their wash basins looked like oversize fluted Jell-O molds.
As we left the coast we started climbing, passing through Loboc. White starflowers dotted the roadsides and we passed through a reforestation area where 625,000 trees had been planted in 1963. The road narrowed to one lane, twisting around the mountain. Our careful driver honked as we approached the curves.
About an hour out of Loboc we arrived at the “Chocolate Hills” that the rise about 500 feet. above the plateau where rice and coconuts grew. We could see that the top of one had been leveled off and buildings erected. Our driver pointed it out as our destination. The road was narrow, steep and winding.
After supper Lolita was interviewing Stan for her film when a bird with dangling legs flew past them into a small garden. They captured the frightened bird and brough it to the light. Its smooth olive brown back and rufous breast helped them to identify it as a ruddy crake. Stan pointed out that this was not only a new life bird for us, but a new record for the Philippines because du Pont’s “Philippine Birds” does not list it for Bohol. We released the bird and then realized that no one had thought to photograph the crake!