March 7, 2010

  • Eco-adventure in Bohol, Part 1

    Travel

    Last weekend, March 6-7, 2010,iTravel iExplore brought me and other media friends to Bohol, an hour-ride from Cebu via fast ferry (we took StarCraft (not the game), a new vessel owned by a young Malaysian gal) or roughly two-hours away via regular ferry.

    We docked in the town of Tubigon, and was greeted by our hosts Bill and Aida Granert with their son Chris, who now lives in Canada but is here on vacation. The Granerts are the people behind the Soil and Water Conservation Foundation Philippines and are now trying to bring their cause to the increasing number of tourists in the province, both locals and foreign.

    It would be hard and lengthy for me to blah blah blah so here are the pics taken by artist-photographer Jay Dalumpines.


    Arrival in Tubigon


    Young lady washes her clothes by the river. Still a common practice in rural communities


    Nature trekking. That's me. Behind me collecting trash is the head of the community organization, Rita G. Jorillo


    The group at Makapiko Nature Park, one of the community assisted by SWCF


    The so-called place where the first international treaty was forged between the Spaniards and the native Filipinos. It's called blood compact. Mr. Granert, however said that the exact place of the event is debatable as during that time this area was covered by mangroves so it would be impossible for the Spanish fleet to dock in the place.


    Having lunch at Bohol Bee Farm. See the salad being passed around? It got lots of flowers in it. And the food are organic. The Farm is the best place to spend the weekend if you want to be detoxified over the weekend.


    This is me at the Bohol Beach Club. Nice place.


    With the operations manager of Alona Palm Beach Resort. Super exclusive place, they only have 12 villas.


    Our photographer, Jay Dalumpines. The best!


    One of our activities is to plant our own tree. It's called memory tree. I learned that planting trees is not just to plant it anywhere. It must be planted during the rainy season, and you must ensure that someone, if not you, has to regularly check on it and water it until it is able to live on its own. I planted Anisoptera thurifera or the palosapis.


    The beautiful ladies behind iTravel iExplore, Juliet and Venice

    Now, my photos:


    Soil and Water Conservation Foundation's facility at the Bohol Biodiversity Complex in Bilar. This is where we stayed. Had we brought our camping gear we could have camped outside, but they also have sleeping quarters for P150/night. Roughly US$3.


    Bohol has a Karst landscape. Here you'd see a cave in its infancy stage. It would take centuries for caves to develop. This is in the Karst trail of BBC.


    There are a few species of ferns in the complex.


    Bill explaining about Karsts and why it is important in the Philippine ecosystem.

    PREVIOUS | NEXT

Comments (4)

Comments are closed.

Post a Comment