A Cebu and Bohol Travel and Reading Journey

On another day I went to hang out at the beach in the morning before kayaking in the afternoon. I took a walk along the beach and came across a beautiful section with beach chairs under perfectly placed tall palm trees. A section of the beach owned by a resort. I decided to sit down and see if I could get away with it. Not five minutes later a hotel security guard asked me if I was a guest at the resort and then asked me to leave. I went and sat under a tree further along the beach.

While kayaking through mangroves on Bohol later that day, my guide talked about how happy he was to educate others on environmental conservation and to show visitors the protected mangrove area, but he also lamented that some of his fellow locals show such lack of concern for the environment. We saw evidence of this in the evening when out looking for fireflies. While a group of us were silently gliding around in kayaks, other tourists on boats were clapping at the trees to make the fireflies come out. This made no sense, according to my guide. You need to be quiet and simply go where the fireflies are.

While my snorkeling and kayaking experiences, as well as viewing the adorable little Tarsiers at the Tarsier sanctuary, positioned me as an observer immersing myself in the habitats of other creatures, the division between the human and animal world that I am used to seemed blurred to me in Cebu and Bohol. Every day I saw so many dogs and chickens walking around by the street or hanging out in front of houses and businesses, out running their own errands and perhaps looking for shelter. I saw several cows relaxing under trees as well. It was both calming and unnerving — I was delighted to observe so many other creatures sharing this space and freely roaming about with humans, but the number of skinny stray dogs also made me anxious. I even saw some dogs near Kawasan Falls after I went canyoneering. I hope they get regular affection and food, as I felt I had been treated.

Other travelers I talked to maligned Filipino food, comparing it to Thai and Vietnamese food, as if the fact that all these places technically belong to the region “Southeast Asia” necessitates this comparison. Thailand and Vietnam may have the more iconic cuisines, but they also have the virtue of being part of the mainland and access to more ingredients. I still found the Filipino food I had to be comforting and almost too filling sometimes. After kayaking and canyoneering, I was stuffed with almost more comforting food than I could eat.

I tried canyoneering for the first time in Cebu. I wanted to see Kawasan Falls and heard about the canyoneering experience that takes you to multiple waterfalls, which sounded more fun than just taking a short walk to see one waterfall. My day of canyoneering involved swimming and climbing on rocks and jumping into the water from varying heights and even swinging into the water from a rope. I got too much water up my nose within the space of a few hours to be tempted to try canyoneering again, but I honestly had a blast for this one time.

These are the experiences that will stay with me. I came to see the Chocolate Hills, which I was able to do on the first day along with visiting the tarsier sanctuary and taking a Loboc River cruise. Though it was rainy, the view certainly did not disappoint. Yet it’s the more exhilarating, challenging experiences, along with the disappointments, through which I learn the most and that helps me better understand a people, their culture, and myself better. There is so much to see in the Philippines — so much that I’m a bit overwhelmed looking at other possible islands to visit. I can’t visit all of them, but I will definitely be back to visit a few more.