Chocolate Hills

The Chocolate hills are often billed as the 8th wonder of the World.

Formed of 1268 cone shaped hills of undetermined origin. Theories are limestone erosion (part of the reason there is no airport), volcanism and seafloor uplift.

Rain moved in shortly after we got there but no surprise, it's the rainy season.

It still couldn't diminish the splendor.

Bobbe, I'm sure you can do a better job than me with the caption for this.

Manmade Forest of Mahogany planted to protect from Typhoons

The hanging bridge nearby. Bit of a tourist trap but fun nonetheless.

Riverboat dinner cruise up to the falls

Carabao
Yep, we did it all on this trip. After we took too long at some places it was cutting it close to make it to see the tarsiers in time.

The drivers decided to take a shortcut through more rural area. Big mistake, the road was washed out due to a landslide.

12 people in a front wheel drive van in the mud? We pushed it over the first hill but the next was even worse.

I'm sure Randy could have done it.

You can take the boy of the farm but you can't get the mud off his feet.

We ran into some locals butchering a hog. The simple Pinutes they had made incredibly quick work of that hog. Try as we might, they would not sell them.

Jungle Accomodations

The first two days of our trip were to be spent on Bohol Island in huts on the side of the Loboc River. Mary found a place in a guide book that was listed as "primitive accommodations. Little did we know the payoff would be so great.

A short boat ride up the river.


And our first glimpse of home. Nipa palm huts on stilts. The bathrooms complete with dip toilets left a bit to be desired but considering the lushness of the surroundings, minor. That bloody rooster who got up at 4AM everyday I could do without though.

The mosquito netting was more so needed for the spiders (BIG) and ants, very little flying bugs due to the bats.

Those darn neighbors!

Nice 8" millipede!

Where they're going only they know.

Then we discovered it's a long climb to the camp lodge. 120 steps to be exact.
The lodge and the view was fantastic, as was the breakfasts!

Yep, Mariah eating again. I think I discovered what keeps the Escrimadora winning. This girl can put it away.

Another 150 to the top and a 1.5 mile walk and you're at the road.

View from the top and we're headed off to the Chocolate Hills.

Trip Report

Even though we spent two hours there, this is all we got to see of Hong Kong. Why? Well apparently someone had a psychiatric episode over Canada. They assaulted someone and had to be restrained. FAA requires diverting to the nearest airport. Anchorage! (the airport looks like Seattle btw). So, no surprise we missed our connnection to Manila in HK. We got on another flight for later but had no way to tell Randy or our ride who would be waiting for us at the Airport in Manila. Much fretting over that but not much we could do.

So after roughly 25hrs of flying and driving around to different hotels we found our group (and our tickets to Cebu). We got around 45mins of sleep I think before getting right back up to fly to Cebu. Have I mentioned I detest flying? Most airport personel treat you as a moron who is probably up to something dishonest. Good grief, I just spent $1800 each!!! I will say almost all the ticketing agents were very pleasent to deal with (and I made sure to treat them well per Mushtaq's advice - and it paid off twice!). Cole was a very understanding verbal punching bag for my frustrations.

Manila at 3AM
Manila at 6AM
We met up with GrandMaster Bong Jornales and the rest of the school. Cole and I no longer train there but am indebted to Bong as he still considers us as part of his family and graciously included us with their group. A grand gesture I highly appreciate. Included in this group were his wife Wendy, Ted (who's been training with Bong around 14-15 yrs) and his wife Mary, Mathew and Joe Quintero and Randy Moore and that scrawny Escrimadora.

Headed to the Airport (again).

Cebu at last!
And then headed right to the pier for the 2hr boat ride to Bohol.

And yet another van ride to the river.

Nipa palm - The Filipino vinyl siding!

No, I don't look too perky. That's due to only 3hrs sleep in the last 48.

But THIS my friends, is where the real fun begins.................... It's all worth it!