The Yummy Chocolate Hills

My father-in-law thought that the Chocolate Hills were just small hilly mounds, probably because of how the Nayong Pilipino depicted it when it was still open. Anyway, we only managed to go up one hill and thanks to Dolly for telling us to go up via the ramp and not the stairs. She said that it would be much easier to go up that way. We were on top of the hill in no time and started taking photos of the hills.

According to our tour guide there are really about 1,700+ Chocolate Hills but the local government only considers 1,268 as pure Chocolate Hills since the others had trees on them. Some of the hills had some greenery on them and I'd like to dub them as "Minty Chocolate Hills" since they remind me of the yummy "Goya Mint Chocolate".

It's quite unbelievable though how much beautiful sceneries we have in the Philippines. From beautiful white sandy beaches, to awesome diving sites, to the perfect cone shape of the Mayon Volcano, to just about anything and what's great about our country is most (if not all) of our tourist places are natural and not man-made. I always get teary eyed whenever I see one of our beautiful sights. It reminds me that despite everything that's happening we have so much opportunity and resources to get us out of our economic rut.

Anyway, enough about that. Here are some photos of the Chocolate Hills.

Some of the minty Chocolate Hills.

Bohol Top 5

1. Chocolate Hills


There are actually more than a thousand of these 30 to 50 meter hills. The mounds look like chocolates because it is made of limestone and trees don't grow on them.

2. Panglao Island beach


Panglao Island is located southwest of Tagbilaran City has one of the most beautiful beachfronts in the Philippines. I think I'd go back to Bohol more often than Boracay.

3. Baclayon Church


Baclayon Church is one of the best preserved churches ran by Jesuits and is the oldest coral stone church in the region.

4. Blood Compact


The blood compact was made between Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Datu Sikatuna.

5. Tarsiers

The Philippine tarsier is known to be one of the world's smallest primates. It is indigenous to the Island of Bohol. The guide said that they're supposed to be asleep during the day, but I guess they had to be up to entertain the tourists.

There's also the famous river floating restaurant, but I was quite disappointed in how things went when we went on it. Food wasn't that great, but the Loboc Children's Choir was quite entertaining. Watch their video below:



Other stuff to see: Hinagdanan Cave, Shell Museum, Man-Made Forest
Accommodations: Mellow Apartelle, Dumaluan Beach Resort

Cost of Going to Bohol

Tour - PhP5,500
(includes 3-overnight accommodations, breakfast, river floating resto lunch, transportation and transfers)

Airfare & Terminal Fee - PhP4,300 + PhP400
(Manila-Cebu-Manila)

Pocket Money - PhP2,500
PhP500/day for food
PhP500 for pasalubong

Safe budget - PhP13,000/person for a group of 8

Tips
- We went to Cebu and took the Supercat to Bohol because it's cheaper rather than flying out directly to Tagbilaran.
- The cheapest pasalubong stuff are at the Hinagdanan Cave.

For complete trip recount please visit "An Apple a Day".