Of Churches and Broas

After the river cruise, we went to Baclayon Church via jeep. It's one of the oldest church in the Philippines.

Before entering the church, we saw a lady selling candles. The candles are color-coded, with each color signifying a person's wish. We bought one candle for Life (we were praying for a baby) and one for Health (for good health). After saying our silent prayers, we entered the church.

Inside the Baclayon Church was dim, with only a few lights on. We have fellow tourists taking pictures of the altar, church decorations and saints. Some of the saints, we recognized. Some, we didn't.

We bought tickets to enter the Baclayon Museum which is adjacent to the church. A ticket costs P25. Inside the Baclayon Museum was a collection of church paraphernalia such as old manuscripts, candelabras, clothes used to dress statues of saints, etc.

Osang's Broas

I read that Bohol is also famous for its broas or lady fingers and a bakery called “Osang's” has the best broas. Osang's Homemade Pastries is located behind the Baclayon Church. Stacks of old firewood marks this store. You won't notice that the store is inside. We bought four packs of broas at P100 each. Each package has 100 pcs of broas. Yum-yum!

Bohol Tour Day 3

Our initial plan was to go to the beach in Panglao this day. But since we were not able to experience the Loboc River Cruise, we decided to scrap off the beach tour. Bummer. I know the Cook secretly jumped for joy at this change of plans. If it was up to him, he'd rather not go the beach. Ever. He's working at sea for months and the beach is the last thing where he wants to go.

We went to the Loboc town where the river cruises are docked. Since they start the cruises at 11 am, we decided to visit the Loboc Museum and Church first.

We paid P20 each for the museum entrance tickets. We were the only visitors of the museum, since it was a weekday. There was not much to see in the museum though. After the museum, we went to the church. It was an old church with high dome ceilings and painted tiled floors. There is a pulpit, a signature trademark of churches built during the Spanish era. During the Spanish time, the town hall, plaza and church forms a triangle and you'll notice this in most towns in the Philippines.

Loboc Town plaza

By lunch time, we bought tickets for the Loboc River Cruise. The habal-habal driver who drove us to town suggested we take the River Watch Floating Resto cruise. A ticket costs P350. After some time, many tourists rode the boat and we started our cruise. The buffet was filled with delicious foods which the Cook clearly enjoyed!

Loboc River

Busay Falls

Nuts Huts view from the Loboc River

The cruise is for one hour. Before returning to the pier, the floating resto will stop by a small stage along the banks of Loboc River. There, Boholanos will perform native songs and dances to the delight of tourists.

We truly enjoyed the river cruise. Delicious food, check! Beautiful sights, check! Cultural knowledge, check!

Bohol Tour Day 2

Since it was our first time to have a vacation as husband and wife, we decided to tour Bohol ala Lonely Planet. No tour guide, just the two of us visiting Bohol tourist spots.

We woke up early the next day and had breakfast at the Nuts Huts restaurant. They serve organic and healthy food. If we didn't have anywhere to go that day, we would have just stayed at the resto and enjoyed the pristine sight of nature. You can just relax the day away. There are magazines and books which you can read as you lay on a hammock. We read a notebook which served as guests' travel journal. Any guest could write their travel experiences in this notebook.


At the restaurant, there is a Bohol map on the wall and list of places worth seeing. We checked it and planned where we will go for the day. Rita advised us to group the places we want to see since it will take more than a day to visit all of Bohol's tourist spots. We decided to check out the Chocolate Hills in Carmen and Simply Butterfly Conservation Centre in Bilar.

After our breakfast, we started to use the dirt road to reach the highway. As we were reaching the highway, a bus stopped and the driver told us to ride the bus. I told him we're not riding just yet since I was planning to take pictures first. Bad decision! The next bus came after 30 minutes!

Tip: The most common commuting vehicle in Bohol is the habal-habal or motorcycle. Another is the bus which leaves the Tagbilaran Terminal every half hour.

Chocolate Hills is the most famous tourist place in Bohol. It's called Chocolate Hills because these hills take on the brown shade during summer. It just rained when we came here so it's kinda foggy.




A man offered us to take our picture using our camera, for free. He suggested poses for the Cook and I, together with a large hill. This one is my favorite.

We left Chocolate Hills after a few more pictures were taken. We hired a habal-habal driver, Mang Louie, to bring us to Simply Butterflies since waiting on a bus may take some time. That was my first time to ride a motorcycle for a long period of time and passing through several towns.


I asked the Mang Louie to first drop us off the Bilar Church which I saw when riding the bus earlier. The church was old and some carpenters rebuilding one part of it.

We arrived at Simply Butterflies and paid the entrance, P20 each. A Simply Butterflies staff welcomed us and immediately gave a lecture about butterflies. We learned that the male butterfly is smaller than its female counterpart.

And that there is a half-male and half-female butterfly. An anomaly of nature indeed!

The staff toured us around Simple Butterflies and showed us a collection of cocoons, butterflies (you can even touch a butterfly!), flowers and plants.

They have very ripe mangoes and sponges soaked in honey and water to feed the butterflies. Butterflies fly when the sun is out and since it just rained that afternoon, they were hiding behind the leaves. :(


After Simply Butterflies, Mang Louie drove us to the Hanging Bridge in Sevilla. We paid P10 each to scare the he** out of us. I mean, to cross the hanging bridge. I don't know what came over me to cross that bridge! The bridge was made up of bamboo and when you lose a step, the Loboc River will welcome you. Scary for a person like me who is afraid of heights. As we start crossing the bridge, a group of Korean girls were joyfully jumping on the bridge making it shake. Making it more scary for me. Waaah!

Luckily, we were able to cross the two hanging bridges safe and sound! (Can you see how I "grabbed" my husband and the railing?)

Bohol Day 1

On our first day in Bohol, we rode a jeep going to Loboc since I was hesitant to ride a bus which is always jam-packed with commuters and produce goods. One thing we noticed in Bohol commuting is that a person is assigned to collect the fare, unlike in Manila wherein you pay the fare to the driver. Since we don't know any Boholano words, we just said “Nuts Huts” to the fare collector. The driver was kind enough to drop us off at the Sarimanok boat house.

Bohol is also famous for the smallest monkey called tarsiers or boot (bo-ot) in Tagalog. The Sarimanok boat house had a couple of tarsiers. As we wait for a boat to take us to Nuts Huts, we took some pictures of the tarsiers.

Tip: Do not use flash on your cameras when taking pictures of tarsiers. They are nocturnal animals and their eyes are very sensitive to light. When stressed, they kill themselves!


Loboc River is a very peaceful river with bluish-green water and lush trees along its bank. We enjoyed the serenity of the boat ride.

We reached Nuts Huts and it's not your usual hotel or bed and breakfast place. We even thought that there was no one there to welcome us.

This stairs seemed imposing. You bet it is. After all the travelling, all we wanted was to lay down on a comfy bed.

Be careful when climbing the stairs. This warning says it all. Hehe.

The Belgian owner, Rita, checked us in. The huts are named after movies and our hut was named... “Honeymoon in Vegas”. She said it was such a coincidence!

The hut was minimalistic with native furnitures. We had a four poster bed and the curtain around the bed serves as mosquito nets. There was a see-through cabinet, lamp, small table and fan. The bathroom is also simple with tiled floors and ceramic pail. Outside the room was a small veranda overlooking the Loboc River.

Love you, Bohol

After procrastinating for so long, here is my post about our honeymoon in Bohol. Witwiw!

Truth be told, booking our flight to Bohol was the first wedding-related thing that we did after the engagement. Cebu Pacific Air had a sale in October last year so we quickly booked our flight to Tagbilaran, Bohol.

Tip: Subscribe to airlines newsletter to be informed about seat sales. Try Cebu Pacific Air. They have frequent Seat Sales promos.

We stayed at Nuts Huts along Loboc River. After much research in the Internet, I saw good reviews about this backpackers place.

Nuts Huts is located along the famous Loboc River. Guests stay in their nipa huts or bahay-kubo amidst plants and trees. You can reach Nuts Huts by boat or by bus. From the Tagbilaran Airport, ride a jeep going to Loboc. Drop-off at the Sarimanok boat house and then ride a banca going to Nuts Huts. The boat ride is kinda steep at P150/person.

If you want to go the cheaper route, ride a bus going to Carmen and drop-off at the Nuts Huts sign. The bus fare is P50. The sign is a few kilometers from the Loboc town proper. The jeep going to Loboc will not reach this signage. From the Nuts Huts sign, walk 750 meters to reach Nuts Huts. This is a dirt road but you'll enjoy nature in your walk. Plus it's free exercise for you!


There's more exercise waiting for you. You have to climb about 120 steps of stairs to reach Nuts Huts.

To be continued...

Go Go Plants!

My friend, M, texted me that she will also use plants as souvenirs for her grandmother's birthday. My wedding favors gave her the inspiration to go the eco-frienfly route.

I'm happy to say that our guests who received these souvenirs told me that the plants are growing healthy and did not wilt, unlike the three we have at home.

For plant seedlings, you can contact:

Fely Terible

Brgy. Banga, Talisay, Batangas

0927-202-0879

Manila Seedling Bank

Quezon Ave. Extension cor. EDSA

Tel. (02) 924-7001

Email: qualitytrees@msbfi.com

http://www.msbfi.com/