Bohol: Island Hopping

Bohol is one of the must go to places when visiting the Philippines, not just because of the famous chocolate hills and the cute tarsiers, but also you shouldn’t miss the relaxing turquoise beach in Panglao Island. Staying in Alona beach in Panglao Island for days can be a bit boring, so why not spice it a bit by going on an island hopping.

We hired a boat the day before for Php 2,500. Woke up early in the morning and started the activity at exactly 6:00 AM, yeah the activity starts early as our first activity is dolphin watching and it is during early morning that dolphins are often seen swimming around the seas of Panglao.

Although there is really no guarantee that you will see dolphins as the boatmen have no control over them, we are lucky to see them swimming in their natural habitat. Seeing the first one swimming in the surface of the ocean gave us so much excitement that we all stand in the boat looking for them. The tricky part is that they only appear for a few seconds in the surface then suddenly disappear. The boat had to chase them several times until we can no longer see them around and proceed to our next destination which is the Balicasag Island.

We arrived on the white shores of Balicasag Island minutes after our dolphin-watching activity. Balicasag Island is considered one of the best diving spots in the country. But for us that are not trained for that, this island is also good for snorkeling and we definitely enjoy those colorful corals and fishes.

We rented snorkeling gears for Php 250 inclusive of boat, mask and snorkel and guide. You might be confused why we need to rent a separate boat to go to the snorkeling site. These are small wooden boats good for 3 to 4 person as big boats might damage the corals so we needed to transfer to a small boat. However, I think you can walk on the beach side to get in the snorkeling site if you choose to.

We were swimming in the water for almost 2 hours and can’t get enough of it. But we need to move and proceed to the next and last island which is the Virgin Island.

A small uninhabited picturesque sandbar, and this is why its called Virgin Island. There’s not much to do here, so we just enjoyed the sand and did some food trip as we got hungry swimming in Balicasag Island.

I tried sea urchins for the first time and for me it’s like eating oysters.

Tips:

> Arrive early. At the strike of the morning at dawn, you should be ready and already boarding the boat for dolphin watching. It is said that dolphins are really active during night time and wee hours of morning.

>Bring a good camera lens, dolphins will not be swimming alongside your boat and they can be far sometimes so make sure you’re ready to capture the moment they show up.

>Wear sunblock as it can get too hot.