I went to Bohol (Region 7) in April. I wasn't supposed to be there, neither was I excited to go. I had to leave office work for a week to supervise a series of activities, sponsored also by our office, with a group of partners.
On our 3rd day there, 80% of us signed up for a "guided" tour of the Bohol tourism circuit. I've never been a fan of tourist places and tourism circuits. They are never pro-environmental' never was, never will be.
The river tour was a disaster, having been served food that i'm not sure were even edible (rubbery barbeque, mushy crabs). I felt sorry for the tarsiers. there were only a 160 of them left in a 6-hectare "eco-tourism site". Apparently, they kill themselves when they get so stressed out and having to stay awake in the morning to entertain tourist does not help at all. Now, the organizers have at least put an end to the "touching the tarsiers" part of the visit, and the people are encouraged to be very silent all through-out the tarsier tour, and also to not use flash photography, but still, i know that the mere presence of strangers are disturbing enough to rob somebody off his/her sleep, especially for nocturnal creatures like the tarsiers. The man-made forest is all brazilian trees (the one we wrongly identified to be mahogany), which found out recently to be an exotic species and is unsuitable to Philippine ecologically because, being exotic, they tend to become unfriendly with our native mahogany species (laua-an is one kind of Philippine mahogany). These brazilian trees have been promoted for reforestation since the 60's, mainly for industrial forest (meaning trees planted to be harvested for lumber). We had a lot of those trees at home as we planted so many when we were young. I'm trying to correct that now, starting off with a Kalumpit tree-planting in my parents' farm last January. I'm hoping to plant a (now very rare) Dao trees before the year ends, if i could find a nice seedling. There was also the Baclayon Church visit, probably the only part of the tour I like. I took pictures. Then we passed by a town called AlbuRquerque (yes, with an extra "R"). I took a photo of its belfry. I think the last stop was the python show. I didn't come to see it, but drop by the native coffee stand to chat with the owner. We didn't have coffee back at where we stayed. What we were served was corn coffee, which is also good but not as satisfying as the one i'm used to having. Our driver stopped by the historical shrine (I forgot what it was--something Magellan, i think) but we were too tired to go out, not to mention that the line was 10,000 kilometers long, proof that so many tourists are really cam whores.
I wanted to go to the island tour (it was a marine reserve) but only 3 of us wanted that and everyone wanted the circuit tour.
We concluded our tour with a city visit and a take out dinner courtesy of McDonald's--the safest and fastest choice for hungry ones.
anyway, here are the pictures:
(Everything taken with Minolta sr-t 101 and ykl 100 (fuji film). heavy metal cams are really amazing. imagine, 6 months after i dropped the camera from a height of 3 feet to a concrete driveway, dented the lens and allowed the shutter speed indicator to stop working, i was still awarded with amazing pictures. amzing camera, really.)
all of these were taken using the 58mm lens.
FIN.
On our 3rd day there, 80% of us signed up for a "guided" tour of the Bohol tourism circuit. I've never been a fan of tourist places and tourism circuits. They are never pro-environmental' never was, never will be.
The river tour was a disaster, having been served food that i'm not sure were even edible (rubbery barbeque, mushy crabs). I felt sorry for the tarsiers. there were only a 160 of them left in a 6-hectare "eco-tourism site". Apparently, they kill themselves when they get so stressed out and having to stay awake in the morning to entertain tourist does not help at all. Now, the organizers have at least put an end to the "touching the tarsiers" part of the visit, and the people are encouraged to be very silent all through-out the tarsier tour, and also to not use flash photography, but still, i know that the mere presence of strangers are disturbing enough to rob somebody off his/her sleep, especially for nocturnal creatures like the tarsiers. The man-made forest is all brazilian trees (the one we wrongly identified to be mahogany), which found out recently to be an exotic species and is unsuitable to Philippine ecologically because, being exotic, they tend to become unfriendly with our native mahogany species (laua-an is one kind of Philippine mahogany). These brazilian trees have been promoted for reforestation since the 60's, mainly for industrial forest (meaning trees planted to be harvested for lumber). We had a lot of those trees at home as we planted so many when we were young. I'm trying to correct that now, starting off with a Kalumpit tree-planting in my parents' farm last January. I'm hoping to plant a (now very rare) Dao trees before the year ends, if i could find a nice seedling. There was also the Baclayon Church visit, probably the only part of the tour I like. I took pictures. Then we passed by a town called AlbuRquerque (yes, with an extra "R"). I took a photo of its belfry. I think the last stop was the python show. I didn't come to see it, but drop by the native coffee stand to chat with the owner. We didn't have coffee back at where we stayed. What we were served was corn coffee, which is also good but not as satisfying as the one i'm used to having. Our driver stopped by the historical shrine (I forgot what it was--something Magellan, i think) but we were too tired to go out, not to mention that the line was 10,000 kilometers long, proof that so many tourists are really cam whores.
I wanted to go to the island tour (it was a marine reserve) but only 3 of us wanted that and everyone wanted the circuit tour.
We concluded our tour with a city visit and a take out dinner courtesy of McDonald's--the safest and fastest choice for hungry ones.
anyway, here are the pictures:
(Everything taken with Minolta sr-t 101 and ykl 100 (fuji film). heavy metal cams are really amazing. imagine, 6 months after i dropped the camera from a height of 3 feet to a concrete driveway, dented the lens and allowed the shutter speed indicator to stop working, i was still awarded with amazing pictures. amzing camera, really.)
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| film leader. extra shot from the Taklong Island, Guimaras batch. |
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| at the distance are a couple of families fishing for sea urchin: their dinner for the day. |
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| at the distance are my colleagues drinking warm beer in mid-afternoon while waiting for a really delayed river tour lunch |
all of these were taken using the 58mm lens.
FIN.
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