Chills and Chocolate Hills

Friday we had a day on Alona Beach, which involved getting into our first tuk tuk of the trip. I’ve ridden in tuk tuks before but it was a new experience for the others, leading to Leyan holding on for dear life in the somewhat unstable vehicle. We did all make it to the beach unharmed and headed for a day of sunshine.

For me, a day on the beach meant I chased the shadows of the palm trees and took some time swimming in the sea to prevent getting sunburnt. The sea was a wonderful temperature and Lydia took to the seas with a pair of goggles on the hunt for some wildlife. The rest of us saw nothing more than a couple of fish and some starfish. The shallow waters and carpet of seaweed was not a great combination if you want to try to tread water and avoid the seaweed at the same time so we stayed where we could see our feet in the sand. We got back to the hotel before the sun set (which is actually quite early over here) and had a relaxing evening after a relaxing day.

Saturday was jam packed full of activities. We stared the day at 9am when our driver picked us up and drove us on a very bumpy 1 hour 40 minute drive to the Chocolate Hills, where we were all very excited to get out of the car and hop into another form of bumpy transportation. Ellie, Georgia and Leyan took to some ATVs and me and Lydia hopped inside a bug car, where she trusted me enough to drive. I’m not sure whether she regretted this later though when we hit a rock, bounced off the track and somehow ended up in a bush and had to be rescued when I couldn’t put the thing in reverse. I think it would be safe to say that if we had bruises it wasn’t completely my fault though because we were so close to the ground that we felt everything we drove over. It looked like I was driving a dune buggy but it drove like an old jeep and there was definitely no powered steering.

We climbed up one of the chocolate hills on our ATV ride and a photoshoot ensued on the viewing platform with the tour guide being lead director and photographer. We finished our ride around the Chocolate Hills and headed back to our driver and onto the next place.

Next, we visited the tarsiers, which are the smallest primates in the Philippines. Each one was roped off and looked over by a staff member that would get very close to them to take a photograph for you if you asked. We avoided asking for these photos because it felt very much like we were invading their personal space.

Lunch was amazing on a boat on Loboc river. We got ourselves on the boat that was shaped like a turtle and sat ourselves down to enjoy a tasty meal cooked for us. Ellie cracked open the shell of a crab and decided she didn’t want to eat it when she got a look at what was inside.

Once we’d eaten, we were released from the dock and took a trip up the river. There was a lovely lady on board that sang and played guitar during our trip. One of the other guests even got up and sang us a few songs.

The last couple of stops were the butterfly garden and a visit to the pythons. The butterflies were unfortunately mostly asleep but the snakes were most definitely there. I even held a snake myself.

All in all it was a great day with lots of fun activities.