Our Province

WARNING: really long again. and more pictures to be added hopefully next week...

last week my family went home to the province. and our province is Bohol. my dad is from bohol and it's the first province that i've known. and also Cebu. hehehe. that's why when my are planning to go to cebu or bohol, i would not join them. coz it's like my second home already. unlike in cebu, wherein i haven't visited the famous tourist spots, in bohol, i think i have visited 90% of the tourist spots. but for last week, we didn't go to where tourists usually go and as a matter of fact, me and my cousins are trying to think of places we can visit that we haven't been to. i'll just share the places we've been to last week and the typical places the Racho family visits when in Bohol.

since Bohol is our province, we usually stay at my grandfather's house in Tamblot or in my uncle's house in Dampas, both in Tagbilaran. but since the tamblot house is being rented out by another family and we do not want to be a hassle to my uncle's family who are also vacationing, we stayed in a pension house, the Le Pensione de San Jose in Tagbilaran also. it's okay for a place if you just want to rest your sleepy head. and there's a bar downstairs where you can have your own concert. hehehe.

of course i had my concert. hehehe.

when i hear Tamblot, it's not the hero that i think of but my grandfather's house. where me and my cousins would spend our summer and Christmas vacations. we really nagged our parents that we're going to visit the place. so, we went there and was surprised that somebody's living there. i didn't know. hahaha. the dining table where the whole family would eat is still there. and me and my cousins were shocked. coz it's like it's small. coz for all of us, we always imagined it to be really big. hello! 5 families fitting in one dining table.. wouldn't you think it to be big? and maybe with our children's eyes, we thought everything was big. hehehe.

this is the table where we ate our meals when we were younger

of course, my family especially my uncle who have not been to bohol for two years visited their farm in Balilihan. it's an inheritance from my grandparents to our parents but the ones to use it daw are us the grandchildren. but we haven't thought yet of what we're going to do with the place. and since nothing is to be seen there, we just had our pictures taken and scared ourselves with ghost stories. hehehe.

since the reason why we went home to bohol every Christmas and fiesta are my grandparents, it is just right that even when they left the earth, we would visit them. and also our aunt. so cemetery is always included in the itinerary.

our parents grew up in Loboc so when we were kids, we would always visit that place to visit their childhood friends and neighbors. and even before the Loboc River Rafting became a popular tourist attraction, we would ride that already. and when i tried out the popular tourist attraction two years ago with some officemates, i got disappointed. coz it was a short route and it's not as wonderful as when i was a kid. coz when i was still a kid, the river tour would start from the Hydroelectric Powerplant down to the falls. and i believe there are more than one waterfalls. small and big ones. we would eat on the raft and try fishing but i really don't catch anything. yes, Bohol has its own Hydroelectric Powerplant. and i don't know why it's not as popular as others. but it's the first hydroelectric plant that i've visited. and hopefully in the future i get to experience a field trip there. coz i wanna hear the experts and not only my dad or uncles explaining the place. and of course coz of conceitedness factor. hahaha

a picture in the hydroelectric plant taken years ago.

bohol is not only known for the Chocolate Hills and the tarsiers, but also of the beaches specifically in Panglao. when i was a child, i would rather visit Panglao than Chocolate Hills, to be honest i don't appreciate the hills that much. and in the recent years, the resort we would always visit is the Panglao Island Nature Resort, but this year we didn't go there coz we wanted somewhere new. so we tried Amarela in Panglao. but didn't swim. we just ate there. takaw talaga! hahaha.


when we were still in resort and thinking of another place to go to coz we can't swim due to low tide, i suggested what i read from Ferdz's blog, Water Tubing! i really wanted to try it out. but i found out it's in Danao. and i saw the distance between Panglao and Danao. it's not advisable.

thinking of another place. it was decided on to go to Bohol Bee Farm. a resort that sells bee products. i guess this was decided upon since the elderlies need healthy food. wahehe. and that would be great for me coz i want to go there since some friends who have been there said it was a nice place to stay. so off we went thee and even saw some relatives. sosyal kme magreunion. hehe.

and as with every Filipino, wherever you go it's like a must to buy pasalubong. and if you're in tagbilaran, nice place to buy these is in the mall. Island City Mall for the peanut kisses and to buy some bread para baon mo. but as my cousin Joan said, better broas should be bought in Bohol Quality (BQ). personal advise, when you buy pasalubong from bohol, it's better to bring home broas than peanut kisses. that's my personal opinion. coz broas are more yummy than peanut kisses. hehehe. so of course we headed to the malls. and we're glad we went to ICM coz we saw the owner and got invited to his farm. saya!

when i was a kid and we go home to bohol, be assured that when i return to manila, i'm darker (coz of the beautiful beaches in bohol) and bigger (due to the many food served). and contrary to others who would think of eating seafood in bohol, i always associate bohol with lechon. i remember waking up to the cries of the pig as it is being killed to become lechon. that's why it's a big wonder why me and my cousins never became vegetarian after witnessing tragic killings of animals to be our food. yup, even goat, chicken, turkey. sorry... anyway, it's like it's in bohol where i learned about having two snacks, one on the morning and one in the afternoon. and in bohol, there would always be lechon and of course dinuguan (so the blood of the pig won't be a waste). for the foreigners, these are yummy food. trust me! hehehe. but the best part is the next day, when the lechon is cooked as paksiw! sarap!!!!

the lechon and other food

as a summary, what makes Bohol a majestic place is actually the Racho Family :)



*thanks to julie for the pictures...