Have you ever had this travel experience where you decided to continue exploring your own country? I decided to continue travelling even if I had limited means to do so when we went to Bohol and this featured island is one of the reasons why. It was not my first travel experience, but it was the first travel where I felt to be truly in an island paradise. I haven't explored much of Cebu yet at that time, but it was when I decided that you don't have to go far to experience beauty of nature and the adrenaline rush of travelling. I have become a poor travel junkie since then.
Hello Hiveians!
I tried to experiment with this new series to feature the Philippines one island at a time. I initially thought it would be a short format, sort of an informal blog, but I guess I can't do it anymore. This has officially became my fourth travel series and I'm excited as to where this will lead me. Featuring the 7,641 islands of the Philippines is not an easy feat and I know it would be impossible to visit all of them, but I'll take it as a challenge.
The Philippines is blessed with unmatched beauty. It has consistently been featured in different travel and lifestyle magazines in the world as the country with one of the best, if not the best, islands in the world. Boracay, Palawan, and Cebu paved the way for the Philippines to be known to travellers all around the world. Did you know there's another island that is also gaining international attention? That island is Bohol.
In the second post under this series, it was about Virgin Island in Bohol and it is one of the attractions when you visit this island: Panglao Island. In case you missed that entry, you can find it here:
This post will be composed of three different spots that we visited in the island. Now, let's take a tour to the fourth featured island of this series.
Fourth Island: Panglao Island of Bohol
Panglao Island is located southwest of Bohol and east of South Cebu. It is in the north of Bohol Sea in Central Visayas. It's just a few kilometers away from Tagbilaran City and is connected to mainland Bohol by Dauis Bridge and Borja Bridge.
Satellite image of Panglao Island from Google Maps
Panglao Island is composed of two municipalities: Panglao and Dauis. And now for the first tourist spot that we visited which is located in the municipality of Dauis.
Hinagdanan Cave
Hinagdanan Cave is a karst cave located in the north of Panglao Island in the municipality of Dauis. The whole island of Panglao is made of limestone so sinkholes and caves are abundant. Side note: One of the considerations in constructing the Bohol-Panglao International Airport was it's located in a limestone formation. Due to the solubility of limestone in water, sinkholes might occur any time.
Back to Hinagdanan Cave, it was discovered by a farmer and he found two holes. When he dropped a stone in one of the holes, he heard a splash. He lowered a ladder (hagdan in Bisaya) to inspect the hole and found its hidden beauty. That's the origin of the name of the cave. Hinagdanan is "laddered" in English. Hinagdanan Cave is just one of the many caves located in Bohol. Both Bohol and Panglao islands are of karst origin.
Due to the popularity of Hinagdanan Cave in the recent years, restaurants and souvenir shops are installed near the entrance of the cave. The entrance is just a small hole that's with cemented stairs so the cave can be accessed one person at a time. The stairs are wet and the walls of the cave have a slimy texture, so you have to be careful when you descend to the cave. Located inside is a pool of freshwater that became a sour of water for the residents in the area in the past. Panglao Island has no river or stream so the source of water before would be underground or rainwater.
You can actually swim in the pool inside the cave, but we didn't plunge into the natural pool. We just admired its beauty. Being there and just taking photos was enough for me.
The cave boasts a formation stalactites and stalagmites. One area of the cave was naturally lighted by the second hole in which tourists would stay under the light and have their picture taken.
When we got out from the cave, a flowering tree caught our eye so we tried to have photos under it. It's a local equivalent of cherry blossom, albeit it has an orange flower. A very stark contrast of colors: dark and brown inside the cave while very vivid orange flowers above it.
After Hinagdanan Cave, we proceeded to our next destination to taste some food and explore.
Location on Map: [//]:# (!pinmapple 9.625321 lat 123.801114 long d3scr)
Bohol Bee Farm
From Hinagdanan Cave, we went to Bohol Bee Farm which is still on Dauis, but on the other side of the island.
Bohol Bee Farm is a privately-owned resort and hotel that gained attention due to their organic farm and restaurant. Perched on a cliff facing Bohol sea, it is located a few kilometers away from the main highway of Panglao Island. Our initial plan was just to try the ice cream from The Buzzz Ice Cream, which is also operated by Bohol Bee Farm, but we stayed longer because the resort has this rustic yet lively vibe that's worth exploring.
They have all the products in The Buzzz Shop that are derived from raw materials coming from bees, but they said that they sourced their materials from their bee farm in Davao. They kept only one colony of bees for demonstration purposes.
Now, have you tried holding a honeycomb with live bees in it and you don't have protective gear? I did. Surprisingly, they didn't attack me. The only instruction of the tour guide was not to drop it.
Before heading to the restaurant, we explored the massage area near the pool. It was supposed to be for hotel guests only (those who booked for an overnight stay), but they staffs are so friendly that they just let us roam around and take photos.
The restaurant is on top of a cliff that are overgrown with trees. Below the restaurant is The Buzzz Dive Shop and Watersports where guests of the hotel can go scuba diving in the reefs near the resort. It has a platform just a few inches from the sea and it was so instagrammable. The contrast between the colorful arrangements and the old wood in the platform was really appealing.
Because we were so poor at that time, we only ordered a very few dishes because the it was not really affordable. The famous flower salad of Bohol was from this resort. Some would just visit the resort not for their bees, but for their organic food. We only tried the flower salad and the lemongrass juice just to satisfy our curiosity.
Of course, we didn't leave the resort without tasting their ice cream. Have you tried ginger ice cream or durian flavor? They have the not-so-adventurous flavors like the classic mango and chocolate ice cream. But their signature is on experimental flavors: malunggay, durian, spicy ginger, guyabano, dragon fruit, and many others. What makes Bohol Bee Farm unique is its exploration of taste that would certainly tickle your taste buds and satisfy your curiosity.
It was already afternoon when we left the resort to head out to our next destination.
Location on Map: [//]:# (!pinmapple 9.576976 lat 123.821225 long d3scr)
Alona Beach
Alona Beach was our last destination for the day before going back to Tagbilaran City. We stayed at our friend's house so we didn't have to worry about the accommodation. My friend's father was so generous and accommodating that he said he would fetch us at around 8:00 PM, so we stayed at the beach until night.
Alona Beach is Panglao's bread and butter. Because of its white sand that could rival with that in Boracay and Cebu, tourists really flocked the area. International hotels and resorts can be found a meters away from the beach. Since the beach is near a house reef, you can see a lot of color corals and fishes without a need of a scuba gear.
We had no particular activity in mind that afternoon. We were already exhausted with the tour so the plan was just to lie on the beach and relax. In that moment I felt like we were the foreigners. The tourists there were mostly westerners, Koreans, and Chinese that it felt like we're in a different country.
The next day we went back to Alona Beach for our island hopping to Balicasag Island and Virgin Island. After the island hopping, we relaxed again at the beach. We just thought of digging in the sand and put the GoPro there and the outcome was hilarious!
Location on Map: [//]:# (!pinmapple 9.548584 lat 123.774555 long d3scr)
I guess that's all for this post. See you in the next one!
Kim Ybañez
Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines) and the rest of the world even if he's still a poor corporate slave with tons of bills to pay and two siblings to support in college.
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