Night 2 of our stay on Bohol was spent at the Stefanie Grace Inn situated right on the Loboc river across from San Pedro Church. In order to get there from Panglao Island and the Bee Farm, we hired a driver at 2500 pesos for the day. Along the way, we stopped at the Blood Compact Memorial, the Tarsier Sanctuary, and the Chocolate Hills viewpoint. Both of my parents were feeling a little under the weather for our road trip, but the sights were pretty spectacular.
The Blood Compact Monument, Sandugo in Visayan, commemorates the peace agreement created by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and the local chieftan Datu Sikatuna.
Our next stop was to visit the palm sized primates, the tarsiers. I was surprised to see that they were not caged, but in a 1 hectare enclosure of their nature habitat. Each morning the staff patrols the area ot find the 8 tarsiers. On the day we arrived, four tarsiers had been located and our guide walked us to each one. They are smaller than imagined, but just as adorable. Three of the four were clinging to low tree trunks with the fourth half-buried in duff on the ground. Beautiful animals and an impressive sight.
We continued through the Bohol interior to visit the Chocolate Hills. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much, but the geologic formations turned out to be pretty impressive. There isn't much more to do besides have a gander and shoot some pictures, but the 360' view is worth it. We decided to have a little snack at the cafe on the way down. The food wasn't anything to write about (I guess I just wrote about it).
We headed back down the mountain to our hotel passing the adventure park and hanging bridge on the way down. We decided not to stop at any other locations as everyone in the car was tired and/or sick.
The Stefanie Grace Inn has basic, but clean rooms, a small swimming pool, and a large patio that faces the river. The restaurant is slow, but serves quality Filipino fair that's worth a try. Downtown is a short walk across the bridge and you can meander through the roads that run behind the hotel. The highlight of our stay however was our evening firefly tour We hired a personal banka to take us up river about 6km and what awaited was sure amazement. Whole trees were pulsing with thousands of illuminating fireflies. We went from tree to tree and just soaked up the mesmorizing patterns that the fireflies provided. Truly spectacular.
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