Bohol Part 2 : Dolphins, Snorkeling and Island Tour

NOTE: Did you read on Bohol Part 1?

There are currently 3 main tours of Bohol, as far as I know.

1. Panglao Tour
2. Bohol Tour
3. Panglao Island Tour

The first is more of a land tour of Panglao Island. The second mainly involves Tagbilaran and the main attractions of Bohol (Choco Hills, Loboc River Cruise, etc). The last is what we took for the day.

The Panglao Island Tour mainly starts off early in the morning for Dolphin Watching.

From Alona, you ride about 15 minutes onto another island (Balicasag), where just nearby, the dolphins play every morning. The area where the dolphins are isn't that hard to miss, it's where all the boats are in the middle of the sea!

During our tour, the waves were quite strong which made it quite a feat to track and watch the dolphins, but it's a very awesome experience to actually see dolphins in the wild.

Whenever a boat spots a dolphin, you'll hear a lot of ruckuss and all boats flutter off to the direction of that one boat!

It's a very tricky 'hunting' game because the dolphins appear in one spot, do their thing, submerge, and appear in another. We saw atleast 10 dolphins then

TIP: Got a DSLR? Set it to manual, bring out a good zoom lens and set your mode to continuous shots. Don't know how to use your DSLR in manual mode? Well, give it to me, you're better off with a digicam ;p

We stayed dolphin watching for a couple minutes then went off ashore to the island nearby - Balicasag Island.

Balicasag Island is a snorkeling spot. The island is said to be of umbrella shaped. Get it? What you see on the surface is the umbrella then there's a way to get under it... I didn't get it quite well but I think there may be an underground cave on the 'underside of the umbrella.' I may be wrong. Nevertheless, the place is a sweet spot for snorkeling.

TIP: If you don't have snorkeling equipment, you can rent some. Again, be sure to ask for discounts. They can also provide you an underwater case for your digicam.

No matter how hot the weather might be, like the time we were there, the water was just so cold and refreshing which helps. There are a lot of types of fish to be found here (I can't name them though lol). There were reports of seeing Pawikan (sea turtles) around but it's a rare sighting. Honestly, you might not have the guts to wander off of the umbrella. Because it's like a sudden cliff or abyss at some point of the snorkeling spot. Kind of freaky.

I actually tried to cross the boundaries stupidly thinking nothing might be there but I suddenly saw a very long thin fish (around 3-4ft) dart my direction and disappeared back into the deep. FML. I choked on some sea water and swam back to the safe visible spots.

Really, I can't see anything at the bottom. Anyway, here are a couple more shots with real people this time (me included!)

We definitely snorkeled for more than an hour.

Despite already being full of sea water and burping my way off to the shore, we ate lunch there care of paluto eateries just in the area. Again, prices are above the average range. For pancit canton, calamares, liempo, rice, and coke, we paid almost P1k (900+). The quality of food? Pretty much average.

Took a breather and headed back to the boat and onto another island - Virgin Island.

The island was named as such because every midnight, a virgin is being offered to the volcano mouth found at the back of the island. I am kidding of course (or am I).

But seriously? This is one beautiful island. It has two arms of sandbars extending opposite directions. Given the photo of my alleged Virgin island spotting, it was named because it has a resemblance of a female's reproductive system. You get the picture.

Anyway, the place is just stunning. We were walking on a long stretch of sand with about 3 inches of water waving acrossing it. It was quite funny too because I realize the water getting lower and lower due to the emergence of nature's low tide.

TIP#1: A tripod can withstand the small waves. Securely position your tripod in (not on!) the sand and you can now set your DSLR on timer!

TIP#2: Use a water resistant bag. I personally use Crumpler as a DSLR bag and I was unknowingly dipping my bag the whole time and the inside of it remained dry. So I just let my bag sit on the water a couple of times with full intention ;p

The edge of the sand bar was quite freaky. It suddenly goes deep, again like a cliff. Around this area, you'll find a lot of starfish and seaweed. But that's it.

I actually tried to snorkel but saw nothing. I snorkeled so far when I rose up from the water, people were the size of the comma on your keyboard. The whole time, I saw nothing there. Just a few fish, a couple of starfish, a lot of seaweed, and a severed octopus tentacle wrapped around an object at some point. I came back to realize I really swam so far in the middle of the sea. Somebody told me I was swimming on waters with about 55m depth.

...then I thought, what if a freakin shark or octopus caught me there. FML.

Anyway, after digging a couple of holes in the sandbar for people to accidentally set foot on, we headed back.

It then dawned on me that we were exposed to the bright and hot afternoon sun. We were swimming in the Virgin Island at around 1-4pm. HA! I don't normally like the hot sun but that was just a gorgeous experience.

We can feel the sunburns coming up on our shoulders but it was just great fun.

Back to Alona Beach. That's it for the Panglao Island Tour.

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