The Loboc River Cruise

Part of our day trip was to stop off at the Loboc River Cruise. When you are dropped off in the parking lot, you need to run the gauntlet of vendors that want you to come on their boat. The boats are large floating barges, with a smaller boat in the back that pushes them up and down the river. Usually the boats are over packed, but the river runs very slowly, so if there was a problem, swimming away wouldn't be an issue. 

Buffet lunch is served on the boats, but don't let the tempting pictures sway you too much. You don't get what you see. We were enticed by the raw oysters and squid, both of which never made it on the menu. As for the raw oysters, I'm glad they didn't make it on the menu, judging from the quality of the other foods served. When asked where those items were, they simply said that the pictures were of things that may be on the menu. Most ackpacking, bohol, bohol warnings, loboc river cruise, philippinesof the food that we did have were the left overs scrapped off the previous boat's trip. 

Most of the boats had music on board as well. Local musicians were playing guitars and singing for their guests, except for our boat. I will post a warning of the company that we went with so that other tourists don't make the same bad choice we did. 

At this point in the trip, we were getting pretty disappointed with the whole thing. Just being so late, crappy food, and seeing boatloads of other people going by with live music while we silently and grumpily plodded up the river. So, we tried to put out humphs aside and just enjoy where we were. Slowly travelling up a river in the middle of the dense jungle, made it hard to stay mad for long. 

About half way up the river, there was a group of people all dressed in yellow and waiting for us in a little shanty on the side of the river. I thought that it was going to be some sort of shopping thing for local nick-nacks and what-have-you, but it turned out to be something quite different from that altogether. As soon as we pulled up alongside them, the 20 guys on the side with every different kind of guitar, banjo, and ukulele you could imagine started to play together. The 30 or so women all stood up and started dancing and singing the most beautiful, melodic song from the very depths of their hearts. Any anger that was left over stood no chance and melted away like a mango Popsicle in the tropical sun.

They sang and danced, for the who-knows-how manieth time that day, but at that time and place, they were singing the song just for us. Part way through, the young girls gave up the center of the stage, and these 2 grandmas and grandpas took center stage for a dance. Well, these 80 tiny little men looked like they were 16 year old boys who just met their first woman ever, and danced and pursued them with all the vigor that Viagra tries to capture.

It was one of the highlights of the trip. Luckily, DiDi recorded it and so we have it for always. I think this will be the song I put on when I'm just pissed off and need to be melted.

Tarsiers in Bohol

Tarsiers are on of the big attractions on Bohol Island. They are tiny monkeys that look like their heritage may be a result of Gullum from Lord of the Rings getting busy with the local monkeys. Being the animal nut that I am, I insisted on seeing them.

After reading other people's advice, our plan was to make it out to the Tarsier's Natural Sanctuary up in the hills behind Tagbaliran City, on Bohol Island. For reference, it takes about 20 minutes by car from T-City up to the sanctuary, which closes at 4:00. Our driver was sure he would get us there one time, but by 4:40 when we arrived, we were afraid that we had missed them. He was determined to let us see the Tarsiers, so we went over a mountain road that let us out right back at the Loboc River Tour center where we had started.

We stopped at the side of the road at a set of shacks set up with hand painted signs saying "Tarsiers Inside". I was skeptical, but we went inside to check it out anyways. There was no charge to come inside, only a tin can labelled "Tarsier Feeding Donations". They had potted plants all around and it resembled a green house inside. As we walked be the plants, we looked inside to see massive eyes staring back out at us. The more plants we looked in, the more we found.

They had probably 20 or more tarsiers in their little garden. Apparently, they had been bred in captivity. Although it wasn't the most natural of habitats, it really wasn't bad. These people made their living off these animals, and constantly walked around, making sure they were fed, and people didn't handle them on their own. They would take them down and put them on willing, courageous participants arms for photo opportunities, but people weren't allowed to handle them themselves. So, although it wasn't a natural habitat, it did give us the chance to view them up close.

The part that impressed me most about this was they didn't ask for money at all. They just had their tins out for donations and sold souvenirs at the front. I gladly gave more money to them for not insisting on an over-priced entrance fee.

When asked if we could take one home, Candy quickly answered , "NO"!