- By Susanne Wise
- Photos by Mary Garlicki, Benny Jalandoni, and Sony Ng
On Friday, March 28 at 5:30 am, 26 participants departed on Air Philippines for a 3 day Heritage Tour of Bohol with MVP Tours organizer Sony Ng. Our leader was Mr. Ino Manalo, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (the 'Met'), accompanied by Ms Marivic Vazquez, a member of the Museum's Board of Trustees and his assistant Nelda Sansaet.
We were a disparate group - about one third MVP members, one third their spouses, and the final third comprised of MVP friends, or non-members. Slightly more than fifty percent female, the group represented 11 nationalities.
We landed in Cebu, where we were to transfer to the
SuperCat ferry to Tagbilaran, Bohol. Here occurred our first adventure - we
discovered that the SuperCat computer had "lost" our reservations
overnight, and that our seats on the 8:00 am ferry had already been resold.
The SuperCat Manager was so apologetic, offering free breakfast and seats on
another company's 9:40 am ferry, that no one felt like complaining! And, as it
turned out, our programme was not seriously affected.
We were greeted in Tagbilaran port by the music of a 7-person band as well as a welcome banner. Half an hour later, we found ourselves enjoying an excellent local buffet aboard one of the Loboc River banquet boats, cruising upriver to the height of navigation where three waterfalls spilled over low limestone ledges into the river. The river water was a dazzling clean green colour, and the small houses and holdings along its banks were charming.
We then set off a short distance by bus to visit a
family that keeps a number of tarsiers for visitors to meet (at 11 cms. in
length tarsiers are among the world's smallest primates or prosimians,
indigenous only to Bohol and neighbouring islands. They have saucer eyes, long
rat-like tails and extraordinary hands/feet, and have the ability to jump 5
metres and turn their heads 180 degrees.) 
We photographed each other with
tarsiers perched on our arms and shoulders - with "Noreen" proving
to be the most personable of these unique creatures.
A bus trip of about 1 hour took us through a mature human-made forest to the famous Chocolate Hills - 1,268 peaked mounds originally called 'haycocks' due to their shape. We learned that the hills are solid limestone/coral, from the days when Bohol was covered by the sea, with the shape somehow the result of the sea receding/land rising. A climb of 210 steps provides good picture-taking, and we were all impressed with Bohol's most famous attraction, although we were a little early to see the most pronounced (Hershey kisses) 'chocolate' effect, which occurs when the hills are driest, preceding the rains.
Arriving back in Loboc town late in the afternoon, we were welcomed by the Mayor, serenaded by a group of local musicians who had made their own guitars and banjos, and enjoyed strolling in the plaza. We visited Loboc Church which was completed in 1734 and, like all Bohol churches built by the Jesuits, was ceded to the Augustinian Recollects in 1768. After, we were hosted for dinner by the Loboc community, enjoying a buffet featuring local cuisine under the stars on an upstair terrace of the church. We were then treated to a full-length concert by the Loboc Children's Choir, a performance that delighted and amazed our group. The 21 participants, girls and boys, all elementary students, sang a variety of musical pieces with confidence, enthusiasm, and quite professional talent. We were not surprised that the choir had won a number of national prizes, and were particularly struck by the warm rapport between the children and the choir leader. As one MVP observed, "The kids enjoy it so much! In our country you don't see those smiles and such obvious enjoyment".
Everyone was delighted, visitors and hosts alike, when MVP member Celeste Legaspi Gallardo joined the choir for a Filipino number. Following the performance, the MVP group met with the enthusiastic local community to discuss ways in which a museum could be developed around the antiquities held both in the church and the larger community. Ino Manalo led the discussion, which represented yet another stage of the relationship the Met had developed with Bohol and Boholanos during the preparations for and implementation of the Met's "Tubod: The Arts of Bohol Exhibition". We were pleased that the community seemed to feel we had contributed positively to their planning process.
We then proceeded to the Metro Centre Hotel in downtown Tagbilaran, a tired but enthusiastic group, to check-in and get a good night's sleep. The hotel was very functional, and offered a good buffet breakfast, as well as adjacent 24-hour convenience and tourist shop. We reassured Sony that given our very full programme, we didn't miss staying in a beach-front hotel in the least!