Sometimes the shores of Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines seem infinite. What you’re seeing above is a piece of ocean real estate. The tide recedes so low that at times the shore stretches as far as the eye can see.

That’s the village city of Dapitan beyond the shore. The sand is shaped like that because of the action of the waves brushing against the ocean floor.

Gim walked for about ten minutes just to reach the end of the sandbar.

The shore glistens with little rocks and pebbles. There were a lot of snails too.

That’s Gim inspecting the waters of Dapitan.

See how far he is already?

And a wonderful surprise – a beautiful piece of shell stranded on the shore.

There is an island called Pasil, in Dapitan, Philippines.

It’s right under the bridge that connects two major islands in Dapitan. Passing through that highway everytime we crossed to Dipolog, he and I would always look down over Pasil and marvel at how beautiful and mysterious the place was.

One day we rented a motorcycle from our neighbor and went on a joyride towards Pasil, a place marked by fisherfolk and fishing nets.

Have you ever seen anything like it? Chances are, you haven’t. Most fishing nets are thrown over deep waters in the middle of the sea. But Dapitan has a little something special. It boasts a bountiful sea, and shallow waters that stretch as far as the eye can see. So fishermen plant their nets near the shore, and still get plentiful catch.

Here’s a landscape view of the mysterious fishnet.

I had always wanted to see these bamboo nets up close. And this time I got the chance. We saw a fisherman tending to his net, and approached him to ask if we could take photos. Thankfully, he obliged. This is a photo of him inside his net.

I suppose it’s not clear how this net is structured to catch fish. Perhaps the picture below can offer a better explanation. That’s my boyfriend at the entrance of the net. The entrance is quite narrow, and fish swim through this entrance. Then the net goes zigzaggy, and the fish can no longer find their way out, and thus become “ensnared” in the big fishing net. Late in the afternoon, Manong Fisherman goes inside with a smaller net and gathers up his catch to sell in the markets nearby.

It’s very interesting, being that up close to the fishing net. There’s a lot to see. Many different kinds of fishes. The type you see only on your plate, but at that moment I was seeing them swimming in the ocean. Other sea life also get ensnared in the net, like this hermit crab crawling up a bamboo pole.

A lot of leaves also get caught inside the net, so it can get a bit dirty. And it’s up to Manong Fisherman to clean his net up.

We got to chat with him a little. Well, my boyfriend did. Because he speaks Visayan, while I can only speak Chavacano and Tagalog, neither of which are of any use in Dapitan. Fortunately, I can understand their language so I just listened and took photographs. Here he is laying his day’s catch on the sandy shore.

Most of what he has in his net are leaves and little pieces of trash. Manong Fisherman, it turns out, is not a native of Dapitan. He is from Ipil, a nearby province. Ipil is much nearer to my hometown of Zamboanga. So he must understand Chavacano, even if only a little bit. But I’m too shy and don’t speak up. (Always have been shy all my life. Some people mistake it for snobbishness.)

Finding out he’s from Ipil makes a little bit more sense. He looks Chinese and I have not seen many Chinese people in Dapitan. But there are many in Zamboanga, the local businessmen. It is a bit strange to see a Chinese looking fisherman.

Manong sifts through the day’s catch. He removes the fish that aren’t meant to be eaten, like the few pufferfish he caught. He also removes the small fishes and returns them to sea. He mentions he has a daughter, and she is working overseas. He sounds mighty proud of her. I wonder why then he fishes. But perhaps he enjoys the fishing rather than needs the income. I would like to think it’s like that. But of course we don’t ask.

Here are some of the fish he keeps. Mmm, looks good enough to grill.

(Click on all the pictures for bigger resolutions!)

He took me on a joyride in Dapitan once, and we entered through the unpaved roads leading to rural communities along the coast.

This day led us to a rice paddy, a common, nevertheless breathtaking, sight in Philippine provinces.

On a bank across the pond walked an old farmer, in ragged clothes and a straw hat. Behind him followed his faithful dog, tail wagging, happily panting. The man signaled his dog to stay, then boarded the motorcycle waiting for him at the end of the dirt road.

The dog stopped, then obediently sat down. Then it set its shoulders back, sitting straight and proud, dutifully assuming its post on the narrow bank.

I am experimenting with new ways of presenting my photos. I think my photos look a lot more professional when they’re elegantly bordered and identified.

Initially I was just going for a watermark, to prevent any possible stealing of photos. (Not that it’s ever happened to me personally, to my knowledge anyways, but it’s a common story in my part of the world.)

But I quite dislike watermarks because they tend to ruin photos. And they give off a negative attitude, like a whiff of “I know you’re gonna steal my photo so I’m going to uglify it so you can’t use it.” I’m not dissing the ones who use it, of course. I know a lot of photobloggers only do the watermarking as a last resort, and even prominent bloggers have had to resort to it just to prevent thieves (and yet oftentimes it still doesn’t work).

So, anyways, I’ve seen this kind of bordering done on a few photo blogs so I decided to do the same. I think my photos look majorly prettified. :D

It’s a photo of a fallen tree along the coast in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines. Mysteriously, the tree is still alive even though it’s been beaten down by wind and sea.

This photo is uncropped and unedited, except for the resizing and the added borders (I used FastStone Photo Resizer because it’s a very small application and it doesn’t eat up a lot of resources).

I was doing the dishes in the dirty kitchen* this evening when I heard something fall from the ceiling. I didn’t see anything on the floor so I paid it no mind. I went about my way and placed all the newly washed dishes on the dish rack inside the house. Afterwards, I went back outside to dry the large mixing bowl I used to carry the dishes.

I was about to place it on top of a stack of bowls and frying pans, when I froze in my tracks. On top of the frying pan lay a freakishly large, very ugly and scary-looking insect!! It looked like it was about to take flight any second, and I absolutely abhor flying insects so I slowly backed off and from a safe distance, ran back inside the house.

The thing looked like this. (You can click on the image for a close-up.)

I called my boyfriend and asked him to take pictures of the insect, because I wanted to blog about it. (I was too scared to go back out into the dirty kitchen so all these pictures are taken by him.)

He told me it was a katydid. I had no idea what a katydid was so I looked it up on the Internet. It turns out that katydids live in trees, and they’re camouflaged as leaves. Our katydid certainly resembled a leaf, but from what tree or shrub, I’m not sure. We have a lot of trees and herbs in the backyard right outside the dirty kitchen, like nangka (jackfruit) and star apple (also known as caimito). We also have oregano, maybe that’s where it lived. Do you think it looks like an oregano leaf?

It’s certainly good at camouflaging, that’s for sure. Look at its legs. They even look like thorns! So maybe it really came from one of the thorny shrubs, though how it got up the ceiling is a mystery. (Well, ok, our backyard garden is running so wild some vines are already creeping into the kitchen.)

Here’s a closer look at it’s head. An hour later, Gim went out to check if it had flown away, but it’s still there, still as ever. He says it thinks it’s in a tree. I say it’s maybe disoriented and doesn’t know where to go. But neither of us is brave enough to pick it up and place it outside, hehe.

Here is more detailed information on the katydid.

*Dirty Kitchen is a term used in the Philippines to mean a separate building or room outside of the main house where all the food is cooked and prepared. This kitchen is often literally dirty. The main house may or may not have another kitchen, but regardless whether it’s dirty or squeaky clean, it’s not called a dirty kitchen, just a kitchen. :)

Dumaguete is the a tiny university town. It has a land area of merely 34.26 km² but hosts a total of seven universities and colleges. The biggest institution in Dumaguete is Silliman University which is already 0.61 km² all by itself.

We visited Silliman on our short stop at Dumaguete, and took a look at its many marine life museums.

Here come the pics!

Here I am standing beside the bones of a whale. That’s one enormous animal! (The whale, not me.)

Blowfishes! I think. Heh. I wonder how the students were able to preserve these fishes in their blown-up state?

Gimmi and the Blowfishes.

Silliman’s collection of starfishes.

Er… I think this is a shark. Am not so sure.

Starfishes in all their forms and sizes! Do you know, not all starfishes are pretty? Some are evil, like the ones we have over at the Sta. Cruz Islands in Zamboanga. Those evil ones eat corals.

But I’m sure these here are pretty and harmless. :-)

Gimmi under the bones of a whale.

That’s a scary looking skeleton!

Preserved turtles in swimming action.

Just me, wistfully wishing I were really swimming underwater. :-)

Pretending I’m in the forest. :-)

And in the sea again!

Under a whale skeleton.

Why would we find an intact whale skeleton underwater anyway, Gim?

Gim patting the dead turtles.

No. They didn’t fall while Gim was there.

Looking at baby clams!

And shells and mollusks.

These are giant clams!

Whale bones. And Gim. Creepy.

Gimmi in the middle of a massacre.

And then me.

Silliman University apparently likes to collect whale bones.

This is a WHOLE whale.

A crocodile!

Gim looking at crocodile particulars.

A croc lurking in the mud.

A croc on land.

This is an aquarium. Boy I want that in my future home!

Pretty corals.

Sea anemones!

Corals?

A sea anemone close-up!

Nemo, is that you?

Yes it is!

End of tour. :-)

Here in the Philippines, we have a sweet treat called Halo-halo. Halo in Filipino means “mix”. Halo-halo is a mix of ingredients such as beans, flan, fruits, sugar, milk and ice, then topped with ice cream, oatmeal and sometimes a cherry.

It’s a favorite Filipino dessert, and the best halo-halos are the ones made by hand by your parents on a hot Sunday afternoon when you were a child. Save that, there are always the food stalls and restaurants.

Here in Dapitan, the best halo-halo is served in Jana’s Place on Josephine Bracken street (named after Jose Rizal’s lady friend).

Gim and I ate this treat a few days ago, when it was stuffy warm all over Dapitan. It sure refreshed us for a good ten minutes. ;-)

P.S. When I went to Japan, they had a similar dessert. They called it Haro-haro. LOL!

I’m a fan of Japanese food. Save for the raw stuff like sushi and sashimi, I eat it all. All the ~yakis like okonomiyaki (fried vegetables) and takoyaki (fried octopus). I love the ~dons too like the gyudon and the katsudon, mmm!

I have yet to visit a Japanese restaurant in the Philippines that authentically captures the taste of real Japanese food. (Most dishes are flavored to suit the Filipino palate, that is to say, sweetened.)

Still I never fail to try to visit any new Japanese restaurant I see. While travelling in Cebu, I happened upon this Manpuku Bento food stall in a mall foodcourt. So of course I had to try it.

As expected, the dishes didn’t quite taste like the ones in Japan, but still I enjoyed them.

I ordered the Pork Katsudon, since I was thinking it’s hard to go wrong with anything fried.

Gim meanwhile ordered some noodles (I made him do it, because I wanted to try some but they weren’t that good).

He got some sushi, too. California maki and salmon. He loved them, but me, eww, no not so much. I’ll stick to the cooked stuff, thank you very much.

They look pretty though.

He and I will be travelling to Cebu again in November. We both got free tickets from Cebu Pacific’s last 0-fare promo. To get the zero fare, we had to eschew our baggage rights and travel insurance rights as well.

I’m fine with not lugging around any baggage. We’ll be staying only two nights in Cebu anyways. But I’m kinda regretting we didn’t get any insurance. I know nothing’s gonna happen during the flight, but the worrywart in me insists we have some protection JUST IN CASE.

I searched the web for some sort of add-on insurance and chanced upon this travel medical insurance. I’m not sure it’s what I’m looking for, since it caters to travel abroad not domestic travel. But it’s a bookmark I’m keeping anyways just in case I need some protection for a future overseas trip (it covers medical insurance and terrorism insurance, among others).

Anyways, I am sure looking forward to another trip to Cebu. Our last visit there lasted only a day and we only got to do some malling in Ayala and SM Cebu. Maybe this time we’ll get to do some sightseeing instead of just face-stuffing. ;-P

One of the most famous landmarks in Bohol, Philippines is the Sandugo site, also known as the Blood Compact site. It happened in March 1565. It is where the Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Bohol tribe leader Datu Sikatuna made a pact of friendship by cutting their left arm with a dagger, mixing both their blood in wine, and drinking it.

It is said to be the very “first international treaty of friendship between two people of different races”. This event is important in the history of the Philippines because it marked the first time that Spain successfully established a settlement in the country. Spain had sent five other expeditions before this, and all failed. The most well-known explorer in the Philippines is Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan (serving under the Spanish crown), the first to successfully circumnavigate the Earth (reaching Asia by sailing West). However, he died before he reached his goal, the Spice Islands of Indonesia (a country away). He died in battle in Mactan, Cebu.

Okay, enough of the history lesson. Just look at the pics! :-)

Gim is so silly, pretending he’s one of the Spaniards! Hehehe. I think he looks more like Datu Sikatuna. Hehehehe.

Afterwards, we visited the oldest Church in Bohol, Baclayon Church. It is the second oldest stone Church in the Philippines, and was built in 1595.

It is extremely large, one of the biggest Churches I have seen, and very very beautiful.

Inside the Church, you almost pretend you’re living in the 16th century. In those days, the officiating priest would not sermon at the altar, he would pray on the balcony, above the people. This is because, back then, the priest did not preach to or engage with the crowd in prayer. He would pray by himself, and the people were there merely to join him in his prayer.

Nowadays, of course, prayer is communion. So the priest stands at level with the people, on the altar. And he prays with the people as the people pray with him.

More pictures of the beautiful Church…

And here’s a photo I particularly like, Gim standing in front of the altar, while the rays of the sun, filtered through the colored glass panes, paints the floor.

Baclayon Church also hosts a museum, but we weren’t allowed to take photos inside so I just have this one stolen shot from the balcony of the museum.

Here I am below the church tower. Gim likes to experiment with angles. I like to model. Hehe.

We encountered another old stone church along the way and stopped to take some pictures. I don’t know what the name of the Church was, just that I liked how it looked, with all the columns and old stone. I don’t think it was famous, though, because it was very quiet and isolated.

More of the beautiful columns and arches.

That’s it, one last post on Bohol next week, abangan… :-)

Read the other Bohol posts…
Bohol Tour Part IV: Hinagdanan Cave
Bohol Tour Part V: Panglao Island Beach Resort
Bohol Tour Part VI: Philippine Tarsiers
Bohol Tour Part VIII: Snakes and Flying Lemurs

When you hear the word Bohol, the first thing that comes into mind are the Chocolate Hills. Did that last year.

The second thing are tarsiers.

Tarsiers are found only in Southeast Asia.

The Philippine Tarsier is, of course, found only in the Philippines, and most famously in Bohol.

It has often been called the world’s smallest primate and the world’s smallest monkey, but it is neither. However, it does carry the distinction of being the mammal with the largest eyes.

Due to the rising human population and the rampant deforestation, the population of the species is dwindling. In fact, it’s conservation status is defined as threatened.

The tarsier (the animal on the left) is nocturnal, which means it sleeps during the day and wakes up at night to hunt for food. It eats insects, mostly crickets and grasshoppers.

It was late afternoon when we got to see the tarsiers. Manong Driver dropped us off a place few tourists passed by, so we were able to get up close shots of the tarsiers.

As much as I preferred them to sleep while we looked on quietly, our steps inevitably woke them up, and for that I felt horrible.

The tarsier keeper, upon seeing them awake, decided to give them some food. He held up a stick with a pierced cricket up to a tarsier, and after a bit of prodding, the tarsier decided to take cricket.

Later on, the tarsier keeper asked us if we wanted to hold the tarsier. I was very uncomfortable (you can probably see that in my face) because tarsiers don’t like to be touched by humans (you can see that in the pictures too).

At the same time I really wanted to hold the tarsier… I know!!!! I am a horrible person!!!!

So I said, only a little while. (And don’t worry, we didn’t use flash the whole time.)

I didn’t want to be KJ (killjoy) too… there were other tourists looking on, and really it was only for a little while, then we let the little critter go back up the tree.

But, oh, I felt so sorry for the tarsiers… They don’t live long in captivity. Most of them die by their own hands, like drowning themselves or beating their heads against their cages. These tarsiers aren’t in cages (the practice is illegal, but there are still very bad people who do that), they’re free to roam around the trees, but still, the entire area is very small… they’re still captive…

I was relieved when we finally returned them to their branches. I hope they weren’t too stressed by our visit. I hope someday, their population will return to a stable size. They’re very good for the community. They don’t harm people, and at the same time, they prey on insects, which is a good thing because insects eat crops, and Filipinos are very dependent on rice.

Before we left, we had to take these silly pics of ourselves as tarsiers. :-) LOL.

I was very happy to finally see the tarsiers. I’d always wanted to see them ever since Gim went to Bohol many years ago and told me all about them.

I hope to see them again someday, perhaps in a more natural time and habitat.

Read the other Bohol posts…
Bohol Tour Part IV: Hinagdanan Cave
Bohol Tour Part V: Panglao Island Beach Resort
Bohol Tour Part VII: Statues and Churches
Bohol Tour Part VIII: Snakes and Flying Lemurs