Calvin’s Hub

On our third day, our plan was to tour the island of Panglao by car in the morning then spend the rest of the afternoon back at the beach. There are not too many sites to see in Panglao Island so people don’t take this tour quite often.

Here’s the list of places included in the tour:

• Alona White Beach (or Dumaluan if you’re staying at Alona)
• Panglao Church
• Hinagdanan Cave
• Dauis Church
• Bayoyoy the Dwarf
• Bohol Bee Farm

The tour doesn’t take too long since the island is small. You can hop on to one place to another in 20 minutes max. The highlight of the tour would probably be the Hinagdanan Cave and Bohol Bee Farm.

We left the resort at around 9 AM with our driver Jesse and started off to Alona Beach.

Alona Beach

I’ve talked about Alona Beach on a previous post and there’s nothing much else to say here. If you missed breakfast back at the resort, you can opt to stay here for a while to grab a quick one.

We just took a few shots of the place then went on our way.

Panglao Church

Also called St. Augustine Church, this church was constructed in 1894 by Spanish Recollects.

It is famed for its ceiling murals including the dome above the main altar which has a mural of the Blessed Trinity surrounded by eight divisions of angels.

Hinagdanan Cave

Next stop is the underground Hinagdanan Cave in the town of Dauis. It started out as two holes on the ground to fetch water from an underground pond then as it became popular, a ladder was improvised on another hole found nearby.

There will be a guide to tour you inside the cave and explain its history and features. Watch your steps and your head as you go down.

There are no bats inside the cave but instead there are small birds (swiftlets I think) inhabiting it. Our guide said that the cave is also being harvested for bird’s nest. Just pray that no bird poop will drop on you or your camera.

The deepest portion of the icy cool pond is 10 feet deep and there are parts of the walkway that gets submerged during high tide.

The cave was also used as a location for a movie who kinda desecrated the place by drawing some cave paintings without the knowledge of the people of Dauis.

I forgot our guide’s name but he was good with the camera as he offers to take pictures for us with my digital camera.

Entrance Fee: P20

Dauis Church

The present version of the church is the 5th one and was constructed in 1863 by Recollects. It is one of the complex structures in Bohol and just like the Panglao church, it has gorgeous paintings on its ceiling.

Bayoyoy the Dwarf

On our next stop, we paid a short visit to Bayoyoy in his house in Dauis. Bayoyoy has the condition called “dwarfism” and is the smallest man in the Philippines at only 2.5 ft. tall.

We were greeted by her sister who’s the one taking care of him after their mom died a few years ago. We chatted with her for a short while and according to her, there are 12 of them with 6 (including Bayoyoy) being diagnosed with dwarfism. Unfortunately, Bayoyoy is the only one left among his dwarf siblings. He has no joints on his arms and legs and can only consume milk and oatmeal.

There’s no charge visiting Bayoyoy but try to share some of your blessings with his family.

Bohol Bee Farm

Last part of our Panglao trip is located a few minutes away from Dumaluan Beach so we saved it for last.

Bohol Bee Farm is a resort that promotes healthy lifestyle with organic food and materials. Aside from being a resort and a bee farm, it is also a farm for different ingredients used in their food.

They can offer you a short tour of their place showing different plants and trees that they grow, their bee farm, livelihood projects they do as well as the resort itself.

They serve really good food but we weren’t that hungry so we only tried their halo-halo. If you’re not going to have lunch there, you should definitely try their halo-halo.

Tour (optional): P25

Conclusion

Well this is the end of our tour in Bohol. We just spent the rest of the day back at the resort and prepared for our flight the following day. We really enjoyed our trip although we could use more sun and less tourists during our Chocolate Hills tour.

Bohol is really a wonderful place with lots of scenic spots. I don’t recommend getting the all-in package like we did unless you have no time to plan. Just do a bit of homework and talk or haggle with your tour guides to save money.

For a tour guide who can arrange things for you, try Ritchie.

You might also be interested in:

• Touring Bohol Part 4: Dolphin Watching and Boat Tour
• Touring Bohol Part 2: Chocolate Hills Tour
• Touring Bohol Part 1: The Plan
• Touring Bohol Part 3: Alona or Dumaluan Beach?

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