It was “revenge travel” time once again as I visited the island province of Bohol in a media tour sponsored by the Department of Tourism (DOT) Central Visayas, Bluewater Panglao Resort and Cebu Pacific Air. On December 15, 2020, the province was opened to leisure tourists.
Incidentally, our arrival marked the first day of the month-long Sandugo Festival, which commemorates the treaty of friendship between Bohol chieftain Rajah Sikatuna and Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legaspi via a blood compact (sandugo).
Upon arrival at the Bluewater Panglao Beach Resort, a pillar of Bohol’s resort industry for over a decade now, we were welcomed by Margie Munsayac (Sales and Marketing Vice President of Bluewater Resorts) and a full-course, Boholano-themed lunch meal, under big trees, prepared by the resort’s chef, Rex Firmalino. The 5.5-hectare, Class “AAA” resort, with 85 elegantly appointed, spacious, very Zen, and air-conditioned guestrooms, was to be our home for this 4-day media tour, covering Tagbilaran City and the towns of Alburquerque, Baclayon, Corella, Dauis, Loay, Loboc, and Panglao.
Right after lunch, we started our Sandugo trip with historian and cultural specialist Marianito “Nito” Luspo as our guide. Our first stop was Amarela Resort situated on top of a gentle slope with an extensive view of the sea and the longest strip of white sand on Panglao Island. Here, we were welcomed by resort owner Atty. Lucas “Doy” Nunag. Its museum, housing the majority of the local art and antique collection of Doy, features paintings by the late Hermogena “Nene” Borja-Lungay, prominent Bohol-based Guy Custodio, and Sherwin Tutor, Baroque-style urnas (carved wooden shrines for religious icons) and home tools, and antique kitchen utensils and equipment.
Our next stop was at Dauis where we visited the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, the first church in the province with a painted ceiling that tells the story of the Virgin Mary. Inside is a well, now closed (in 2006), with fresh potable water. Behind the church is a Spanish-era baluarte (watchtower).
At the nearby town of Loay, we made a short stopover at the Blood Compact Shrine in Hinawanan Bay. For merienda, we went to the popular, cozy and quaint Crescencia’s Food and Coffee in Baclayon. Here, we met its owner Florencia “Jojie” Pestelos, and, at the second floor of her ancestral house (built in 1905), Nida Balala showed us how to cook ube biko, a rich and filling afternoon treat made with sticky rice and real ube (purple yam), and topped with lunok (coconut gratings) similar to latik, a brown curd made from hardened coconut milk.
After the demonstration, we returned to the café where we were served an authentic Filipino afternoon snack experience of ube biko, saging na pinaypay (deep fried sweet banana sliced into three to imitate the look and shape of a fan), mango slices, a cup of sikwate (hot chocolate) and puto maya, (an unflavored stick delicacy made with glutinous rice and with a bit of a ginger taste) topped with grated sikwate and muscovado. Before sunset, we returned to Baclayon’s Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception where Rajah Sikatuna was alleged to be buried. Come evening, we had dinner at the Sandugo Festival Grounds at the Old Tagbilaran Airport, site of the annual agri-food fair.
On our second day in Bohol, we were off very early in the morning to discover another side of Bohol, with Lourdes Sultan of Travel Village Tours and Travel as our guide. Beyond the Chocolate Hills and the tarsiers, this time we savored the delights of Bohol’s heirloom recipes highlighted by farm-to-table experiences and organic produce.
We began our Bohol Food trip by taking a 30-minute drive to Corella for the first stop of the day, the Green Thumbs Farm. Upon arrival, farm owner Rona Denque, known as the “Mushroom Queen” of Bohol, gave us a short tour of the farm’s greenhouses, where they grow oyster mushrooms, and a cooking demonstration of mushroom sisig. At their al fresco restaurant, we feasted on delicious, freshly cooked, mostly mushroom-based dishes such as mushroom siomai, mushroom pizza, mushroom chicharon, mushroom burger and the aforementioned mushroom sisig, all washed down with ube kinampay shake and Ganoderma coffee and tea.
We next headed for Loboc town and visited the now fully restored Church of St. Peter the Apostle and its free-standing bell tower. For lunch, we went to the nearby Fox & Firefly Cottages and were received by Joan Christine Soupart, owner of this quaint inn and the SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) Tours Philippines Sports Center. At their Fables Restaurant, we dined on chicken halang halang (a Visayan version of tinola soup with coconut and moringa leaves), monggo soup, avocado salad, somtom (Thai papaya salad), talong salad, G-chili shrimps, maranding manok (dry coconut chicken curry,) and vegan kare-kare paired with a bagoong alternative made from locally sourced mushrooms.
In Alburquerque, we visited the Asinan ni Tan Inong, an asin tibuok-making site, where this rare Filipino artisanal sea salt is made by filtering seawater through ashes. Our last stop was at Julio’s Bed and Breakfast in Loay. Here, owner Pio Araneta demonstrated how siakoy (a long, braided, soft, puffy and airy pastry paired with the native chocolate drink called sikwate) is made, how kagang (land crab) is caught using the pasgong (a traditional handmade bamboo trap), and how nilubihang or ginataang kagang is cooked with coconut milk. Back at the resort, over dinner at Baroto Bar, we interviewed Erico Aristotle Aumentado, Bohol’s newly-elected governor, regarding his plans for the province.
Our third day, after relaxing at the resort, we accepted an invitation from Yvonne Villacorte, the General Manager of the 80-room Best Western Plus Ivywall Resort along Alona Beach, for a beachfront buffet dinner coupled with an entertaining fire theater show.
Image credits: Benjamin Locsin Layug