Last July, the Perreras family decided to visit Bohol for a relaxing summer getaway. I had been to Bohol before, but it was only a quick overnight stopover so I wasn’t able to see much. Luckily, during this second trip, the family made sure to see what the city had to offer, and allot enough time to enjoy the beach.

Our first day was spent being as touristy as possible! We went to all the must-see places in Bohol. And instead of narrating our detailed itinerary, let me share with you some interesting facts we learned from each place from the tour. (Hooray, trivia!)

• Prony, The Famous Snake

Bohol is known to be the home of  Prony, a famous snake that weighed about 280 kilograms and measured 23 feet–one of the biggest in captivity. Prony died a few years back and is now represented by Prony 2, an offspring. But the real attraction in the snake museum is actually an entertainer named Marimar. Instead of being really creeped out by all the snakes in the area, we kept laughing at all the jokes and songs of Marimar.

• Man-made Mahogany Forest

During our drive around, we passed by a famous man-made, mahogany forest in Bohol. This is the first and only man-made forest in the Philippines. Why don’t we do this in other parts of the country as well? It’s so beautiful and serene under the billowing trees. I didn’t feel like we were in the Philippines at all.

• Chocolate Hills

Okay, so to manage expectations, the Chocolate Hills are only chocolate-colored during the summer. During our visit, the rainy season had just started so we were greeted by green hills instead. None the less, it was still a majestic sight. They’re all so uniform in height and shape and from the viewing point, they go as far as the eye can see.

• Tarsier Sanctuary

While it’s a common notion that tarsiers are “the world’s smallest monkeys”, that’s actually not true. They belong to a different suborder than that of apes and monkeys. They’re also very cute, by the way.

That ends day one.

Our remaining days were intended for some real R&R. For this purpose, some people like resorts with beautiful swimming pools, others prefer beautiful beach fronts. Why choose between one or the other when you can have both? Where we stayed, at Hennan Resort, we had the best of both worlds!

I don’t even remember how many pools there were.  And for people like me who just love the beach, this hotel had a gorgeous beachfront.

Island-hopping is also easily accessible from Hennan. On our second day, we went to Balicasag Island to go snorkeling. That morning we saw dolphins on the way and we enjoyed a sumptuous seafood lunch.

We spent our last day being beach bums and enjoying happy hour.

And so after three and a half days in Bohol, I was 1) even darker than ever, 2) full of fun, fond memories with the Perreras family, and 3) looking forward to our next family vacation (talks of Coron and Boracay came up!)

‘Til the next Perreras family trip, I’ll try keep my toasted self patient.

Photos: Taken by Danny Perreras and from my phone.