Bohol Again

[OnMyWay]

Yesterday, Sunday, we made the 2 hour drive up to my wife's hometown, Inabanga.  We had lunch with her only sibling left in Bohol, a brother.  Then we visited a few of my wife's childhood friends who are still there.

This brother lives very poorly with his girlfriend and little boy, but he never asks for anything, unlike a few other siblings.  He has an electronic repair shop and they live in the back.  We brought them gifts and and left some cash, which he tried to refuse.

[OnMyWay]

Leaving soon.  Here are a couple of pictures of the upper and lower departure areas of the new airport.

[OnMyWay]

Yesterday, Tuesday, we had some afternoon time available so we attempted to see the newest tourist attraction in Bohol, Mirror of the World.  My wife's friend recommended it and said it was close to Tagbilaran.  A beautiful park setting with replicas of major world monuments and structures.  Perfect selfie land!

https://www.facebook.com/SikatunasMOTW/

So we set out after lunch on what Waze said should be a 35-40 minute drive from Tagbilaran.  We got out in the countryside quickly and I do enjoy the Bohol countryside.  Very little traffic, very green and peaceful.  The route goes NE towards the Loboc river area.

So Waze directs us to turn right on a dirt road and says it is 3.5 km to MOTW.  It is a tiny road, very rough.  Twice I had to back up and pull over to let a truck pass.  We go about 2 km, scraping the bottom of the Vios a few times, and the road dead ends at road construction!  So much for Waze.  That road may eventually go to MOTW but not yet.

We go back and a guy tells us to go back to the main road, turn right and look for a sign for MOTW.  Sure enough, we find the sign and another road.  It starts out paved on one side and dirt on the other, then just dirt.  And then, major construction.  They are making a really heavy concrete road.  It appeared to be at least 1 foot thick and the way they were building it was to alternate big sections of concrete.  You had to go up a steep dirt ramp to get onto a concrete section, then go down a steep dirt ramp to get back on dirt, then cross over and repeat.  We could see workmen ahead working on various sections.

After the first section, and scraping the Vios' bottom a bit, my wife noticed a female sitting on the porch of a house close to the road, and told me to stop so she could ask about continuing.  She turned to us, and even from my not so good driver's view, I could see that this 16-20 years old girl was stunning.  I said nothing.  She was very friendly and said yes, we could make it through to MOTW.  When we pulled away, my wife and daughter were chatting away about how beautiful the girl was, so I was allowed to agree.  Long, dark curly hair.  Fair skinned, beautiful smile and I think she had light colored eyes.  So she might be the daughter of a foreigner.  Very unusual to come across her in rural Bohol!

 With continued scraping of the Vios bottom, we finally made it to the entrance.  I could see down into one area from the car, and there was no way I was going there with my bad knee.  Steep hills with lots of stairs.  We had planned for this and I had planned on waiting in the car while they looked around.  However, the place was big, it took longer than expected to get there, and my wife still had some last minute shopping to do in Tagbilaran.  So she said no, we will not go in.

A wasted trip but I still enjoyed the countryside.  The Vios, not so much!  When we got back out to the main road, I turned towards Loboc river, and in only 20 minutes we were at the bridge where the river cruises start.  This new attraction is actually very close to the Loboc Cruise major attraction, so I think it will do well.

It looks very clean and nice, and I hope it stays that way.  I think I read that only 2 of 5 phases are open now.  Currently, I don't recommend going there in your own car unless you have a high riding MPV or SUV.  Car hires with drivers should be fine.  Lunch on the river then head over there for selfies!