Kayaking from Cebu to Bohol

Photo: Kayak Philippines

The third and final leg of this year’s Philippine Kayaking Series was held in Cebu and Bohol last 3-6 of December.

Paddlers from all over the country competed on this leg, which covers a total distance of 125 kilometers crossing from Cebu to Bohol.

German Paz and Johnder Austria, both windsurfers from Batangas, won the leg.

Endorsed by the Department of Tourism, the race aims to promote kayaking into a sustainable eco-adventure attraction in coastal communities.

Click on the video link below (taken by INQUIRER.net's Izah Morales) to watch highlights of the race.

INQUIRER.net VDO - Inquirer.net

Biyahe Baclayon

Baclayon is no longer about visiting Baclayon Church, if you are a tourist!

BEZO Initiatives, an organisation which aims to provide sustainable socio-economic programs through eco-tourism have teamed up with the local government to come up with a program that lets you experience a different Baclayon.

One such program is Byahe Baclayon. It is composed of three tours designed for visitors who want to explore Baclayon's natural wonders and heritage and cultural sites.

Heritage Walk aims to promote Baclayon's culture by bringing visitors to the town's delicacy shops that sell unique Baclayon food such as broas (lady fingers), tableyas (local chocolate tablets) and ube kinampay (local root crop), and to workshops where crafts and souvenir items are designed and manufactured.

Adventure Trail covers almost the entire town of Baclayon. It includes hiking trails and trails for mountain bikes, dirt bikes and quads. The routes have been designed to pass by lakes, caves, springs and deep sinkholes. Several stops and points along the trail offer panoramic views of the town. Aside from these trails, there is a plan to offer kayaking in the lakes and to install zip lines for extreme adventurers.


Whale/dolphin watching and Pamilacan island tour involves an early morning boat ride from Baclayon town centre to the island of Pamilacan. The body of water between Baclayon and Pamilacan is frequented by butandings (whale sharks), dolphins and manta rays. Upon reaching Pamilacan, guest may opt to visit diving sites, swim in the beach or have a massage from the women members of the local cooperative.

When our family next go home to Bohol, we will surely give serious thought about doing the Biyahe Baclayon tours. This is certainly great for our children for them to know more about their Bol-anon roots.

If you are interested to try the Biyahe Baclayon experience, you can visit BEZO Initiatives website (www.bezo.org.ph).

Photos: Inday Guapa blog, BEZO Initiatives
Text: BEZO Initiatives

Tasty Boholanos

Photos: Market Manila blog

Care for some tasty Boholanos, anyone?

You have probably heard, or tasted, the Filipinos biscuit so why not indulge on this tasty biscuit as well.


The "Boholano" is made up of two Osang's broas with a filling of rich chocolate cream.

This tasty treat was invented by food blogger Marketman who traces his roots in Bohol. He blogs at Market Manila.

Vote for Efren Penaflorida as CNN Hero 2009

I have cast my vote for Efren Penaflorida, which I am proud to call my fellow Filipino, as my CNN Hero 2009. Please support Efren with your vote!

Click on the widget above and you will be led on to a CNN webpage showing all nominated heroes. Click on Efren's picture and you will be able to read on his heroic story that is very much worth reflecting on and emulating especially by our youth.

The Philippines national hero Jose Rizal described the youth as the hope of the fatherland. Efren's story makes you still believe in Rizal's words.

Chocolate Hills featured in Bing

Photo: MSN UK tech and gadgets

Chocolate Hills was featured in the search engine Bing.

The search engine Bing is Microsoft's answer to Google and Yahoo search engines. It went live in June of this year.

One feature that makes Microsoft's Bing interesting is their use of background images. Changed daily, these images are of amazing places around the world.

Chocolate Hills appeared in Bing Australia last 9 June. There is a short description of Chocolate Hills in MSN UK tech and gadgets.

I first came across this feature of Chocolate Hills by Bing a few months back through SEO Hong Kong. This website is published by a Filipino of Bol-anon roots.

Playing Tennis With Dad

My father taught me to play lawn tennis. Now it's my turn to teach my sons.

I started playing tennis when I was 9 (or 10) years old. At that time, it was only me and my eldest brother who were interested (forced and obliged?) to play the game.

DBP tennis club

My first home court was the DBP tennis court located in CPG North Avenue in Tagbilaran. Dad was a retired accountant from that bank; incidentally, our former house was also conveniently located close to it.

There were so few of Dad's colleagues who play tennis back then. So, I played a lot of tennis when I was starting out. The tennis court surface, which is hard court, was great to play in. It was much better than some of the tennis courts I have played.

Dad helped train some of his colleagues and so the number of tennis players in the bank increased. Eventually, they formed their own tennis club and held friendly tournaments with other clubs, company-related and municipal clubs.

I tagged along during those friendly tournaments. Not only did it helped me honed my tennis skills, it also gave me the incentive of going to other places. I have played in Garcia-Hernandez (against the Philippine Sinter Corporation club), Antequera, Loon and other Tagbilaran courts like Mansasa and the Napocor compound.

Baclayon tennis club

When Dad retired early from DBP we moved to Baclayon a few years later. And so we started playing in the local town club.

Again, through friendly tournaments I was able to play in Jagna, Lindaville and even in Cebu City.

But this time, I played less in Baclayon because I was already living and working in Cebu City or elsewhere since my university days in the late 1980s. However, whenever I went home to Baclayon on weekends, if there was a friendly tournament, I played.

Tennis playing family

There is one wonderful memory that still pervades in my mind until now. For a short period (maybe a few weeks) during my early teens, we played tennis as a family.

We were watching a GMA 7 show featuring a Hollywood actor and his tennis playing family (wife and children). The actor father trained his children through formation drills. Forming a line, each child take turns hitting the balls in the different strokes like forehand, backhand, lob, service and others.

Dad was really inspired by that show and decided to try it on us. Imagine 7 boys in line formation, age ranging from 7 to 15 years old, taking turns hitting the balls in forehand, backhand, lob and service strokes.

What great fun we had back then! Oh, and yes, Mum was our no. 1 fan.

Although it did not last long, it succeeded in raising interest in our younger siblings. So, when we went to university in Cebu, Dad still has our younger brothers to play with regularly.

Continuing the tradition

I finally relented to my wife to train her in tennis. Since we have to bring the boys along during our training sessions, they are learning, too. I reckon they are about the right age to develop their interest in tennis anyway.

For now, I just let the boys enjoy playing around with their rackets and balls. Occasionally, I teach them how to hit the ball properly.

It really has gone full circle. After my Dad, it's now my turn to train my kids. It is a father's wish for their children to grow up and become better than himself. That, too, is my aim and hope for my sons in their life. And in particular, in terms of tennis.

So, game on!

Bohol In Pictures

Photos: www.indayguapa.com

I miss Bohol... then I stumbled upon Inday Guapa's blog and saw some wonderful Bohol pictures, and I miss it even more!

I came across Wanderlust In Motion blog (www.indayguapa.com) while googling for blogs about Bohol by Bol-anons. The author, Inday Guapa, who describes herself as an adventurer at heart, writes about her travel adventures on this blog.

In this particular blogpost, a bit of cebu lovin' and a dash of bohol too, she put out some great pictures of Bohol (and Cebu), some of which I freely used on this post but properly acknowledged.


Like Inday Guapa, I consider (still do) Bohol and Cebu as home. Bohol is my Dad's home province and my home until mid-teens. My parents still lives in our ancestral house (inherited by Dad from his parents by virtue of him being the youngest child) in Baclayon.

I went to university in Cebu and have been calling it home since then. But I stayed a Bol-anon, always going to Bohol for a visit whenever I can. Oh, and yes, I stayed a Bohol registered voter until now. What other better way to show your loyalty to the province than that.

I like her blog since I once fancied about traveling the Philippines, which I did in few occasions. I did not only traveled the Philippines, I lived and worked in some of the places I have been to.

I Am Pinoyborian

Bohol is and will always be on my mind. But I am now a Pinoyborian.

Pinoyborian is the name of my other blog, which is currently more active than Bohol On My Mind. It is where I share my views and observations as a Pinoy expat on life in the UK, my home now since 2002.

The name Pinoyborian is a combination of the words Pinoy, the informal name we Filipinos like to call ourselves (similar to Brits for British), and of Peterborian, a native of Peterborough, my home city in the UK.

This personal blog, to reiterate, will talk about my views and observations on my UK life from a Filipino perspective, making comparisons on similarities and differences between these two cultures (British and Filipino).

In addition, I will also blog on a smorgasbord of views, ideas and interesting information about the UK, the Philippines and the rest of the world (if it caught my fancy).

My wife and I are true-blooded Bol-anons, and although we're thousands of miles away from the homeland, we still eat, talk and think Bohol everyday... still breathing Bohol, if you like.

But we now live in the present (most of the time) and it is reflected in my Pinoyborian blog. So, if you arrive on Bohol On My Mind (this blog) and all is quite, hop on to its sibling from the other side of the world, Pinoyborian (http://pinoyborian.blogspot.com). Who knows, you might get something useful from reading it.

Dream House

I found my dream house! (although I must hasten to add it keeps on changing all the time) Anyway, I found this photo of a retired Boeing 727 converted into a hotel, nestled deep in a Costa Rican national park.

This plane will do well in my wife's hometown of Alicia. There is an elevated area there that can be seen from afar, which I imagine have great views of the sea and the town. Many people will be awed at the site of a plane protruding from a cliff! And how about from the cliffs in Dauis!

If only I can find that prize winning lottery ticket to fund my dream...

Chocolate Hills Among Geological Wonders You Didn't Know

Photo: www.oddee.com

I recently came across an article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer about a Negros ruins as among the world's most fascinating ruins that was featured in a blog. Oddee is a blog on oddities: the odd, bizarre and strange things of our world, and claims to have over 2.5 million visitors a month.

Naturally, I checked out the blog and its post on the Negros ruins. Out of curiosity, I searched the blog for any entry on Bohol. Lo and behold! Our very own Chocolate Hills was featured as among the world's geological wonders you didn't know.

Oddee described Chocolate Hills (tenth on the list) as:

Composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills of about the same size spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi), this highly unusual geological formation, called Chocolate Hills, is located in Bohol, Philippines. There are a number of hypotheses regarding the formation of the hills. These include simple limestone weathering, sub-oceanic volcanism, the uplift of the seafloor and a more recent theory which maintains that as an ancient active volcano self-destructed, it spewed huge blocks of stone which were then covered with limestone and later thrust forth from the ocean bed.

I wonder if our tourism officials in Bohol got wind of this information? If indeed Oddee goes to 2.5 million visitors each month this is certainly going to be a boost to our tourism in the province.