Bohol's world-famous natural heritage, the Chocolate Hills, has been nominated to the
New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign. This campaign is organised by the non-profit New7Wonders Foundation after the resounding success of its New 7 Wonders of the World campaign.
As a native Bol-anon I have been to Chocolate Hills many times. In fact, I still have pictures on my first visit as a pre-schooler. My recent visit was last year when me and my family went home for a holiday. It never failed to amaze me just looking at those thousands of hills stretched as far as your eyes can see. I once went to nearby Sagbayan where some of the Hills are also located. On a ride to an interior barangay in a habal-habal, I passed by some miniature Chocolate Hills! Well, it looks like it and with a little imagination it can be made into a miniature tourist attraction.
I have already voted for Chocolate Hills as my first choice and Tubbataha Reef (off Sulu Sea) as my second choice. As a scuba diver who once dabbled in marine conservation I love the coral reefs. Aside from the world-famous hills, Bohol is also famous for its beaches, coral reefs, cave formations and rivers among other natural heritage sites.
Site Description
The Chocolate Hills is an unusual geological formation in Bohol, Philippines. It is composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills, all about the same size, spread over an area of more than 50 sq km The hills are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, giving them the name "Chocolate Hills."
A more comprehensive description of the
Chocolate Hills can be found in Wikipedia.
Legends
There are two famous legends about the formation of Chocolate Hills: (1) Arogo and Aloya love story, and (2) the two fighting giants.
In the love story, Arogo is a yound giant who fell in love with a mortal girl named Aloya. When Aloya died, Arogo was driven by grief to cry bitterly. His tears turned into hills when they touched the ground as a lasting proof of his grief.
As to the fighting giants, it went on for days and they threw stones and sand at each other. When they were finally exhausted, they reconciled and left the mess they made behind.
These two stories were adapted from the Bohol Chronicle news article about this campaign. I have to admit I am not familiar with the love story legend; however, I did knew about the fighting giants when I was a child.
Vote now
Please add your vote to our beloved Chocolate Hills in order to ensure it is eligible for shortlisting in the second stage. Voting will continue through 31 December 2008. If you want to vote now click
here.
Bohol's premier newspaper, The Bohol Chronicle, is spearheading the campaign in Bohol so if you want to know about it click
here. I am doing my bit independently as I have read about this campaign
elsewhere, weeks before the paper's campaign.
You can
help gather more votes by spreading the word. If you have a blog, you can bookmark (I use
Digg) this post and blog it so that your friends and subscribers alike will know. On this blog, you will find social bookmark links on the left side just below ClustrMaps and titled Share This. If you have social networking accounts or e-mail groups you can post a shoutout/bulletin or send an e-mail with a link to this post.
