Day 5 Island Church Tour

After a long lie in, followed by a swim in the sea and the pool, we had a late brunch at a restaurant on the beach. Again I had a Philippino Breakfast, Clare had Tuna pizza and the others had local pasta, all washed down with fresh juice.

We then went on a tour of the islands most historic churches, but started just up the road at the local bee farm. This is a community project growing fresh herbs, salad leaves and producing honey and honey products. We were shown around by a guide and were able to sample different herbs and inspect inside the hive and see the queen bee. We then got to sample and then buy their local home produced ice cream served in a cassava cone. There were lots of flavours from horseradish, mango, chocolate, durian, ube, avocado, lemongrass, spicy ginger and many more. Of course it was delicious.



From there we went to the first church at Baclayon - The Church of the Immaculate Conception 1727. This is the second oldest in the Philipinnes and the oldest coral stone church. This included a small museum of artifacts displayed in the old convent.

We then went to the Lady of Light Church in Loon. This had a lovely painted ceiling and was made more special by the fact that they were celebrating mass. Outside we met a load of school kids, some of which thought I was Bruce Willis!

We then moved on to the Punta Cruz watch tower. This was built by the Jesuit's in the 1800's as a look out for invading / raiding parties. We watched the sun set from the tower which was quite special.

We then moved onto another church at Maribojoc. We arrived as the bats were literately leaving the belfry! Again as it is Lent, there was another mass going. Again it was very atmospheric and demonstrated the strong catholic faith here in the Philipinnes.

From there we headed on to meet up with another friend - Ino, who is an authority on old architecture, especially on churches and the local buildings of Bohol. He is part of a very wealthy family and has established the Ayala foundation which supports various good causes all over the Philipinnes. Ino gave us a personal tour of the church and of the old Jesuit building next door which has a unique painted ceiling with depictions of heaven and earth. The house is made of wood with beautiful hard wood floors.

We then had a informative film show about Bohol, made and narrated by Ino and then it was time for an excellent meal, eaten outside on a lovely wooden deck overlooking the estuary. It was idyllic, with warm breezes and excellent home cooked food, including the local Bohol vegetable soup, heart of palm, calamari, pork, rice and sweet and sour local fish. This was followed by a mango surprise desert along with Ube Halaya ... a thick rich sweet.

Afterwards we went to Ino's house, a 1930's wooden house in Bohol. Here we were treated to a cold fruit punch and some crepes served with strawberry sauce and Ube sauce. Again we were really full, but satisfied after another excellent meal.

Tomorrow we leave Bohol by high speed ferry to Cebu, before catching a flight to Davao, where we will celebrate Gerry's birthday with many of the people we have met on the trip so far and numerous others!