Bohol Trip : Day 3 – Abatan River, Anda Beach & Lamanoc Island

First 2 days of our trip is rather interesting as the historical place in this island do amaze me.(Day 2 click here) Now on our third day, lets head to the villagers zone as our first stop of the day is Abatan River life tour located at Cortes, Bohol.

The Abatan River flows over 13.5km and the word “Abat” is taken over the context of “converge” where fresh water meets sea water at the Abatan River.

Along the river, lies a community rich with the culture and tradition of the Abatan River fisherfolk and farmers. .

We are now all suit up with life vest and ready to go!

aye aye captain as safety is the captain number 1 priority.  On board a traditional bandong, the guide will delight you with traditional stories and folklore of the place.

First side stop is at this Kwahaw Channel as this huge piece of land are with the growth of the plant “NIPAH” that enables the locals around the area to harvest it for their living which is a contract that sign in between the villagers around the area with the government in order to create job opportunities for the folks. Rather impressive on this.

Upon harvest, then it will be tie in a bundle and sell it off at market. Usage of it is to stitch together and create roof top for many homes.

As we pass by this bridge the guy is throwing flowers from the top to give good luck to all tourist that passing by this river and bridge.

The bridge below it was destroy in the strong quake 2 years ago.

The Jackie post. .  keke

A few villagers around the area do harvest it and also do provide services of stitching it.

We were all then seated and one of the performer telling us the story of the whole performance later.

Enjoy the mini performance from the folks.

Lets drift to another place. . .

Crusing along the river, you sure do see some interesting things, such as this place is actually a place for some villagers around the area to do some cleaning. Cleaning as you can see in the picture such as bathing, washing clothes, washing bikes and its fresh clean water from the hill top.

Moving up the stream, Ellie and Jerome got more curious while Kittie looks like “Pening”.

After a while, we reach another village as they are all standing at the dock, singing and dancing as a sign of welcome.  Antequera village is slightly different from the other one as this is more like a ‘kampung’ version of Malaysia as it have a huge paddy field behind it.

Its very peacefull, filled with greens and surround by many tall coconut tress.

We were then show to a classic way of this village by using a huge wooden stick and pound it for at least 30 minutes as to differentiate the rice from its shell. Then only can it be pack and sell to the market.

Young ones and their elderly.

In this village do have quite a number of tourist drop by and they do have alot of handcrafted gifts are sold in this house.

Any purchase of the item here is to support the local villages in terms of many things. So do feel free to buy some item off when you are here.

Paddy field and buffalo . .

This kid is so cute as he is half shy yet he still wanna try out. .

Our lunch is prepared by the villages and its just as good as it is.

WE were all so hungry and ate a few rounds as its too good not to have them.

Love this as its like a bit of steam banana and shower with something like “gula Melaka” to eat along.

In this village do not have entertainment element including electronics gadgets. So what do the kids do here. They climb up this tall coconut tree and jump down to the river . .

Nobody build a bridge for them to connect one side to another and how do they cross over, they build a long wire, and a bamboo rack boat and both of it are tied to each other to prevent it from flowing away. Then using the wire to pull one end to another end to cross the river.

In the itenerary I am very excited over this place – ANDA BEACH as they have one of the best diving spot in Philippines according to the Mayor. There are alot of divers that come here to stay for 1-2 weeks just to dive.

Super crystal clear water and blue sky – a noncommercial area just nice for you to get away from all the noisy places.

The only bar in the area. .

Then we have to walk at least 300 meters out to the sea to catch our boat to another interesting island. .

letsss go too . . ..

La Manok Island which is about 20 minutes boat ride away from Anda Beach, as this place (from its history) is also known as The Witch’s Island..

Here we are at The Witch Island as you can see the base of this mini island, do look like a crack at the bottom not actually low tide, it is actually the tectonic plate that have been shifted that cause the lift of this whole area upwards twice.

A very unique and interesting story around this whole island.

A few kinds of star fish in this area. .

This huge area used to be filled with beautiful coral and because of the uplift, they have all dried up and died.

First place to visit is this Boat Coffin. .

hiking up to visit this mini tomb. .

This is really a huge ass seashell and reminds me of Little Mermaid cartoon  . . IT really do exist as this huge shell is more than a century if not mistaken.

resting area. .

Another very interesting site for human mankind is this Red Hematite or Red Rock Painting.

see the crystal clear sea water. I am mesmerize with the view.

Our human mankind that used to stay in caves and use red rock to draw paintings on all the caves that they stayed.

Caves that used to live by human donkey centuries ago . .

Another huge clamp shell . .

AS heading back to Anda Beach, we chose different route, as this round is mini boat and take a van back. .

Thanks to Illa for helping us to capture this pic.

I guess our pattern really “manyak”

To reach to our transportation, we have to walk thru this newly refurbish bridge with bamboo and also through the swamp. . Not missing out the opportunity to capture the soon to be sunset.

Quite a long walk . .

Reaching back the beach, every one just chilling as most of them went swimming, ASh enjoying smooth sandy beach and crystal clear water before jumping and dive into the sea.

While me and Jerome just stay by the beach area, enjoying our beer and just chill. Just love this feeling and if they do blast abit of house music/Ibiza those kind of range would be even more perfect. 😀

We had our buffet dinner here at this windy beach and special thanks to the mayor for hosting us.

Since its last night here, and I do not want to miss the opportunity of the resort, we stayed back at the seaside area with the bean bags, and just lazying around and of course with San Miguel – Super Dry.

Next early morning, we are heading back and time really just flies during holiday. HEading back to reality and do prepare P100.00 for terminal fee.

While you are at Manila airport, then you have to prepare another P550.00 for airport tax fee.

Heading back to reality and I really have to mention special thanks to Air Asia for flying us all the way here, especially Ashman for taking care of us for the past 4 days. Bohol Tourism and Eric our super informative guide in Bohol and with his humour, you will never be bored.

If you would like to get move around with some expertise, do check out Angels’ Wings Tour and get in touch with them at boholangelswings@yahoo.com

Great to meet all of you in this trip Ashman, Jerome, yours truly, Kittie, Syahir, Jacky, Illa and Tatie.

Places to stay in Bohol you can check out: South Palm Resort

Places to stay in Manila (very convinient) : F1 Hotel