Day 1. We arrived in Bohol via the Supercat, which was a 1.5 hour ferry ride from Cebu to Tagbilaran City in Bohol. The ferry was pretty state-of-the art, with an in-house movie and seats similar to an aircraft carrier. The ride was very smooth despite the overcast skies and threats of rain.
Alona beach is reminiscent of Boracay, where restaurants, resorts and dive shops line the white beach and in the evening, the place really livens up with every other restaurant offering their own live entertainment. Today, we took a 15 minute tricycle ride to the Bohol Bee Farm, which, through our internet research, we were told not to miss.
The Bohol Bee Farm is an organic and eco-friendly esort that has its own herb and vegetable gardens, bees as well as vermiculture area. The restaurant overlooked the crystal clear waters and the entire resort was surrounded by jungle. All the food served at the restaurant is made in-house with all the ingredients grown right on the grounds. This was by far, the most creative and characteristically charming place we’ve been to in the Philippines. They served us their home-made and freshly baked squash bread, accompanied with two spreads: mango and pesto. Then we had a green tomato and pesto dip with thinly sliced, deep fried camotes (sweet potatoes) – a light and very tasty starter. Afterwards, our mains came out. Dan ordered the ‘Spaghetti Packages’, which we still don’t understand why it’s called as such, but the dish contained fresh and light linguini noodles and their own concoction of spaghetti sauce, which had the tomato tanginess that Dan so much enjoys. My dish, was the vegetarian penne and equally delicious. We also had a vegetarian-coriander soup made up of all kinds of vegetables that we couldn’t really recognize, but complimented the creamy coconut milk in which they were cooked in. This was all accompanied with fresh buko (young coconut) juice and the Bee-Fi shake (made up of blended camotes, mango and pineapples). We both enjoyed the view from which we ate our meal as well as the food itself.
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After our delicious lunch, we had a short tour around the farm, where our guide gave us various herbs to smell and guess what they were: lemongrass, mint, chives, basil, oregano and tarragon. The herb that surprised us the most was the tarragon as it smelled alot like root beer.
Our next stop was the beehives, where we learned some neat facts about bees, like how all the worker bees are female (I had assumed they were all male). We also had a chance to hold up a frame filled with bees for the camera. Well, DAN held up the frame, I simply stood next to him. Our tour guide (who by the way has an uncanny resemblance to our Tito Greg) also showed us the worms from their vermiculture system. The family of one little girl and the tour guide convinced her to pose for the camera and pretend to eat the worms like spaghetti. It was hilarious, because she looked at all the adults like they were crazy. Our last stop was at a spot where women were working on weaving machines, creating simple designed fabrics. Apparently a weaver can make about 3-4 meters of the fabric a day. It’s tedious and time consuming. Dan was allowed to have a go at the weaver, which he can take up now if he ever wants to move to the Philippines.
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You look funny with your hat, Dan!
Dad, I am assured by our guide that this is the very latest in Filipino farmer fashion. Clearly you’re out of touch, being so far away! 🙂
Dan, did you know that your great grandmother was an expert weaver on a floor style loom similar the one you tried – maybe the talent has come out again in your generation!!
yeah, not likely… the poor woman who let my try had to fix every one of my weaves. she was a good sport, but I sure wasn’t doing her any favors by my efforts, hehe
I tried making carpet when I was in Egypt – same thing, they had to fix what I did. It was hard!!!