The first time I saw the Chocolate Hills in person was back in February 1996. I was with one of the Visiting Professors at my university at the time, Dr. Nemoto of Hitotsubashi University. We were in Bohol to promote the graduate studies scholarships supported by the Institute of Behavioral Studies (IBS) of Japan. It was a quick trip and I remembered that we stayed at the then relatively undeveloped Bohol Beach Club. We had a quick visit to Bohol University as it seemed they were not prepared to accommodate us and we ended up just leaving our promotion materials (mostly pamphlets about our center and scholarships). It was early so we decided to go visit the Chocolate Hills despite it being a rainy day. Though we were able to get a few good photos, we almost regretted our trip as our car got stuck in the muddy roads (the roads were really bad in early 1996). Fortunately for us, a farmer and his carabao happened to be nearby and our driver was able to talk him into pulling us out of our misery.
The wife and I had been to Chocolate Hills again in better conditions and situation. But this time around it was again raining and we had our daughter with us. Still, we persisted as we weren't sure when we could do this again given that we're still in a pandemic. Here are a few photos of our trip last month.
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| Looking back at the road leading to the tourist facilities on the largest of the hills. |
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| A look at the viewpoint, which we didn't climb anymore because of the rains. |
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| The Chocolate Hills in the rain. My phone was in a water resistant case so I could still take photos. Here I purposely didn't wipe the area in front of the lens to get this 'wet' effect. |
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| The rains weakened just long enough for us to take a few clear photos including a family pic. This hill was all surrounded by trees. There are many other hills of their kind around Bohol Island but the ones in Carmen are the best preserved. Other towns have allowed houses to be built on the hills or trees or plants grown. These have effectively obscured the hills in those towns. |
More on Bohol in future posts!
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