What I did in and near Panglao, Something else than the tropical tour on ''The Island of God''

Most people who travel to Bohol are staying in Panglao. They visit the Chocolate hills, the tarsiers and Alona beach, the beach where the most resorts and restaurants are located in Panglao. It is here very crowded, and I heard many dissapointed locals talking about the negative changings and how beautiful it looked like without all those boats inside the water and restaurants and resorts on the beach. Instead, I would like to share some other places with you!

I stayed on two different places during my stay in Panglao. The first place is more luxurious, but simple called bougainvillea garden. The rate we payed is 500 pesos/$10 for two persons including breakfast.It is located 10 km away from Alona, and next to Bikini beach, a beach with clear water and white sand as well, but not so crowded.

The second place I stayed is called Alona Hammocks, they used to have only hammocks, no beds but they did some changements and they have mattresses on the floor with a mosquito net. The place is 300 peso/6$ a night which includes breakfast. It is not luxurious at all, but the perfect backpackers place with a great vibe. For sure that you will meet some new people here! It is around 5 minutes walking from Alona beach.

We rented a scooter somewhere on the parkinglot in the opposite of Hennan resort for 350 pesos for 24 hours to explore bohol. I wrote already about my roadtrip earlier, to the other side of Bohol (Link below my article) but this time, I will write only about Panglao itself. The first spot we went to is called Alexis cliff dive resort. They have a good house reef for snorkeling and a cliffjumpspot! The water is very blue and it isn't so crowded as Alona beach. We saw many groups of small fish in all the colors of the rainbow.

Afterwards, we went to a cave, located a few kilometers away from this beautiful snorkel place. Panglao is just a small island so everything is close to each other. When we arrived by the cave, we first ate our lunch in combination with an avocado shake, my all time favorite, and perfect to recharge my energy to go to the cave.

The next day, it was time to go to an island, Virgin island also known as Pungtud island since they build some buildings which makes it not virgin anymore. We heard it is an island with a sandbar, sounds good right? And the boat to go there is free, they only ask for a donation, fair enough.

When we arrived on the island after a 15 minutes boat ride , we were kind of confused. There are no people living on the island and it is very small. We bumped into something we did not expect at all. A giant statue of the church!

As we walked further, not paying any attention anymore to the beach, we saw more and more statues what let us realize it was an island of the church. I have never seen that before! There are all stands spread out over the island about the past of Jezus.

The staff of the island is raising this little friends as well. They let them fly out on events, giving the back the freedom. They feed them everyday, what is also the reason that there are so many of them. As you pass them by, you can see them sitting in their nests, waiting until their baby's come out of the eggs.

As the crossing of Jezus is a very important happening in the history, they build up a statue of this as well, to remember Jezus, who offered himself for all the people on our earth.

Since it is a catholic island, it isn't complete without a church. Every 23th of the month, you can attend the mass overhere. It is a good location to pray I guess, surrounded by the peace of the ocean and the nature, out of the polluted city's.

A very simple church but god doesn't judge

We walked a building in, a small museum. Normally I am not so into museums but this one is different. I think a museum has to fit your personality and this one did. It was very small but showed beautiful nature-made arts. The arts are made of shells, wood, starfish and even corn. Yes, dried corn.

A part of the art room

I really like the sea urchins art. The colors are pastel end the patrons on the shell are already art itself. I think they liked is also a lot, cause they have many different artworks with sea urchins. I like the one on the picture below the most, since it is just very simple.

But they have this cute piece of art as well, made of the teeth of the sea urchins. It is very creative, I don't know how they thought about it but it is a piece of art what I would love to have in my room, the sound of the ocean! I am only very curious if this would also sound well!

Would you like the sound of the ocean

When you see this work you will realize that those crazy Filipinos can make everything into art. They are definitely very creative. Maybe since the country is poor, the locals got stimulated a lot to find ways to let things work. The only thing I can think about when I see corn is popcorn. This could have been a lot of popcorn!

The light of corn

The next work is maybe the best and says a lot about the country. As it is made with beach materials since Philippines is surrounded by beaches and oceans, but it says a lot about the bloody past as well, when the second world war was going on between Japan and America. Those poor Filipino's had to deal with. It should have been very heavy times in Manila.

The next artworks are more pure made by nature. If you look around, wherever in the world, outside is a lot of nature's art. This museum is to show the people all the art god created. Like the skeleton of this star-shaped fish, the starfish or a simple piece of wood, what looks like a snake if you use your imagination.

When we walked outside, we saw all those cute looking but not so cute plants. Some people might look good, but they can hurt you a lot! It is definitely a interesting island. Did you ever saw so many cactus on one single island?

Cactus

After our sightseeing in the museum, we finally did where we came for, taking a dip in the blue water of the island. The water was very refreshing after walking around the island for quite a while, and a great finishing touch of our day, but I liked the tour around the museum maybe more than the beach we came for.

An other statue of Jezus in the sea

And then, it's time to go home

I am happy I could let you taste a little bit of this very interesting, but very different than expected island experience. I would recommend everyone to visit this place as well while being in Panglao, It is an island you will not forget soon!

Not enough places? See also my previous article about my epic road trip by motorbike!
https://steemit.com/travel/@xsasj/an-epic-3-day-roadtrip-by-motorbike-trough-bohol-philippines

Regards,
Sha