Zipling Over Loboc River, The Philippines

While in Bohol last summer we went zip-lining over the Loboc River. It was amazing. It was the kind of zip-lining that the Dauntless do in Divergent, so ya, it was pretty much awesome. And we could totally fit in with the Dauntless. If you're unfamiliar, it's the zip-line style where you lay down so

it seems like you're flying.

We had an easy day planned & heard that the zip lining action was pretty affordable & just down the street from our Inn, so we had the front desk call a tuk-tuk for us. Our tuk-tuk driver was great & told us all about the places we past on the way & even waited for us while we zipped. <Zipped. The new verb pertaining to zip lining. The above was our view,  heading down the road towards our zipping adventure, in case you were curious about our view. ;)
 
Here we are, on the tuk-tuk! Throwin' up the Asian Deuce. You know how we do.
When we got there, we were blown away by the gorgeous views. You guys, these pictures are completely unedited. Not that I ever really edit my pictures anyway (I know, I'm a terrible blogger) but even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have to, because the view was just THAT beautiful & flawless.

There were two choices, to either take a sky lift up & zip line down or to walk up & zip down. We decided to just walk up & zip fly our way down as it was cheaper & we're more for the action & exercise. We made our way up & waited our turn.

The entire group in front of us were Korean so we loved connecting with them over our time in Korea. We also loved hearing their wimpering as they were loaded into their harnesses. Pshhh. Probably Candor or Abnegation. (Okay, for real though, I was starting to freak out a bit the closer it got to our turn & their girl wimpers were what I was feeling inside. I even made Zachary check that all my harnesses were hooked when it was my turn. Better safe than sorry, right?!)
These girls were awesome, though. The one on the edge did the superman pose, like so, almost the whole way. So did Zachary, which was precious.

Finally, it was our turn!! Check out our view & ride in the video below. 

                      

If you ever have a chance to travel to Bohol make sure you put zip-lining over the Loboc River on your list of things to do! 

Loboc Land Critters

When we went to the Philippines last summer, we knew, with our critter filled trip, we were out of China. Before travelling to the Philippines we had lived in China for 3 years. Not just China but a Chinese city. A big city. Chinese cities mean lots of tall buildings & lots of planned "green." There's not a whole lot of country side to be enjoyed near where we lived. We had mountains, but they were hiked often & filled with people most days, which isn't ideal for wild life. There was a point one time that Zachary and I both realized we rarely saw birds! That was so weird to us, coming from the States where we have birds everywhere! Not just birds but lots of deer and other wild life. I mean, just counting road kill (haha), we probably daily see a skunk, armadillo or possum! Not so in China! Crazy thing, my city grown students had never seen a frog in real life!!! That's insane to this Texas girl who grew up catching frogs & lizards. Anyways, back to our time in the Philippines where we saw TONS of critters!
Every morning the Loboc river would flow over it's banks and under our bamboo raise lodge. By noon, the water flowed back out & things dried out a little, leaving tons & TONS of little crabs. I loved sitting outside on our balcony and watching them. Mostly, I'd just spit down at them to see them scurry away scared of what was falling but then bravely go up to my spit and eat it. I know, I'm classy. It was interesting, what can I say.
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The Loboc fireflies were probably the coolest critters we saw, not because we've never seen fire flies before, we grew up catching them during Texas summers, but because of how they'd fill trees along the river at night. They'd light up trees like Christmas lights. 
Another favorite and bucket list critter, were the monkeys living on a little island at our resort. The resort some how got them all on this little island. They are afraid of water so they never leave the island, therefore they never bother guests. Monkeys, I've heard, are actually terrible pests! They're so cute to us Americans but many who live near them don't think they're very cute because of all their antics. Anyways, don't feel too sorry for these stranded-on-a-little-Island monkeys, the resort takes lots of fruit and food out to them twice a day.  One night this huge gecko was putting on a show for us. By show I mean just hanging out on the ceiling & being a really cool and interesting gecko, therefore the topic of our conversation & entertainment  for awhile.

I loved this guy, too. Every morning we'd look out our window and see him lounging in the marsh.

This guy is a Bohol tarsier. Tarsiers are only found in a few places in the world & one of those places happens to be the Philippines.  Visiting them at the Tarsier Conservation Center is on the top of the list of things to do in Bohol. They are timid & adorable. Huge butterflies can be seen at Simply Butterflies Conservation Center. You can even hold some of them! There are tons of beautiful species in Bohol & many are being protected at the Conservation Center. This is Prony the python! She's also famous in Bohol. She, above, is actually the replacement Prony after Prony died, but she's huge & looks basically the same. You can hold her, too!
I know, ducks are everywhere, but why leave them out? There are tons of extremely cute dogs wandering around Bohol, too! I know, I know you have to be careful when playing with off leash dogs. (Though this guys was on a rope.) But most have wagging tails & are super friendly. The following guys were in cages at Prony the Phython
s park, so technically they are not really wild life critters, but they are animals local to Bohol, so I'll include them. Except, isn't seeing animals in cages, especially small cages, so sad? The worst is seeing a bird in a small cage! Sorry little guy!
That's all for now. We saw quite a few animals in just a few days, didn't we?! And these were just the land animals. Leaving the concrete jungle opens up a whole new world of experiences with nature. :) I love it!

 

The Loboc Cross

 You may remember our Kayaking Loboc River post. We kayaked the stunning, green (in the beautiful way, not the dirty way) Loboc River in Bohol. We had the what felt like the whole river all to ourselves. Zachary was a little ways in front of me and went around a bend of the river. As soon as he did, I heard him shout, "Heather! You have to see this!" I quickly rowed towards him, around the bend, and saw what he was so excited about! There was a huge cross on the top of the hill in front of us. It was such a breath taking sight. We were enjoying the day so much, soaking up the time together, the beautiful scenery, the quiet river & the exercise from kayaking. We were worshiping God throughout the day, marveling in His creation & goodness but when we saw the cross, it almost brought me to tears. It was like the Lord was saying, "I'm with you!" It was so sweet.

Later, we heard that you could actually drive up to the cross, so we knew that we had to go! We got on our little rented bike & headed for the road.

Every where we went in Loboc was just ridiculously beautiful. We loved driving, seeing rice field after rice field, reflecting the gorgeous blue sky.

Can't. Get. Enough!

We drove up the road from our resort & took a right directly after the Loboc Church. The church suffered tons of damage from the earthquake. We could still see how beautiful it once was, though. Even in its damaged state it was beautiful.

We took a few back roads, went through a small neighborhood & finally found the small road up to Loboc cross.

Some of the hills were pretty steep, so I would often have to get off, let Zachary trek up them with the bike, and hike behind him.

After 15 minutes of climbing up the hill, we found a small path, that led directly to the cross.

I was constantly amazed in Bohol how we had so many moments, in gorgeous places, with not a soul in sight. We had this entire mountain top to ourselves. It was extremely peaceful but I kept thinking, it was the perfect place to have worship. With the huge cross & the beautiful views, I wished that our church family, family and friends could be there, so we could all just worship Jesus together! The cross was surrounded by seating benches & awning.

We're not sure why but the columns holding the covering over the seating around the cross, had years printed on them. We found our birth years.

Ocean Views one way, hills & a storm rolling in the other way.

There was some earth quake damage here, too. We saw some damage pretty much everywhere in Bohol. They are slowly putting things back together, though.

We also saw a HUGE centipede shell. A huge centipede shell is totally cool but if that thing had of been alive, I would have freaked! I mean really?! There should be some rule that they CAN'T get that big.

Bohol was so spiritually refreshing for us. I think it was the quietness & all the people that we met that just seemed hungry for God & worshiped him. Our waiters, the lady giving us a massage, our taxi drivers and even our butterfly guide at the Butterfly farm all talked about God or gave glory to God in one way or another. I think 'sites' like this just added to that refreshed feeling we felt. 

Our bike even came with a little rosary wrapped around it.

After we finished our time at the cross, we headed for our next adventure with our rented bike! :) More on those adventures later!

Readers, please go to the Philippines & when you go, go to Bohol. It's just... amazing. Looking at these pictures I'm longing to go back!