Today’s
pathetic excuse for an itinerary was short and sweet, thanks to my laziness,
but you have to give it to me. I am improving. Forfeiting my second day at
Panglao Chocolate Hills Resort, I went back to Tagbilaran and booked a room for
one night in a pension house because Panglao is just too far to serve as my
home base in Bohol. The plan to leave by 7 AM got delayed by two hours, and
given how going to the Chocolate Hills would take more time, I just chose the
tarsiers for today. It has been a simple itinerary, really, and only took less
than two hours. What did I do the rest of the day? Sleep.
Instead of waiting for a jeep to reach full capacity before departing, I opted for a habal-habal ride which cost me 150 pesos roundtrip. Corella was the destination as it is where the Tarsier Sanctuary is. The habal-habal ride takes around 20 minutes one way. Taking a bus or a jeep would drive down your transportation expenses to just around half, but it is only recommended if you have the luxury of time, which I had, but whatever. I am one impatient moron.
The
Tarsier Sanctuary is the place to go to if you want to be informed regarding these
primates, which have been hailed as the smallest of their kind. The information
boards displayed at the sanctuary argues that we are actually related to these
tarsiers, but branched away from each other how many eons ago. Their closest
relatives are known to be the lemurs, but then you see the difference in
appearance and size. Again, if ever this argument is true, then it must have
been how many eons for the difference to be that huge today.
How
many tarsiers would you see in there anyway? Ten, according to my tour guide.
You get a tour guide after paying the 50-peso admission fee. S/he then leads
you to the sanctuary itself, which is an enclave protected by special barriers
made to keep those ten in, or better yet, to keep everyone out. It was
drizzling when I came, not to mention that tarsiers are nocturnal creatures. I
was already lucky to have seen three of them, in various distances, with one
close enough to be captured on film, albeit blurred because I had to zoom in,
like, half a dozen times.
The
tour guide was impressive because she knew where to find them. You see, the
said sanctuary looks like a mini forest. In fact, I was half expecting to find
some snakes and yell “Those are SO NOT tarsiers!” in anticipated panic. No
snakes. Let us remind ourselves that it is a protected environment, and the
last thing you should expect to find in there is some predator out to hunt what
the sanctuary has been built to protect. That would defy logic, now would it
not?
The
video and some of the photos contain the rules and regulations on how to behave
while inside the sanctuary. No flash for cameras. No touching the tarsiers. No
shaking the tree branches where they are on, etc. Those tarsiers are very
small, but then again you might have already known that, unless you have lived
under a rock for a decade now and have no access to Wikipedia. The time you
spend inside the sanctuary is considerably short, like, 20 minutes kind of
short. This is understandable because there really is nothing much that you can
do in there aside from taking pictures. Tarsiers are notorious for being
loners. Do not expect them to get down from their tree branch and play
jack stones with you.
Fun
facts! Tarsiers are able to give birth only once a year and only one baby per
pregnancy, which takes six months. Now we know why they are endangered! Loners
with no social skills! Now I have to ask my mother if I am part tarsier.
Tomorrow: Chocolate Hills, then off to Dumaguete we go.
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