Bohol Island

Geography of Bohol

The Island of Bohol is oval-shaped mainland surrounded with 73 smaller islands, having a gently rolling terrain. With a land area of 3269 km² and a coastline of 261 km long, Bohol is the tenth largest island of the Philippines.

Bohol's mountainous interior is home to rare and endangered flora and fauna. The best known animal is the Bohol Tarsier. At certain points, hills drop steeply to the coast from a maximum elevation of 870 meters above sea level.

Over a hundred caves have been identified, the biggest of which is found in the eastern part which makes Bohol ideal for spelunking adventures.

The Chocolate Hills in Carmen are considered one of Philippine's natural wonders and Bohol is often referred to as the Jewel of the Philippines. They are hills made of limestone leftover from coral reefs during the ice age when the island was submerged. They turn brown during the summer, hence their name.

Most beaches are of white sand. The sand is often of such high quality that it is exported to other beaches in the world. The most well known of these beaches are in Panglao Island, and there, numerous islets have similar, yet untouched and pristine beaches.

Numerous waterfalls and caves are scattered across the island, including the beautiful Mag-Aso falls in Antequera. Mag-Aso means smoke in the native tongue. The water is cool and often creates a mist in humid mornings which can hide the falls.

Climate of Bohol

Unlike Luzon and the northern part of Visayas, Bohol is mostly unaffected by the numerous typhoons that hit the country. The weather is mostly mild all year round. When typhoons do hit the island, they usually cross quickly and are no longer powerful, their energy dissipated by the mountains in Leyte and Samar.

From November to April, the northeast monsoon (amihan) prevails. Except for a rare shower, this is the mildest time of the year. Daytime temperatures average 28°C, cooling down at night to around 25°C. The summer season from May to July brings higher temperatures and very humid days. From August to October is the southwest monsoon (habagat). The weather during this season is not very predictable, with weeks of calm weather alternating with rainy days. It can rain any day of the year, but you will have more chance for a heavy shower from November to January.

Our evening past time in summer is watching from Camiguin the lightnings over Bohol. Nearly every night we have a free firework.

People and Culture of Bohol

According to the 2000 census, there are a total of 1,137,268 Boholanos or Bol-anon, as the residents of Bohol call themselves. The main language spoken in Bohol is Boholano which is a dialect of Cebuano. Tagalog, Chinese, and English are also spoken by many of the residents. The minority Eskayan language is also taught in community schools in Biabas (Guindulman), Taytay (Duero) and Lundag (Pilar) but has no mother-tongue speakers.

Agriculture and industry on Bohol

The interior uplands of Bohol are fit for agro-forestry and high value agricultural production. The central and northern lowlands have also fertile grounds and abundant water supply. As to the flow of commodities in and out of the province from Bohol's ports, limestone top the list of exported commodities of the province in 1998 toppling G.I. sheets which became the number 2 exported product of Bohol. Other outgoing top commodities include rice, banana, cattle, mangoes, native products, hog, carabao, nipa shingles, copra, raffia, salted fish, salt and cooked fish with a total volume of 426 thousand metric tons. Plywood tops the list of incoming commodities followed by manufactured goods, appliances, hardware/construction materials and feeds, among others with a total recorded volume of 264 thousand metric tons for the top 15 commodities.

Facilities on Bohol

Airport
Development programs at the city airport involve the extension of the runway length to 2,500 meters, to handle the PAL B-737's that will serve the direct route to Manila. The small Fokker 50 planes that used to fly the Manila-Tagbilaran route have been phased out. Improvement of the ramp area will soon accommodate bigger aircraft and a modern airport building will also be constructed.

Seaports
The Tagbilaran City Wharf, now called the Tagbilaran City Tourist Pier, has fine port facilities. There are 9 daily ship calls to Cebu, 5 being fastcraft trips. Daily passenger traffic is approximately 4,000. Other regular destinations are Manila (four times a week), Cagayan de Oro City, Dumaguete, Dipolog, Iligan, Larena, Plaridel and Ozamiz City. There are other ports that cater to Cebu and northern Mindanao routes. These are Jagna, Ubay, Talibon, Getafe, Buenavista, Clarin, Loon and Tubigon, the busiest port with more than ten daily round trips plying the Cebu-Bohol route.