#329 Sandugo Festival

Sandugo renactment in Bohol (Wikipedia Photo)

The Sandugo Festival is an annual historical celebration that takes place every year in Tagbilaran City on Bohol, Visayas, central Philippines.

This festival commemorates the Treaty of Friendship between Datu Sikatuna, a chieftain in Bohol, and Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi. This 16th Century peace treaty occurred on March 16, 1565 through a blood compact or “sandugo”.

The Sandugo Festival is held every July. The Tagbilaran City Charter Day on July 1 kicks-off the month-long festival with a holy mass, a motorcade and program sponsored by the city government. Among the major activities during the month is the Miss Bohol Sandugo Beauty Pageant, and the Sandugo Street Dancing Competition which is usually held on the 3rd or 4th Sunday of July, and organized by the Bohol Sandugo Foundation (Source Wikipedia).

Long live Philippine festivals!

#26 Chocolate Hills

The Chocolate Hills of Bohol Province in the Visayas region, Central Philippines, is a breathtaking landscape, a nearly unearthly geographical formation of small rounded limestone hills. A Wikipedia entry says that based on the latest survey, there are 1,776 hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi), located in the towns of Carmen, Batuan and Sagbayan.

The best panoramic views are from Carmen where a view deck was built by the local tourism office. A small, modest guesthouse is also located near the view deck, but local tourism officials really need to work on better accommodations if  they intend to attract more visitors.

The hills, so-called conical karst hills in geologic terms, have a thin soil layer with green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name Chocolate Hills.  The limestone hills are formed or created by a combination of the dissolution of limestones by rainfall, surface water and groundwater.

Best viewed at sunrise when the dawn mist lingers and slowly lifts off, the sight of these uniformly odd-shaped hills stretching to the distance in the early morning light can be an ‘out-of-this-world’ experience, a natural wonder that is not only unique but also visually unforgettable. The area is listed in the Philippines National Geological Monuments and local authorities have proposed the inclusion of the park into the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Mabuhay ang Chocolate Hills!