When in Bohol: Chocolate Hills

I'm definitely no mountaineer but I can climb hills. Well, sort of. Okay, it was far from what could be called a hike but I did witness one of the most popular tourist spots in Bohol... the famous Chocolate Hills. 

Hello, Chocolate Hills.

I visited Bohol for the first time last December and one of the places I was dying to visit was Chocolate Hills. Though I've heard that it has lost its charm throughout time, I still wanted to take those few hundred steps up to see the famous local Kisses' inspiration. 

And I actually thought that I won't be able to see it when R hesitated to do touristy activities and when the weather turned a bit sour. But R's local contact insisted that we visit the place after hearing that it was my first time in the province and soon after our lunch at Bohol Bee Farm, we were off to the hilly area of Bohol. 

We passed through the picturesque man made forest on our way to Chocolate Hills but I totally missed the chance to take photos of it because I fell asleep after finishing a huge plate of blue marlin for lunch. 

From afar, you could already see beauty of the matcha looking hills but we wanted to get the best view of it from one of the hills. 

Entrance fee or what I call climbing fee is PHP50 per head excluding parking which I recall was PHP20. 

After parking our car, we started to climb up which was about 200 steps. And for an unfit foodie like me, I got tired from such a short climb. 

But I was quickly rewarded by a beautiful view of Chocolate Hills. 

As I bask in its glory, I did a bit of research on the origin of this unique landscape. Scientifically, it has been said that these hills are conical karst hills filled with limestones uplifted above sea level by tectonic movements. 

But we Filipinos love to entertain and there were three interesting stories that explain the formation of the hills. One is of two fighting giants who threw rocks and boulders at each other creating the Chocolate Hills. Another is about a giant who fell in love with a mortal and wept during her death with his tears forming the popular hills. The last legend talks about a town that was plagued by a giant carabao that kept eating its crops. The townsfolk put together their spoiled food as bait for the carabao and the giant animal took it causing it to have an upset stomach and defacating the town leading to the creation of Chocolate Hills. 

As much as I wanted to stay a bit longer, it was starting to drizzle again when we got up so we just took a few snapshots and headed back down.

It may be a short visit but it was totally worth it!