Compared to Palawan, there aren’t as many islands to visit in the Bohol region, but Panglao Island Hopping still has something to offer! We started our day quite early, meeting up at the tour operator at 6am. From there, we took a van to the Western tip of the island and our driver stopped at (what seemed like) a random place on the side of the main road. A crew member, met us there and we followed him through the local village, to a small inlet where the boat was anchored.
Between the islands of Panglao and Balicasag, there is an area where dolphins normally go to feed, so our first activity was dolphin watching. There’s no guarantee of seeing dolphins, but lucky for us, within 5 minutes of arriving in the dolphin area, they starting showing up right beside our boat. We even saw 2 of them playfully jumping straight up out of the water! Unfortunately, they were too fast, so we didn’t manage to get any pictures of their cute playful jumps. 🙁
From here, we continued to Balicasag Island where we hopped onto a smaller boat to do some snorkelling. We started in the deeper area where you can often see turtles, and then drifted with the current to see the coral and other marine life.
Since Jen and Flo didn’t see the first turtle, the boat guides brought us to the shallow waters where a turtle had been spotted by another group. All of the tourists were packed around here, but the turtle seemed to be ignoring the crowds and doing its own thing. We managed to snap some really close pictures because at one point, the turtle decided to escape the tourist hoard and swim straight toward Dom!
Our last stop was at Virgin Island, a sand bar nestled between Balicasag and Panglao. We stayed here for about 1 hour, wading through the ankle deep crystal clear water, appreciating the beautiful stretch of natural sand, and trying to spot (and avoid stepping on) the sea urchins, shellfish, and starfish. We were amazed that although it felt like we were standing somewhere in the middle of the sea, the water was so clear and completely flat and calm in every direction, as far as our eyes could see!
