Joseph's Notes

A Pleasant Road Trip to Sikatuna, Bohol As I said in a previous post, we like to go on “excursions” if we have free time. It’s great to be able to travel around Bohol in our own car and explore. Normally the roads in Bohol are very good with not much traffic, especially outside the city. Most of the country highways are pretty nice We were on one such excursion recently to the east and north of Tagbilaran, where we went to Baclayan, Alburquerque, Loay, and Loboc. We also went to Sikatuna. It is a small pleasant town of about 7000 people, actually the smallest municipality by land area in Bohol.  Sikatuna Town Hall Who is the clown in the back? Historic church in Sikatuna It is named for the native chieftain, Datu Sikatuna, who in 1565 signed a peace treaty, the Blood Compact, with the Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. It is said that both leaders contributed their own blood into a cup from which they both drank, thus sealing the Compact and...

Dumaguete and Tagbilaran The two cities are similar in many ways. Both are smaller cities. Dumaguete has about 134,000 residents; Tagbilaran has about 105,000. Both are provincial capitals, Dumaguete of Negros Oriental, and Tagbilaran of Bohol. Both have many foreign expats living nearby. In Tagbilaran, many live on nearby Panglao Island. In Dumaguete many foreigners live in Valencia in the mountains or in Dauin or other towns nearby. Both have a lot of tourist attractions nearby. Dumaguete has the mountains and waterfalls and Apo Island and Siquijor Island and Rizal Boulevard and many other attractions. Tagbilaran has the Chocolate Hills, tarsiers and nature preserves, river cruises, Panglao Island with Alona Beach and eight other beautiful beaches with white sand, coconut trees, and amazing clear water, and many other attractions. The Island of Bohol Tagbilaran is in the lower left, beside Panglao And both have several malls and large shopping centers. Duma...

From Dumaguete to Tagbilaran Leaving Dumaguete Dumaguete is the provincial capital of Negros Oriental on the island of Negros Nobody likes to move, and we weren’t anxious to either, but Lyn and Wendie tackled the task with alacrity. Our friends and neighbors Ariel and Jen helped us prepare. We don’t have a huge amount of furniture, but we do have several big items. And rather than have our household items shipped, we chose to bring them with us. We decided to keep our old Mitsubishi, but that wouldn’t be big enough to hold all of our stuff. Waiting to board the RORO Our kind Filipino friends Boy and Lourdes volunteered to help us move with their Suzuki multicab. We loaded everything in the two vehicles, and the seven of us (Uncle Boy and Auntie Lourdes, 3 grandchildren, and Lyn and I) took off. Wendie was already in Tagbilarin.  Uncle Boy and his multicab on the RORO Since there is no RORO (roll on, roll off) ferry directly from Dumaguete to ...

School The ladies are doing well in school. Wendie is diligent and conscientious and maintains an excellent grade point average. We are proud of her! Lyn also works hard and studies diligently. Here is an example. Lyn has always hated math, but she is required to take a statistics class, and she was dreading it. But since she studies and applies herself, she not only has the highest average in the class, but she also has a reputation so that the other students often come to her for help! I am so proud of her! But…. Here’s the problem. Not only do Lyn’s classmates often not take their studies seriously, but often the professors and the school don’t seem to take it as seriously as they should. This is not the case in every school, but it seems to be the case in the school Lyn has been enrolled. Lyn is majoring in Radiologic Technology. She has one class in her major. More than half the regularly scheduled classes in that subject have been canceled for one reaso...

It has been over six months since we moved to Dumaguete in the province of Negros Oriental in the Philippines, and I wanted to give a little update. On an early morning walk on the Boulevard near the Port Home in Dumaguete The City of Dumaguete has consistently been highly ranked both nationally and internationally as an expatriate community and as a retirement location. It is known as the “City of Gentle People”, and for the most part I think it is. There are a variety of restaurants, things to do, places to see, and friendly people here. I have enjoyed living here, and we have not had any major problems. Christmas time in Dumaguete There are many foreigners living in and around Dumaguete, many Americans, and perhaps even more of other nationalities: Europeans, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Australians, Africans, Canadians, Indians, etc. I personally don’t think having a lot of expats living here necessarily makes it a more desirable home city, but man...

We recently took a weekend trip to Bohol. Bohol is a rather large island as well as a province of the Philippines. We traveled to the provincial capital of Tagbilaran, the nearby island of Panglao, and toured some of the interior of Bohol. We traveled on OceanJet and the trip took 1 1/2 hours from Dumaguete to Tagbilaran Tagbilaran - "City of Peace and Friendship" Tagbilaran is not a large city (about 105,000 residents). It's much easier to get around in than Cebu or even Dumaguete, wider streets and traffic is managed better. It's easy to like. All the tricycles in Tagbilaran have a different Bible verse printed on the back. Stayed in Harbor Garden Tourist Inn   Breakfast was included Chocolate Hills We visited the Chocolate Hills in the interior of the island. Called the Chocolate Hills because certain times of the year they are brown Tarsier Conservatory Among the world's smallest primates, the tarsie...